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NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCEMay 18, 2010David SternCOMMISSIONER STERN: It's a really exciting time of year for us. It's the Lottery, the Draft, and our playoffs. It doesn't get any better than the best basketball in the world being played now, together with the sort of annual rite of passage and renewal that the Draft represents. And the Lottery is the first step in the Draft. So I always enjoy coming here, even though Mike Bass promised that the machinery was going to be off. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have if you can hear me. Q. There's going to be change in ownership from your longest tenured owner in Mr. Poland to Ted Leonsis. Could you talk about your relationship with both, and maybe what you've talked with Mr. Leonsis about going through the Draft? COMMISSIONER STERN: I guess what I would say is that I knew Abe Poland since the time I began working in the league. That places it in about 1966, '67. He's actually the only owner who was here before I was. We got to be quite close and had a very warm relationship. I got to know Ted when he bought both the hockey team and the important minority interest. We've been in touch over the years often. He's often come to our Tech Summit and been a speaker. And I'm a great admirer of what he's done with the Washington Capitals. And I know they effectively lead the NHL in attendance. They have a very important season ticket base. And I'm sure that his organization will bring those skills to bear. As I said to the Poland family, it was a sad day and a glad day that they're finally selling the club; that it was sad for historical reasons, but I was glad that it was in such strong hands as Ted Leonsis and Lincoln Holdings. And we had a meeting today. We interviewed Ted with an ownership group to make sure it could pass muster. I enjoy that, too. It's always great fun. Q. You mentioned at the Board of Governor's meeting that there was some discussion of things that might replace the Lottery or possibly a play-in tournament. How serious are all these alternate ideas, how seriously were they considered and would you handicap their chances of ever becoming reality? COMMISSIONER STERN: I guess what I would say Joe Litvin gave a long report, which I didn't find that funny since he was using footage of old lotteries to make his point. But it was a full briefing to the governors, and there did not seem to be any appetite for a change at this time. So I just -- there was a discussion of the play-in. It couldn't happen except as a result of a change in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. So that gives us an opportunity, in discussions with the governors, to see what the level of appetite is for that. And that will be an ongoing discussion, both at the competition committee, which was to some measure less enthusiastic than the governors, and I think that the idea will be further vetted to see whether there's a good idea that we can come up with. Q. The idea of the Lottery is to address tanking. Is tanking an issue that needs to be addressed, or is it addressed well enough already? COMMISSIONER STERN: I think it's addressed well enough already. I think the results of the Lottery, if anything, are causing teams with the worst record to feel as though a paucity of wins is not being adequately recognized and compensated. So for us, it works well. It's taking care of the main reason for which it was enacted. Q. Commissioner, obviously the question is about Mikhail Prokhorov. Very unchartered waters for NBA to have a foreign owner, especially considering the scarcity of Russian players in the NBA. What are some concerns and opportunities that you can see in this? COMMISSIONER STERN: The most important concern I have is to decide what we should call him. In the motherland he's Mikhail. But in the United States. Q. Demetrovich? COMMISSIONER STERN: He's Michael. He's told us to call him Michael. We've called him Michael and Mike. And we have no concerns whatever. We had a good meeting today, one of many, with Michael and his group of advisors. He seems most anxious to get to work to improve the performance of the team on and off the court. And he's most anxious to learn about our collective bargaining proposals, about the issues that affect us like revenue-sharing, about what he can say and what he shouldn't say, and also about the development of basketball in Russia. We had some very good discussions about that. He's very interested, really, in a development of a class of basketball. Doesn't relate to NBA elite-level players but really about the way the game is or could be played at the collegiate level in Russia at a relatively low level, but to develop the kinds of activities that are healthy for college students to engage in. And also to help us with respect to how we will increase our activities and operations in Russia as we get ready to hire somebody in Russia. Q. Along those lines about the Nets, what do you expect from the franchise moving to the new building in Newark, and is there anything that the city of Newark can prove that it's a fit home long term for a team? COMMISSIONER STERN: You know, all I can say is that we know it's a first-class building. The city has been very welcoming. We have an excellent relationship with the mayor who I think is a terrific mayor, who we've met with on more than one occasion. And we expect the building to show very well and the city to show well for the Nets and for the NBA. But we don't have any expectations right now beyond making sure that as many fans go to the Prudential Center as much as possible to watch the New Jersey Nets. Q. You mentioned, Commissioner, the Lottery and the Draft and the playoffs, but not LeBron James. Everyone is talking about. What would you view LeBron as overshadowing so much of the NBA right now? COMMISSIONER STERN: It actually shows the importance, I guess, to the culture that that's a subject of some discussion that will continue to be heated as we head to July 1 and beyond. That just shows what a fixture the NBA has become, and that the comings and goings of our players have become stories unto themselves. I think, on balance, it's pretty good that fans are so interested as to what teams we subject to improvement and what teams we'll not. Q. How does the league, in reference to LeBron, go about monitoring the recruiting process? For a while it was getting a little out of hand; you put in some restrictions. But how do you monitor what teams shower upon the players they're trying to impress? COMMISSIONER