	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 22, 2010

David Stern

TIM FRANK: Thanks all of you for joining us for our preseason conference call. Looking forward to the 2010-11 season. On the call today is the Commissioner of the NBA, David Stern; Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver; President of League and Basketball Operations, Joel Litvin; and the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, Stu Jackson.
We'll start with an opening statement from the commissioner and then we'll be glad to take your questions.
DAVID STERN: Thanks, Tim, and thanks, everyone, for joining us. Last time I did a large media availability was at the Finals, and we came off really an extraordinary seven-game series reaching a huge number of fans, not only around our country but around the world.
As you know, we had a great free agency period, probably one of the most watched in the history of our league. We rolled into a very, very good summer league experience, whether it was in Las Vegas or in Orlando, and in the World Championships we had 60 players with NBA experience, present or former, participating on behalf of their respective countries.
I've been told by a number of teams that it would be premature for us to mail the trophy to Miami. We've got an extraordinary number of up-and-coming youngsters. It's going to be great to watch them again, whether it's Kevin Durant who came of age in the World Championships or Derrick Rose or Russell Westbrook or Tyreke Evans or Stephen Curry, together with the established stars, with LeBron leading the way and the veterans like Shaq and Kobe and Kevin and Tim Duncan and Steve Nash and Jason Kidd, together with a mix of international players. It's pretty exciting for us. We're really looking forward to it.
We've got it to a place now where opening -- my opening week is pretty exciting. I'm going to give out the rings on Tuesday, open with the Nets in their new Newark arena, their two-year temporary home at Prudential, on Wednesday; Orlando's new building on Thursday; kicking off with the Heat who had a few roster changes on Friday; and then back to New York to see the Knicks and Amar'e and Tim -- that's Timofey Mozgov.
And we really do want to thank Kia, which is the sponsor of our tip-off week, and we're going to find ourselves with double headers on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday on TNT and ESPN and TNT and ESPN, and we're also going to have games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday on NBA TV, and while no one was looking, NBA TV is now in almost 34 million homes -- I'm sorry, 54 million homes -- I'm back in the days of TNT -- 54 million homes and rising every day with lots of fans watching. So we're very, very excited about that.
With that, as you can tell, I'm really looking forward to the season, and I'd be -- I left out one thing. I'm going to go back to one thing. Whatever has been going on in this country, I've had the opportunity this summer to look at it around the world. We've played games, preseason games, in Italy, in England, in France, in Spain, in Mexico City and in China. We had two Euroleague teams play in five cities here. This international language is basketball, and so that really follows upon the success of last year and the activity of the summer.
And if you read the newspapers, whether it be in Guangzhou or in New York, they're all talking about the same thing. How is the season going to be, who's going to be traded, who's going to leave to be a free agent with a new team, et cetera. It's amazing the way the language of basketball is the international language. So thanks again for being interested, and we're happy to answer your questions.
TIM FRANK: Let's open it up to questions, please.

Q. The board of governors didn't vote on the Warriors' sale this week. I'm wondering, what is the time frame for a vote on that, and is there anything more that the prospective owners need to do?
DAVID STERN: No, there are just some documents that are being completed. We fully expect there to be a completion in the next day or so, and we then will be sending it out by -- I'm so old fashioned I'm going to call it telex, but we'll be making an email vote I would expect sometime next week.
We had a good meeting with Messrs. Guber and Lacob, and it's very much on track. It's just dotting the I's and crossing the T's, and we are sort of -- we were hoping to have it done by opening night but that's getting a little bit tight, so we're aiming for sometime next week.

Q. To what extent does Jordan have a chance to add value to the Bobcats, both as a basketball product and a business venture in a way that perhaps somebody else with his resources but not his notoriety might not be able to, and one of the things I was curious about is whether or not you think that him being everything he's been would be a significant factor in recruiting free agents in the future?
DAVID STERN: Well, I would say that there aren't that many owners that we have or we likely have that will be on the cover of a video game in uniform, and that is quite the distinction. There aren't that many owners who can have a sponsor event or a fantasy camp that can -- where perhaps one of the great players of any game get an opportunity to teach and be there. And number three, I think his intensity and competitive spirit in a business context is extraordinary.
All of that said, I don't give him an edge on free agent signings. Our free agents look to go where they think they can win. I think that's been demonstrated this summer. But he doesn't need that advantage, because given the turnaround that's currently taking place in Charlotte, that will be advantage enough, including solidifying the team's standing as an extraordinary corporate citizen, helping everyone from the school systems to other great courses that Charlotte has been involved with.

