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NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 7, 2010

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this press conference with David Stern and Jordi Bertomeu. We ask you, when you ask a question, to identify yourself, media affiliation, and name.
I don't know if we want to open with some words of welcome perhaps. Jordi?
JORDI BERTOMEU: I'd like to just begin by thanking you all for coming to this press conference, and just a few thoughts I'd like to share with you. First of all, that Euroleague sees this truly as a party, as a festivity, as a celebration. It's wonderful where we can have a game where we have the champion of the NBA playing against the champion of Euroleague. So we're excited about that.
We're very happy to be doing this, for having this celebration at the start of our season when your league is actually showing very good signs, very good vibes for the future, both in the quality of our play as well as in the economic situation. So we're very happy that we can kick this off with a game such as this here in Barcelona.
A party such as this, one thing to keep in mind is that we're not interested in the score. That's not the important thing going on here. Things like this exist so that we can please the fans, so that we can give some excitement to all the followers and promote the game of basketball.
This common objective that we have together with the NBA has allowed us the opportunity since 2006, when we first began this tour, to be able to go have 38 games with teams from both organizations, the NBA and the Euroleague, in 25 cities and in eight different countries.
Of course, this leads me to expressing our gratitude, our gratitude, first of all, to David Stern, and to all the NBA staff for everything they have done to make it possible for us to enjoy and to celebrate this game here.
I would also like to thank Football Club Barcelona for the crucial role they have played in making it possible for this game to take place.
Finally, I would like to thank the City of Barcelona. Once again, they've shown their commitment to the sport of basketball by hosting this game here, which not only is Barcelona the headquarters of Euroleague, but it's where we'll celebrate the Final Four this coming May. But it shows the great interest they have in promoting the importance of basketball and the importance it has at the municipal level.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. And now some opening words from David Stern.
DAVID STERN: Thank you, Jordi.
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for coming. It is a pleasure to be in Barcelona again with many old friends and meeting some new ones.
We have a wonderful relationship with Jordi and with the Euroleague. We have been working for many years with the Spanish Federation and the ACB. We have had a wonderful meeting today with the FC Barcelona to express our appreciation for their efforts. It's been a very productive day. In fact, it feels like I've been here for a week, and I arrived at 10:00 this morning.
We are very excited about the prospect of the Basketball World Championship in 2014 in Spain and have pledged to work with FIBA, with the Federation, with Jose Luis Saez, to make this truly the best World Championship for basketball in history.
We are all working to grow the sport of basketball, and this tour in Milano, in London, in Paris, in Barcelona, and next week we will have NBA teams playing in Mexico City, Guangzhou and Beijing are all part of our efforts in the NBA to grow the game globally.
Did you mention the two Euroleague teams that are coming to play?
JORDI BERTOMEU: I forgot. Thank you.
DAVID STERN: Go ahead.
JORDI BERTOMEU: Okay. I will.
DAVID STERN: Buenos tardes and gracias. No, go ahead.
JORDI BERTOMEU: I did well?
DAVID STERN: Very good.
THE MODERATOR: As we've done in recent years, and as Football Barcelona did two years ago, we continue sending teams from the Euroleague over to play preseason games in the United States against USA teams. This year is will be Caja Laboral that will play in the U.S. in San Antonio, and CSKA Moscow will be playing games in Cleveland, Miami, and Oklahoma.
This will take place the next two weeks, and it's something we've been doing now for several years, which shows that this exchange we have going on is not just one-sided, but going on on both sides of the Atlantic.
DAVID STERN: Thank you.
JORDI BERTOMEU: Gracias.
DAVID STERN: Now to Barcelona. Very exciting to be at this game. We have had the Lakers here. They've had a clinic. They've had a 5,000 people attending an open practice. Our fan zone outside has attracted over 50,000 youngsters and others coming to see it. There's excitement about basketball.
And I must say that this couldn't take place without our partner EA Sports that is now in the fifth year of sponsoring Europe Live brought to you by EA Sports.
And finally, tonight with NBA and the Canal Plus, we are going to feature the first live international game in 3D, which should be either very exciting or we'll find out, but I think it's going to be great.
I want to thank the many other local partners who have made this possible and the BBVA, our new partner, who has made the 3D telecast possible.
And I know that I will see some of you at the NBA regular season games between the Nets and the Raptors in London in March as a demonstration of our continued collaboration with our friends in Europe to develop the sport of basketball, particularly as we lead up to the Olympics of 2012 and the World Championships in 2014. Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Now is the moment for your questions.

