NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND

February 10, 2001

Russ Granik

Billy Hunter

David Stern

COMMISSIONER STERN: Thanks for coming. We are delighted to be here. Having a very successful and spectacular All-Star Weekend. I want to welcome the almost 400 media from outside the United States who are covering this game. I think that this is a year that we're enjoyed, shall we say, the other way that the talent flows; that more than over 40 players this year were born outside of the United States, and this game itself is going to be broadcast in over 200 countries. We've seen a sold-out MCI Center for our rookie game, which is an opportunity for the people of Washington to come in and sort of sample some of the great young talent in the NBA. The Jam session is going to set a record for attendance over these four days as we have attempted to bring our fans in Washington some ability to get close to our game and enjoy the excitement of it, and we are looking forward to a great evening tonight and a good All-Star Game tomorrow. There have been a variety of questions about certain aspects of our business and our game, and what I would like to say is that we had a very productive meeting with the executive committee of the Players Association yesterday. It was led by Billy Hunter, who is here with us today. There was a group of NBA owners and team personnel, as well. I guess in the language of diplomacy, we had a very frank and open discussion. I think the one thing that we agreed upon was that the extraordinary growth that this sport has enjoyed over the last 20 years has more than anything been a product of the partnership between the NBA and its players, and that we were going to commit and recommit ourselves to the -- reignition of that partnership in terms of examining every aspect of our game. We owed that to the fans. And by every aspect, we mean everything about the rules, about concerns that owners and players have about some things that haven't been discussed, about the age at which players should come into the League, about conduct issues, about our coordinated commitment to community relations, virtually anything that we have discussed in the past was discussed among us. Not between us, but among us. And we agreed that we would make an effort to make sure that we had meetings with every NBA team, meetings to involve owners and people from the Commissioner's office, people from the Players Association, so that we could deliver this message directly and that we would have periodic meetings among the group that got together and even smaller groups that might address individual issue. I guess we are upbeat about that, in addition to being very upbeat about the state of our game as it sits today. That's my opening statement. Thanks for coming. Billy, do you want to add to that or wait for Q and A?

COMMISSIONER STERN: I am not going to consider them or limit them right now. I have not had the meeting. I have not spoken to Michael other than the brief telephone conversation, and I think it would be premature for me to discuss that until after our meeting, which is now scheduled for Monday morning.

COMMISSIONER STERN: I don't know whether I could give him an option to save basketball in Vancouver, but I have reached out to Daniel, as recently as this afternoon, and I was told that he might be attending this evening. I have no reason to know for a fact that that is accurate, but I think that after some initial, very optimistic expressions through some newspaper personnel, my last reading of some of his remarks were what I would call a very quick backpedaling from the earlier expressed interest. So, I don't know that that's a serious opportunity, but we will certainly explore that if Daniel shows up or responds to my e-mail, or my telephone call.

COMMISSIONER STERN: No, I don't think it was a mistake. I do think that the support that was given to the franchise after we did what the media suggested we might never do, has been disappointing, to say the least. The committees that were supposedly formed to buy tickets, the business element of the group that was going to step up and do what had to be done failed completely to materialize, except now, when Michael Heisley had his press Conference or his statement. So you can have another media feeding frenzy if you like, but we have yet to hear from a substantial group that can make good on the implicit promises that were made when at some great expense we decided that Vancouver was entitled to demonstrate that it was an NBA city. I think it was a good decision and I think it is unfortunate that a city with that kind of resources has not really led to the club, but that's the choice it's making and we'll go from there.

COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, I tell you what, you've had some good games at the Globe in Stockholm, and, you know, I think you are working hard for -- in a league context. Frankly, one of the things that we are working on now, and maybe this is a good enough place to state it again, is that the National Basketball Development League, which we refer to as the D League, an NBA Minor League is going to start in December of 2001. It is going to be eight cities in the southeast, an eligibility requirement of 20 years of age, a season from November to April, a 56-game season, and it is going to give us a pool of players that can travel to play against other countries, teams and a place where other countries who have players they would like to develop might actually have players play. As we speak, the NBA Ambassadors which are training in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the first franchise awarded, will be leaving on Monday, led by Coach Tiny Archibald to participate in the North American Basketball Championships, which is a first, and this is the same team and the coach -- the identity of the players are not the same, that played in the Asian basketball league this past summer. We think that the D League is going to give us a capacity to work with the rest of the world on the subject of developing basketball, and that is very exciting to us, and we think that that's -- that's a first.