Q. Since you used the word "turnaround," how different would you say the atmosphere is from say a year ago?
DAVID STERN: I think there's enormous optimism. We're coming to a team that was in the playoffs, and the team is going to be playing in a building that is going to be more fans in it and going to be widely supported by sponsors and the community. It's a wonderful, wonderful turnaround.

Q. This is a two-parter. From my readings and listening to you, you have been generally quiet on going public with some figures, yet you went public with the $750 to $800 million figure yesterday. What prompted you to do that? And then the second part of that is had you do you maintain the optimism you have for this season with the cloud that seems to be over the labor situation right now?
DAVID STERN: You know, the number is a number that in some shape or form we had put out there back in February when we presented our proposal, our January proposal to the players, so I didn't think I was breaking new news about that. That was the ask back in January.
But since I've been -- I'm allowed to be optimistic and not consider it a cloud because I've probably been in a dozen collective bargaining negotiations, the last ten of which involve some of the same actors that are currently at this table. So we know we're going to get an agreement done, and we think that the enthusiasm of the season and the prospective growth that it will ultimately represent will enable us to sit down with the players and negotiate in good faith, and we both seem intent on doing all that we can to reach a deal.

Q. So only the CBA issue, obviously you're looking for some dramatic changes. It wasn't that long ago that you negotiated the current CBA. I'm wondering from your perspective what changed from I guess what was 2005 until now so drastically to necessitate these changes, and is this something you could have fore seen and you thought maybe was going to go differently? Just curious to know the dynamics at work the last few years that have made it such an urgent situation.
DAVID STERN: Well, I'm not going to say -- I'm not going to use the word "urgent." It's important. One of the things that we have found out ourselves is that as we work with our teams to keep the high level of sales and customer service of first-class arenas and all the amenities of continuing escalation, even in prices of making our players secure and traveling them around the world by charter, that it has become much more expensive to do the same things that we have always done.
And number two, the world has changed. The ability of the economic situation -- we're in the worst -- we've gone through the worst recession in the lifetime of anyone who's on this phone call, and it sobers people as to what additional investments or funding shortfalls they want to make to support their assets. And I'd say the combination of those two have caused us to say, okay, we need a reset that makes this viable so that we can work together with our players to share what we hope will be the continuing upside of an officially operated league.

Q. You used the word "viable." The league structure as it currently stands is it not viable right now?
DAVID STERN: I would say the league is viable as long as you have owners who want to continue funding losses. But it's not on the long-term a sustainable business model that we're happy to be supporting. So the viability will come from fill the arenas and good games on television and increased mobile and broadband and digital aspects of our game. But it needs to be reset.

Q. Do you consider it destabilizing to have franchise-caliber players, and obviously Carmelo Anthony is the most obvious example right now, who are able to orchestrate movement or at least movement toward movement simply by refusing to sign a max contract extension and indicating they want to be traded?
DAVID STERN: Not in the least. Not in the least. You know, the players have no obligation to sign a contract, and I remember these guys, what were their names, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who actually asked to be traded; Patrick Ewing, who asked to be traded. Here we have a player who's keeping his options open. That's his right under the collective bargaining agreement, and I don't think it's fair to hold him to a higher standard.

Q. I wanted to ask you a little bit about small-market teams, especially going into the possible new CBA, and also contraction that was brought up yesterday and wasn't really picked up. Could you go into a little bit more about how possible it is the NBA might have to contract and which teams it could affect?
DAVID STERN: Well, I would say that we're committed to small market teams. We are going to have a new CBA eventually and we're going to have a more robust revenue sharing. The issue of contraction is one that has to be discussed in the context of collective bargaining with the players, whether if there are markets where there may not be buyers for teams that are looking to be sold, that raises the issue of contraction. But it's a sensitive subject for me because I've spent 27 years in this job working very hard not only to maintain all of our teams but along the way add a few.
But I think that's a subject that will be on the table with the players as we look to see what's the optimum way to present our game, and are there cities and teams that cannot make it in the current economic environment. I'm not spending a lot of time on it.

