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NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 13, 2009David SternTIM FRANK: Welcome to everyone for joining us. Appreciate your time. We're going to have our annual conference call here. The Commissioner will open with some opening comments. We'll start with the Commissioner right now. COMMISSIONER STERN: Thank you, Tim. And thank you, everyone, for joining us. I'll be very short and direct. It's been a great season. We think our fans are responding to our game, our players, our style of play, in a very positive way. We're up double-digits against all our broadcasters for the second consecutive year in viewing. NBA.com traffic is also up double-digits in page views and video streams. And, despite a challenging economy, our attendance, regular season, in the 2008/'9 season will rank third all time. And our arenas are filled to more than 90% capacity again this year. Of course, the best part is just watching the races, the playoff positioning going down to the wire. I can't figure out my playoff travel schedule yet because the 2 to 8 seeds are still being determined in the West. In the East, we're still having fun watching 6 through 8 to see who gets the privilege of playing the Cavaliers. Our Northwest, Southwest division winners are still to be determined. I guess the battle for home-court advantage, going on for the last weeks of the season, is really about as exciting as you can get. I said to you pre-season that we were in a golden age of basketball. I think this season proves it out. We're continuing to watch a rise of a new generation. Everyone talks about LeBron and Carmelo, D. Wade, Chris Bosh, that great class. But when you think about Dwight Howard and Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Brandon Roy, Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, and you also focus on Shaq and Kobe and Tim Duncan, the year we've had with respect to the Celtics and the Hawks and the like, we're seeing a spectacular time, and we're greatly enriched by our international players, because when you look at Dirk and Yao and Pau, all the other players that are going to enrich our playoff rosters, it's a heck of a time. And we've had some great team play. The Cavaliers look pretty strong at home, in case nobody's watching. And the Celtics we think are going to be strong going into the playoffs. We're hoping that KG comes back and comes back strong. The Nuggets are looking great after their trade. The Trail Blazers, that's a place I want to get to, because their fans have embraced them in an incredible fashion, and the team has responded in a spectacular way. As I said, the Hawks are having another good year. The Heat have this great turnaround. And the Bulls have Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Derrick Rose. Made a late-season trade, all the kinds things that sportsfans talk about. We love to talk basketball here. We're looking forward to an exciting and possibly unpredictable playoffs, or maybe totally predictable, and that's the beauty of playoffs. With that, I and my colleagues here will be happy to answer any question. Q. The Spurs won a game last night on a shot that was clearly released after the 24-second shot clock expired. The referees correctly interpreted the rule but did not allow them to review the play. It's not the first time we've had that situation this season. I'm wondering if with the Board of Governors meeting this week this might be a situation that could be addressed before the playoffs begin, and a playoff game might fall under the same circumstance, which would be a very bad thing for the league, the fans, the teams involved. COMMISSIONER STERN: I'm open to consideration of the subject. We are, of course, moving perhaps too gradually for some, to more and more review, instant replay. I don't know that, given the number of categories that this potential review of that call would open up, that we want to do it on three days' notice or four days' notice. It wouldn't be consistent with the way that we look at things and their impact and potential unintended consequences and set out a whole new set of operational rules for our referees. What I will assure is that this will be discussed at the meeting on Thursday and Friday. It's always up to the board to decide what they want to do. In the face of perhaps them doing nothing, it will be on the agenda, full bore, fully briefed for the October meetings prior to the 2009/2010 season. Q. Stu, can you follow up on that as to his referees reported as to whether a mistake was clearly made, if they wished they had the opportunity to review it. COMMISSIONER STERN: You can ask Ron that, since the referees now report to him. Q. All right. RON JOHNSON: Yes, the referees did acknowledge in the postgame review that, in fact, they had missed a call. I can tell you, the crew chief laid awake all night concerned about it, and that's just what they do. Q. You were talking about the numbers from television ratings and attendance. How does this look in terms of your advertising expectations, the numbers that you have? How do you go about, with all the positive you were talking about, try to build momentum going into next season, which you said could be very challenging for the NBA teams in terms of revenue. COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, what we're doing is we're working closely with our teams and they're working closely with each other to make sure that best practices take hold with respect to renewals of tickets, club seats, suites and sponsors. We continue to keep the pressure on, recognizing that our fans