COMMISSIONER STERN: I would like to say that our players work extraordinarily hard to develop the skills they have and work very hard to maintain them and play very hard. Maybe Elvin, if he said that, isn't watching the same NBA that I am. Although, I know he has always been an optimist and appraiser of young players who came after him. I think that's an unfair assertion about our players. I think that -- I think that that said, I think there's a fair issue to be discussed as to whether the maturity that would come, the basketball skills that would come, and the the marketing that might come would be a good reason to consider an age limitation, but there is not universal agreement on that. But that's something that is in the hopper to be discussed.

COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, speaking for myself, I'll let Billy answer, I'm not prepared to make apologies because that would engage in the same stereotyping that has been engaged in by the media about our players; that there is -- there are a number of players who have been in acts of misconduct, but the vast majority of our players are extraordinary hard workers, great members of their community, and I'm getting a little short on the subject of having to apologize to them for them because I don't think they need apologies. I think they need praise, and I think they are among the most extraordinary group of athletes that are playing sports today. That does not excuse certain conduct, and that conduct will be dealt with and will be discussed and is one of the issues that is we will be discussing together with our players. But I don't think that I'm going to apologize, and thereby group all of our players into a category into which they do not deserve to be grouped.

COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, we've got some Latin players in the NBA, which is exciting for us. I think that is going to help us in our development of South America and of attracting fans in South America. But we are very excited about going to Latin America, because I think it's -- we hope our team is going to win. We told Tiny that we hope he had a long Visa if they didn't -- no. We told him we just had to be competitive. We didn't do that to Tiny. And we're excited about it. We're very excited about it, because we enjoy working with the federations and the Leagues in Latin America. It is a great basketball continent, and we were looking for ways, including preseason exhibition games by NBA teams. We are beginning to discuss that, as well. We've met with the Argentine Federation, we have met with the Brazilian Federation. We have a long-standing relationship with the Mexican Federation and we are very anxious to continue our relationships there, and we have extraordinary television relationships in Latin America. And to wind up having Latin American players is really crucial to further development: The bigger the sport gets, the more we will have.

BILLY HUNTER: Well, let me say this. We have obviously agreed on the first instance to meet, because I'm concerned and my executive board is concerned about the perception of some of our athletes in the game. We are halfway through or nearly halfway through the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, which we feel has performed beyond our expectations. Our players this year are earning 1.6 billion dollars, which is about 64 percent of all basketball-related income. We have seen about a 40 percent growth in income benefits over the last two years. We don't want to do anything or be perceived as doing anything that is going to jeopardize the well-being of this game. So when we hear these various rumors, read the articles many of you write in the papers, the way you characterize the game and the players, we just thought it was an issue worth sitting down and talking about and working to resolve.

COMMISSIONER STERN: And we're motivated for the same reasons. I'd like the growth to continue, but at a somewhat slower pace than Billy would. But aside from that we are both of the same notion that we want it very much to continue, and this is a good time to get together on the subject.

COMMISSIONER STERN: Russ has had the pleasure to visit.

RUSS GRANIK: I was making the visit when they came in as an expansion team so I am still part of the process. Negotiations are still ongoing. As I understand it, perhaps the biggest single issue is whether in order to resolve them, it has to wait for a referendum in the fall, which is obviously, from our standpoint and the Hornets' standpoint a difficult position to put the team in. But the Hornets and the manager's office are having ongoing conversations about that. We are going to be helpful where we can and certainly, as I'm sure you all know, with our track record in the past, our hope and our desire is to be able to have it worked out where the team remains in Charlotte, under a great situation in a terrific new building. That's certainly what we are striving for. We like the Charlotte market. It has been great for the NBA and we are hopeful that things will work out and we'll know over the next -- I would assume it will still be the next few months before this all unwinds.

COMMISSIONER STERN: We are going to rename it the XBA. (Laughter) and that's just the beginning.