Q. To follow up a little bit on the previous question but a bit more specific, I wanted to ask you what sort of model or notion do you have for changing the rules for revenue sharing? How might that look in the new CBA?
DAVID STERN: I must tell you, it's going on a parallel front, not in the CBA but along with the CBA, and that's something that's being handled by the planning committee chaired by Wyc Grousbeck of the Boston Celtics.
But generally speaking, I think we're committed to a model that will, A, be more robust; B, has certain performance standards in it, and hence the issue of contraction gets mentioned because every team that's in the league has to be able to carry a certain weight, make a certain standard; and then we need to make them able to compete on the court and to have an opportunity to be profitable. Those are the three prongs that are going to guide the revenue sharing.
But it would be premature to do that finally without having some better idea of what the new collective bargaining agreement will be come into focus.

Q. Just as a quick follow-up, would you put the Bucks in that category of a team that would need to demonstrate that it deserves more revenue sharing?
DAVID STERN: No, I don't think that anyone needs to demonstrate -- that's not the way -- it's not about a demonstration. What we're going to do, at least in one of the iterations -- there are competing models going on. Some people have proposed straight revenue sharing; others have said, well, let's at least have a benchmark that says everyone gets revenue sharing above a certain minimum standard. And so it's not -- and the minimum standard is if you've got to have a certain percent of sales in your building and you have to have a certain television deal and certain sponsorships, but your revenue sharing happens nevertheless.
And Milwaukee is a team that has been with us for a long time, is an important part of the community not only in Milwaukee but in Wisconsin. I know there are efforts afoot to see how additional revenues can be generated by the building, and the one thing I know is that Herb Kohl is committed to the Bucks in the state of Wisconsin.

Q. I understand your official position is to be neutral and indifferent on all 30 franchises, but do you have any thoughts you can share on the Cleveland Cavaliers and their fans and the players who remain there and what they might expect this season and what your impressions of where they're headed might be?
DAVID STERN: Well, I don't know. I mean, I think they have a lot of players who would like to demonstrate that they can be part of a winning team, and they're players of some accomplishment who may well have been overshadowed, shall we say, by one of the most glamorous players and best players in the league.
But I think for the fans of Cleveland, they had that player and they had him for seven years as a result of the NBA draft and his renewed contract, and now, let's go, everybody on board, and let's see how the team can do without that player. And I'm kind of thinking they'll do better than most people are expecting.

Q. Last spring when you were getting a lot of questions about LeBron, you really championed the fact that Cleveland could pay him the most to keep him there, that that was something that the NBA had to help teams, and now if you go to a hard cap that goes away. Is there part of you that will miss that if it goes, or just it's run its course and it doesn't help the league anymore?
DAVID STERN: Well, I think under any system, we're probably going to have something that allows a team to have a financial edge in keeping a player. But then it becomes up to the player, whether he wants to take advantage of that or not. So I think we'll keep something like that going, but I wouldn't claim that that's the be all and end all, but here we are. And I think that LeBron and D-Wade and -- not D-Wade but Chris Bosh demonstrated that there are some things that are more important to our teams and our players than money.

Q. Can you just clarify, is there actually a proposal on the table right now? I know they rejected yours in February and they submitted one in July that you said was very much status quo. Did you reject that, or is it still out there?
DAVID STERN: Well, you know, everything is on the table. It's okay for someone to announce that they reject it, but they reject, I reject, we reject; it sounds like a song, we all reject. But right now we're talking about concepts, and without getting bogged down in individual items of -- every little item of the proposals.