are the most important thing for us and that they're coming to our game to be relieved, to see great action. We're promising it again for next year. And my expectation is that we will do better even than we had hoped a few short months ago in renewing tickets based upon the excitement of the playoffs because we now have 16 teams that are very engaged and many others that have high draft picks. So we think we're going to have a good selling season. It's still going to be under enormous pressure, because everybody is under pressure. Our fans are under pressure. Our sponsors are under pressure. But what we can do is provide the most possible value we can in the game presentation, in the prices, discounts or really add-ons of our tickets, and in demonstrating to our sponsors that this is a good value, and being associated with us is important. I don't know exactly what to predict, but I'm ever the optimist and hope that our teams are up to the challenge. Q. David, I just want to follow up from your comments during the All-Star break when you said you and Billy Hunter had started to get underway with conversations about the CBA, there had been discussions about possibly meeting again. Anything recent? How many times have you met? Do you feel any momentum so far about where discussions are going? COMMISSIONER STERN: No, actually last time we spoke, Billy was getting ready to go back into the hospital for some corrective surgery on a previous knee operation. He was going to be out for a while. We reiterated that, coming out of my meeting this week, in a timely fashion, the owners would appoint a labor relations committee or constitute one, and Billy would begin constituting a negotiating committee to be ready to have meetings at the end of the season. I take that to mean, you know, at the end of the finals, and then we'll get down to this in earnest. We're for our part gathering up documents and the like that we think will complete the economic picture with respect to our league. As I said, there will be no question about the financial facts of life in the NBA. We'll all be looking at the same picture as we begin this process. Q. All that said, you've painted a somewhat encouraging picture of where things might head. Are you any more optimistic now than you were a couple months ago about the ability to head off any financial concerns that would affect the next CBA with regard to cap... COMMISSIONER STERN: As I said earlier, I am an optimist, number one. And, number two, as I watch other industries around us, one thing I common: everyone has to make sort of a contribution to business and the like. Everyone, our fans, are increasingly hard-pressed. We're making certain concessions that will actually decrease revenue in some ways. But the point that I take from all of this is that we are all in this together, and the players are as in it as we are. So I'm still maintaining an optimistic posture because I know that our players believe that. I know our owners believe it. I know our fans are expecting us to step up together to do what has to be done. Q. With regard to the meeting this week, do you anticipate hearing a harder line from owners with regard to specifically lengths of contracts going forward, and do you think that's going to be the main issue for owners going forward? COMMISSIONER STERN: No. I think that, at bottom, or at top, either way, the big question is what's the appropriate divide between players and owners in terms of a vision of revenues. What's fair for the players to make in terms of a percentage of revenue and the owners, in order to have some return on their investment in these great franchises. I anticipate a balanced approach in that respect. Within that, you can talk about all kinds of issues about length of contract. But to me last time we went from seven years with your own team to six with another team, this time we went from six and five in this new deal. But I don't think I would get too involved in all those details. You could talk about lots of things within the system itself. But the biggest issue is going to be about the fair division of revenues between owners and players. Q. In talking to various people, I hear that there are owners, you talk about that division, they want a rather drastic cut in the players' take of that revenue, really to an equal sharing of 50/50. COMMISSIONER STERN: I mean, one man's drastic is another man's not so drastic. You know, I don't know. You're throwing out there a 15% reduction in salary, competition, that's what you're suggesting. I don't know what the position will ultimately be. But one of the problems with this issue is that there are general managers, coaches, owners all willing to talk to you off the record, because they're not supposed to comment on Collective Bargaining, because then things get said and printed that are not constructive to the bargaining process itself. I'm determined to shield that process to the greatest extent possible because I think our fans deserve to be treated better than for us to be going to that. Q. I was wondering if in view of the overall economic situation, the loan that was taken out earlier this year to help some teams that were having some particular problems, is anything like this on the table going forward? In the off-season will it be more a general survey of things as they are, adjust for 2009/'10 accordingly? COMMISSIONER STERN: Actually, let me correct the assumption underlying your question. We have a credit facility that is now $2 billion, just in line with the NFL and Major League Baseball. It continually replenishes itself, and our teams take down the funds