STERN: Like what? What restrictions are you talking about? Q. Certain number of people that they can fly out with them, things like that, or can teams do whatever they want? COMMISSIONER STERN: After July 1? I'm not aware -- I'm sure there are. And Joel Litvin and the entire legal department will probably tell me what I'm doing wrong. But come July 1, just about everything goes. Before July 1, nothing goes. I suppose if the governor wants to sing a song to the tune of "We Are the World" or New York Magazine wants to do a cover with LeBron in a Knick uniform, the last time I looked, my jurisdiction had its limitations and it doesn't include those two instances. So it's kind of interesting and some fun. Me, I'd rather watch the Lakers-Suns and Celtics-Magic. Q. In the past, in sports, we've seen owners have the ability at times to elevate a losing franchise with the power of their personality and charisma. Just from what you know about Prokhorov, is he the he kind of person who can conceivably do that? COMMISSIONER STERN: No. Q. Why not? COMMISSIONER STERN: He's going to do it by hard work and good management. That's what does it. He's going to do by maybe by drafting a good player that comes out of the Lottery and the Draft; by surrounding that player with other good players; by making sure that people understand that he's committed to the entertainment experience at the Prudential Center, to commodious reception for Nets fans; and by selling tickets and sponsorships and suites and club seats and the kinds of things that distinguish successful franchises from unsuccessful franchises. And from that perspective -- and it helps -- it helps when people have a sense, fans, consumers and the like, that there's a presence that is committed to all of the things I mentioned. And I think people will be persuaded that Michael is committed to that, and that in itself will help those sales. And players enjoy, believe it or not, playing in full houses, playing in sponsored situations, and playing for a team that they think has a bright future. And I think he brings all of those to the Nets. Q. Recently you said you thought LeBron would stay in Cleveland and you hoped he would stay in Cleveland. Things have changed. They were a little bit early. COMMISSIONER STERN: You can play that back to me, but that wasn't what I meant to say. But maybe I said it. I don't think I said I hoped -- I guess what I'm saying is I grew up in this league with a Collective Bargaining Agreement that was tilted in favor of the incumbent team being able to sign the player. They could sign him to more money for more years, which gave them the edge. And that followed our belief that it was a good thing to have the continuity that a player being identified with the home team for his career gave you. But the players bargain hard for the right to, at some point, when they become free agents, to make decisions that are based on their own personal, either economic or family or geographic concerns, and that's where it comes to meet. And it may well be that those desires will triumph with all of our free agents, or they won't. We'll have to see. Q. What's your gut telling you about the situation then? COMMISSIONER STERN: To be quiet. (Laughter) Q. Commissioner, now that Gilbert Arenas has completed his legal process, what do you see for him going forward? COMMISSIONER STERN: I see him working hard in the community. I see him getting in shape. I spoke to him last week. I think he might have put on a couple of pounds. He's going to work it off. And he's going to come back as a very successful member of the Wizards, and he's going to work hard to use his experience to talk to others and demonstrate that, you know, there is such a thing as making a mistake, owning up to it and moving on from there. Q. You've been doing this job for years. Have you ever stepped back and said how much longer do I want to do this? COMMISSIONER STERN: Yes. Q. How long? COMMISSIONER STERN: I'm not going to say. But the thought -- I have stepped back. And what I will say is that I really consider myself lucky. I have a job that I enjoy. I enjoy coming to the office, particularly I enjoy working with the people who make the league look good. And I enjoy the additional growth and challenges, whether it's the digital opportunities presented by NBA TV and NBA.com and NBA League Pass, and NBA Wireless, or the global opportunities by meeting with Michael and having one of his staff interview our candidate of ours for a Moscow office or next week interviewing, I hope, the final interview for our managing director of India. This business changes all the time. And at the same time what doesn't change, is the most fun, the game that's at the heart of it that drives it all, is being played at a very high level, with more international players coming in and making our sport even better. It's a pretty good job. I have thought about it. I think about it -- I've thought about it every two or three years for the last 26. But so far so good. Q. You've said you kind of hoped the playoffs would not be overshadowed by this free agency thing. You kind of seemed frustrated about the number of questions you're getting about it. COMMISSIONER STERN: I'm not. I've learned to live with it and actually enjoy it. I mean, some of the -- when I saw the governor's song in Cleveland, in Ohio, and then Mayor Bloomberg's playing no favorites in his responses, talking about the Knicks and Brooklyn, I said, okay, this is beyond me. And at the same time the ratings that that last Cleveland game got, being off the charts, and even the ratings we're getting with respect to TNT and ESPN, are leading all networks, not just cable networks. So that tells us that our sport, the core, is very attractive. And the sales of tickets in franchises that all these free agents may or may not go to are going up. So we're going to have a heck of a year next year. And that's it. I'm no longer frustrated. I'm in the moment. We're having a great playoffs. We'll have a great Finals. We'll have a really interesting Draft. And then, Katie bar the door, in July, songs, banners, balloons, blimps, armies. I don't even know what. I'm just going to hide in the office and let it all roll out. But it's actually a tribute to our players and the way they've captured the imagination of our fans, additional fans; how skilled they are and how the sense is that their change of teams can make a meaningful difference to life in another city. Okay. Have a good evening and enjoy the Lottery. End of FastScripts |
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