Q. The Grizzlies are starting their 10th season in Memphis, so that in mind, I want to ask you, do you think it's been a success so far, a failure, somewhere in between? And also, how confident are you that they'll make it to year 20-year and thrive? And finally, kind of along those lines, should people here be worried about the word "contraction"? Should it be a chilling word to Memphis?
DAVID STERN: Yeah, I think the answer is it's been successful. I think we wanted to be, along with Michael Heisley and the ownership group, more successful. I'll be down in December to celebrate that 10th anniversary, and we're pleased with their response, and we're pleased in the community.
You know, we need to work hard together to do what every team has to do, sell tickets and induce sponsors to support the team. And on the basketball side, to have the team win. Amongst those of us in the office who are fans, and there are a couple of us, you know, they're a much improved team.
You know, I'm not sure -- let's see how we write the history of the Pau Gasol trade. I like Mark. I think he's doing a heck of a job. I like the team that they've surrounded him with. I like everything about them, whether it's -- there's lots of good stuff going on in Memphis. A lot of pressure on the team and the coach, but that's why it's a great game.

Q. Should contraction be a chilling word at all here?
DAVID STERN: No, it shouldn't be. It's a good word to use, especially in collective bargaining.

Q. I know it's problematic to get into a he-said-she-said and response game, but I was just curious if you were aware of and had a statement from Billy Hunter regarding your $750 million figure, which is months old to them, but he said if the owners maintain their position on reducing salaries it will result in a lockout and a cancellation of some or all of the 2011-'12 season.
DAVID STERN: I don't believe that Billy wrote that because he wouldn't threaten me with a lockout, and all I can say is that's what negotiations are for, and we're looking forward to our next negotiating session.

Q. So this is par for the course?
DAVID STERN: Absolutely. It's a classic negotiating rhetoric, probably on both sides.

Q. Just to follow up on a couple of questions, just when you see the fans of the Torontos and the Clevelands and the Denvers and also the Milwaukees and Minnesotas, to see more and more of the game's biggest stars dictating where they want to play and with whom. Does that need to be addressed? Do you ever foresee the league having a franchise player tag like the NFL does?
DAVID STERN: Well, I think that the franchise player is an interesting concept. I think it's going to come up in our collective bargaining. But leaving that aside, I think the players are entitled to get the benefit of what they bargained for. And the union bargains for free agency; the players serve out a certain contract length and have come into a system that provides that free agency. And it's hard for me to buy your premise that somebody who has played for a certain number of years under a contract and is a free agent is thereby dictating where he's going to play. He's exercising his rights that were given to him by the collective bargaining agreement to sign a contract with another team.
And just as in many cases, players sign a contract and they can be traded. Those are the rules of the game, and they're bilateral.

Q. I'm going to try to ask you for a little more specificity regarding the Warriors' sale just because it's pretty important to fans. I just want to make sure that I understood. You said you would have hoped that it would happen by opening night but that you still expect it to happen next week, so did you mean NBA opening night Tuesday or the Warriors' opening night Wednesday or Thursday or Friday?
DAVID STERN: We had hoped that -- there's a signed contract, the deal is going to close. There are all kinds of related agreements that have to be executed in connection with it, and there are some details -- final details being worked out. So we had hoped that it would have closed by Wednesday. That would have required us to get the vote out today. It's probably not going to happen. We haven't gotten the final word on a couple of documents. So it's going to go out sometime next week, and it'll likely close by Friday of next week.

Q. Okay, and then secondarily, can you provide any details on who's a part of Joe Lacob and Peter Guber's investment group?
DAVID STERN: No, I'm going to let Joe and Peter do that when it all finally comes together. I think that's an appropriate subject for the new ownership group to announce to their community. All I can say is that there are lots of people who want to be involved with this most important community asset.

Q. I have two questions if I may, please. The first is with the recent failed arena negotiations in Sacramento yet again, is there optimism? Or has your outlook on the Kings staying in Sacramento changed?
DAVID STERN: Well, I'm going to duck it ever so slightly. I'm going to say that my optimism on there being a new building has faded completely. We really tried hard, the Maloof family has spent an enormous sum of money, people of goodwill from Senator Steinberg to the Governor to the Mayor Johnson, have joined in, and frankly it wasn't, I guess, to be, because we were missing an essential party. And so I don't have any more good ideas.
Where we flow on that is right now, we've got a season to worry about, and I know that the Maloofs are spending their time feeling really good about their Rookie of the Year last year, their draft choice this year, their coach and the general makeup of their team, and their tickets are -- you should tell all of your listeners they should rush out because they may get shut out. The tickets are going like hotcakes. That's all I'm focusing on. I'm waiting for the -- we're all going to catch our breath to see what great ideas come out of Sacramento with respect to a new building for the Kings.