because they want them for a variety of reasons: sometimes to refinance other loans that they have, and sometimes into operations, and sometimes actually to take money out of the club. That's what you do with credit facilities. So we did not take out this loan to help ailing teams. In fact, it was a signal of strength because we had requested it some months before, to take our credit facility up beyond the $1.8 billion that we had, and the bank said we couldn't do. Then they called and said, Good news, we think we can get another 150. We said, Great. By the time it closed, we got another $200 million. Then it was disbursed to the teams in accordance with their desires. This was an ordinary course, borrowing under the facility. It was actually the fifth one since it was started in 2003, and we see the extra $200 million as a sign of great strength because borrowings were not even possible there. So we have no plans for anything else. I mean, no plans for anything different. If we could increase the credit facility, just as the other leagues do, we would. Indeed we're now in negotiations to extend the credit facility, which we're optimistic will happen as well, because that's what businesses do: they borrow, they repay, they borrow, they repay. Q. Any teams for sale that you're aware of? COMMISSIONER STERN: You know, it's an old story: none of our teams are ever for sale. But at some price there are many owners who would listen, I think. But I'm not in a position to tell you that there are teams for sale. I always am encouraging new owners to come in, potential owners, to visit with me, to keep our assets much in demand. I can tell you those conversations are ongoing, and there are potential owners who would like to become invested in our league. Q. In your opinion, do the players understand the economic times? COMMISSIONER STERN: They absolutely see our fans, their families, our neighbors. They watch the same reports that you and I do. They're finally attuned to what's going on, both in America and around the world. Q. I want to piggyback on a comment you made earlier to looking around to various leagues, what you're able to grasp. In football, if they dance in the end zone, you get fined. Is there some way of dealing with LeBron James, who danced in the sidelines yesterday, it was an embarrassment towards the Boston Celtics, and approaching the playoffs where emotion tends to run high? COMMISSIONER STERN: I missed that dance, but I think celebrations by our players do have a place. If I were the Celtics, I would make sure that that tape, if it exists, runs every game in the locker room as a sort of motivation. I wouldn't spend my time telling our players about that. Although I don't know the specific instance, and sometimes you can go over the line. I don't know if he did or didn't at this time. Q. It looked like a way to provoke the other team. COMMISSIONER STERN: I certainly wouldn't want to provoke the Celtics. I think perhaps it was just over-exuberance at the time. Q. Update us on Sacramento and the situation with the arena. People looked around the league and they said if there was a team they all picked to be in trouble, they would pick that team. Do you share that feeling? Is that true in your mind at all? COMMISSIONER STERN: No, it's not true. I don't know, we are the league that you have to look at to play that game. The fact is that everyone agrees they need a new arena, and have agreed for a while. There's a very imaginative plan that is put between the Board of California EXPO, which has the support of the governor, the mayor, the county, and is in a certain stage where we expect another meeting to be held shortly, with steps to be taken. It's very ambitious, but we think these are difficult times that need ambitious ideas, and that's there. We'll see where we go from there. (Indiscernible) has invested an enormous amount of money into this endeavor, they're continuing to invest. I know it's the hope of Mayor Johnson and Governor Schwarzenegger that this is something that succeeds so the team can stay in a state-of-the-art facility in Sacramento. Q. Do you ever get to the point where you ever say to an owner, I appreciate what you have done, but you may be better off looking elsewhere? COMMISSIONER STERN: I do. But I'm not at that point in Sacramento. You know, talk to me in about a year. Q. You mentioned the international game. It seems that the NBA is truly becoming an international game. Do you have any idea how many people in other countries will be watching the playoffs? Do they tend to root for teams with players from their own homeland or are they fans of whatever teams and players they like? COMMISSIONER STERN: I know the number of people watching the playoffs outside the United States will likely be around 400 or 500 million people. And the interesting thing for us is they start out being interested because of their hometown or home country player, but very quickly they move on or up to just looking at that player as well as others who they're known to. After a while, we found out that Yao's uniform sales in China took third place to Alan Iverson and Kobe, and then to LeBron, and kept moving down. Now, some would say that's because everyone in China already owns a LeBron jersey, but I don't know that that's true. I mean, a Yao jersey. They already own a LeBron jersey, too. Be that as it may, it's amazing how quickly they turn on to the whole league and it's very exciting for us. TIM FRANK: Commissioner Stern, thanks for your time. COMMISSIONER STERN: Thank you again, everybody. End of FastScripts |
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