Q. Okay. I'm sure that tonight's game is going to be a wonderful party, a festival, but I'd like to know when we're going to be ready to take it one step further, in other words, to make this a yearly event where one, or maybe more than one games between the champion of Europe and the champion of the NBA would compete on a regular basis. Is this simply a dream, or could there be something to that?
JORDI BERTOMEU: You first.
DAVID STERN: Well, actually, we did that many years ago in something called the McDonald's Open. So there's nothing new about that. And in our own view today, we -- you know, this is a long journey. It begins with a single game, and we'll see after this evening how that works its way out. But I would guess that we will be in continued discussions with our friends at the Euroleague about an expansion of this possibility.
Eddie, did you do the translation in Madrid in 1988?
TRANSLATOR: 1989.
DAVID STERN: 1989. So we've only known each other but 21 years.
TRANSLATOR: '88 Madrid? No. '89.
DAVID STERN: He's right. I hear '88. I hear '89.
TRANSLATOR: The Boston Celtics was in Madrid. In what year?
DAVID STERN: '89.
TRANSLATOR: I was right. Thank you.
DAVID STERN: I think it was '88. So anyway, that's how long he's been talking for me in Spain.
JORDI BERTOMEU: Well, first of all, I have to say I agree completely with what David has said. We would like that very much, but at the same time, it's important that, if we do something like that, it would mean that the economic and the athletic, or sports-related conditions would be the precise ones, the adequate ones to make it possible. All I can expect and all I can do is to work with my staff, to work with our clubs to make sure that those conditions become a reality.
And if we can reach those agreements and continue with the same collaboration that we've had so far between Euroleague and the NBA, I'm sure that that would be a possibility.

Q. Hello. Good news. Very glad to be here, first of all. Jordi, would you like please to make a comment about what Commissioner Stern said in London about the establishing of franchise, having a franchise in Europe, and if that's possible. Thank you.
JORDI BERTOMEU: David tends to make statements, or quotes to the press, that later will mean lots of questions for me.
DAVID STERN: Yes.
JORDI BERTOMEU: It's a tradition.
DAVID STERN: I actually gave him the question to ask you.
JORDI BERTOMEU: I think that for a question such as this my answer will be boring, as I always answer when this question is posed to me. I don't really know, to be honest. We don't know, nor do we have too much interest in knowing what the possible plans might be for the NBA in Europe.
Whether the NBA comes or not, we have only one path to follow. We have only one thing we need to do, which is to work on the structure of our clubs, to work on their level, to work on their economic situation, to become as competitive and as successful as possible. That's independent of what the NBA does.
The NBA, no matter what they decide to do, we have only one future ahead of us, and that is to continue working hard to make all of the possible improvements for our clubs and our league.

Q. Okay. For David Stern, we're talking about the first games being back there in '88, '89, and we've continued all the way through to the present. And the difference of level between the teams from the USA and those of Europe seems to have reduced drastically. Do you think that this is a result of the fact that these games have been played over these last decades?
DAVID STERN: I think that, because of these games and because of the 1992 Olympics, I think that the vision of Boris Stankovic to have all of the world's players play together has improved the quality of play, both in the rest of the world and in the United States, by the addition of so many talented international players. So that's a long way of saying yes.

Q. Okay. Is it now just -- because that things have evened out so much, is it just a matter of the NBA or you personally wanting for that championship game, shall we say, between the two champions of the NBA and the Euroleague? Is it just a matter of your desire now that things are equal?
DAVID STERN: No, it's really logistics is a big problem. I don't think we're going to play it in July after our championships, and in October it's -- we're in preseason, as we are now. Actually, our teams who came to London -- actually, in the Italian league, you start early, but the other leagues start late. It's really just logistics, something we can talk about.
I prefer, quote, exhibitions, and even regular season competition, I don't like to put too much pressure on the players out of their leagues to push at each other too hard to prove any points that could somehow be dangerous and risk injury as well.
But we've been doing it -- I mean, we actually did it in London, and we had the Spurs here as the champions, and they played the Euroleague champion in Milano. We had the Bulls in Chicago. So it's -- as I said to the gentleman here, it's nothing new. But it's logistically now, we'll see how that works.

Q. Totally different question. I was wondering, and I was asking Lakers players yesterday, being in that position as the commissioner of NBA and after what happened in Miami, do you feel like the director of an Old West where the good and the bad guys exist? I mean, for all over the world, Miami is the bad guys, and now all the other teams are the good guys.
DAVID STERN: You know, I grew up in 1985 as commissioner when the Celtics had four or five hall of fame players and the Lakers had the same. There is always -- and if you lived outside of L.A., the Lakers were the bad guys, or if you lived outside of Boston, the Celtics were the bad guys.
I don't think it -- it's actually very interesting and exciting to see the players come together and to see new teams potentially doing very well and to see the anticipation that the Heat are bringing to our season. We're going to have really our most successful season, and I don't think it's good guys and bad guys. I think you're going to get to see some of the greatest basketball ever played, and it's going to happen in the NBA during the 2010/2011 season.
But it makes great copy for the journalists.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you all.

End of FastScripts

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