Q. My second question is in regards to respect for the game and how it's been called. I know how Tom Heinsohn feels about it, but have you and Stu been satisfied with the way the officials have called the preseason games, and are you worried at all about the objection from the union as it relates to that rule?
DAVID STERN: We're not worried about the objection from the union, and we're never satisfied with anything, whether it's the referees or the players or ourselves. We're always looking to improve everything.
But I can say this: With our great players, we're determined that everyone is going to get a chance to focus on our players playing and not complaining. And that will require tapes and snapshots and educating better our players and educating our refs and educating our coaches, and we're up for it because it's a very worthy cause.

Q. Here in Toronto the expectations are very low. Attendance has suffered. The franchise has one playoff series win in its history. Players frequently want out. How concerned are you about the direction of this franchise?
DAVID STERN: I think that you've got a committed ownership group, an extraordinary president of basketball operations, a pretty good roster that's made good use of its draft picks and free agent signings, and I think you're being much too negative, which is your prerogative and maybe even your job, but I don't agree with all of your premises.

Q. At any point, do you kind of sit back and say maybe it was a mistake to expand north of the border?
DAVID STERN: Oh, my God, absolutely not. That is so -- those are only the questions I get from Canada. I need to pump you up a little bit. We are so lucky to have Toronto, this most diverse, thriving, international city, that I can't even imagine where that question would come from, really.

Q. Well, you can understand the fans are a little concerned, looking at a potential 30th place finish here.
DAVID STERN: By the way, I can always understand -- if I were a betting man, I would book it, but I'm not, so I can't discuss it with you. But I think you're totally off the charts on that one, number one. But number two, fans always have a right to complain and moan, and the media is supposed to amplify that. But I don't think it becomes an existential question the way you've posed it.

Q. I have two questions. The first one is do you think that all those CBA talks could in any way affect the upcoming season?
DAVID STERN: You know, we've thought about that. I won't say we haven't given it some thought. And frankly our players are such great competitors and there seems to be such an intense desire from everyone to win and our fans are responding so well, and our networks and sponsors are jumping in with all of their feet that the answer is I don't think so. I think we're going to have perhaps our best season ever this year.

Q. My second question is would you comment on all the hype that's been surrounding the Miami Heat this summer, and I was wondering, was it too much, because it went way beyond basketball. So what did you think about that, and how do you think it's going to affect the league?
DAVID STERN: Well, from a -- I think that in USA Today there was a big front-page article about everybody looking forward to either seeing the Miami Heat or seeing them lose, depending upon what city you're in, or seeing them win if you're a fan. And I think that's team has generated spectacular interest, and all in all it's been very good for the NBA.

Q. You guys have had about seven or eight different champions in the last 25 or 30 years, I can't remember the number exactly. Do you guys ever talk about or is there anything the league could do to see a little bit more parity there at the top and possibly give fans who have been fans of good franchises to get that one player that makes a difference to get that title that they don't have, or is that an unrealistic expectation?
DAVID STERN: Well, I want to answer that in two different ways. One, we're focused on some things in our collective bargaining negotiations that will make the league a little bit more competitive with respect to competition between the teams where large-market teams, large grossing teams don't have huge economic disparities to utilize to make them better. We've talked a little bit about doing things that allow teams to retool faster, teams that are judged to have made mistakes under the cap.
But I don't think the eight number is a fair enough number, because when you -- we've had teams like Utah, Orlando, Portland, Cleveland going to the -- New Jersey, Philadelphia, we've had lots of teams in The Finals, and it's not our interest to control the outcome of the Finals. That's the beauty of the game. You play your way in, and then the best team at that moment wins.
And so I think there's been more of a mixture than people really understand. But that said, I think that what we -- and I think that certainly amongst a lot of leagues, we have a view that we do promote competition to our fans, and many of our fans believe that if their teams are well-managed, they will, over a period of time, have an opportunity to compete. We want to make that dream come a little bit more true, and that's one of the issues that we're negotiating with the union about in our collective bargaining agreement.
I'd like to thank everybody for taking the time to join us, and I hope to see all of you on the road.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297