RUSS GRANIK: There was a consensus we had at our meeting yesterday, probably two and a half, three hours was dedicated to this subject and that is a committee that has 29 team representatives and representatives from the Players Association, who is Michael Curry. I think there was a consensus on a couple of points. One, that virtually everyone there felt that we have the best -- the best basketball game and rules that exist, as compared to other games that we're able to watch. We still like ours the best; and therefore, although we may have some issues, we should not necessarily jump to anything drastic. I think there also was a pretty broad agreement that in a game today, there probably is too much isolation play, and that doesn't mean that anybody felt that any team that's playing a lot of isolation are bad people or doing anything wrong. That just means that the rules are such that obviously some coaches feel incentive to play that way. That's how they feel they can win. I would say the bulk of the discussion was what could be done or what should be done to try and disincentivize teams from playing isolation play without otherwise disturbing from of the essential elements of the game. I can tell you things we talked about -- we didn't talk about eliminating the illegal defense rule and allowing any defense. There was some support for that, but not a great deal of support. We talked about the 24-second clock, whether that might be shorter, a way to encourage teams to move the ball up. Again, there was some support, but certainly not anything overwhelming. And all of these things are going to continue to be discussed over the next several months. A couple of things that seemed to have pretty wide support, one was something akin to something like a five-second closely guarded rule. I think the feeling was if a player can't hold the ball when somebody is guarding him for more than five seconds, then it is harder to isolate four people on one side and play one-on-one on the strong side. So that's something that's going to be looked into. We also talked about something that the international game has gone to in the last year, which is shortening the time it gets the ball up court, from ten seconds to eight seconds, and there was a fair amount of interest in that. We talked about the 3 point line, whether it should be moved. Once again, whether it should only be used perhaps in late stages of the game. But there, too, I think although there was some support for it, it was not particularly widespread support at this point at this time. But everybody on the committee agreed to keep an open mind and all of these issues are still open for discussion. We are going to discuss them with our owners, the Board of Governors when we meet at the end of March. We will meet with the Competition Committee, they will be meeting again in the spring and we'll see where they go. I expect there will be some changes, but I think whatever it is, as I said, we will be aimed at trying to curtail some of the isolation play. Maybe not eliminating it completely, but make it, you know, something that's a little less desirable for teams to use on a regular basis.

COMMISSIONER STERN: I'd like to follow-up on an answer before about why this is a little bit different this year with our meeting with the players and sort of the renewal of partnership. There was something about the meeting, to me, that felt a lot different because when we closed the door, there was not a lot of posturing, and when I found myself -- when I found Billy and I on a particular issue arguing with coalitions of owners and players combined, I had a sense that something different was happening. There was a discussion, which was a discussion; it was not a negotiation, and that was a -- that was a sort of a relief based upon some of our past activities. That gave me a very strong sense of some times past, and I sort of commented to myself on that; that I enjoyed getting beaten up -- if a player and an owner are ganging up together, that must be a good sign. And I really do feel, I've been at this a lot of years and I sense something good coming out of that.

BILLY HUNTER: With us, for me and our board, it is a choice issue. Players have had the choice over the last 30 or so years, if we were eligible, if they were capable of playing in the NBA, if they had the skill to come forward. I don't share in your representation that it is the young players that are taking jobs. I don't think that Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnett or Tracy McGrady is taking a job from anybody. If any of the older players are losing the job, they are losing to some 23 -, 24 - or 25-year-old player who might be some mid-range player so I don't particularly share in that. If a player is skilled enough to come in, then he should be permitted to come. That's my attitude. That's something that we are discussing. I am open to the discussion and hopefully we'll reach some agreement.

BILLY HUNTER: Who is that?

BILLY HUNTER: We are not helping him.

BILLY HUNTER: All we are concerned about is providing an opportunity for the best available athletes. When you start out playing sports pro -- when you started playing sports at high school, college, etc., If your ambition is to play professional sports, play professionally in the NBA and if you've demonstrated that you've got the skill and ability, then why should the door be closed to you? I don't see it happening in other sports. It doesn't happen in hockey. It doesn't happen in baseball. It doesn't happen in soccer. Is it doesn't happen in gymnastics. It doesn't happen in tennis. So why should it happen in basketball?

RUSS GRANIK: I think there have been some announcements about the CBA, and at least some reports about possibly stopping operations. That is what it is. I mean, the development league, the NBDL has not been operating yet. We have, in fact, the NBA has, in fact, continued to have a business relationship with the CBA through this year, where the NBA pays something some excess of $2 million for player rights arrangements and referee training, etc. I think if anything, the NBA has continued to fund whatever the operation is in the CBA and whatever has happened there, you know, I don't see that there's been any relationship, other than -- other than our funding, which is a positive one.

COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, in the absence of any volunteers, I will tackle that. No. 1, the increase in player salaries appears set to continue, and next year will be harder than this year. The reality is that what we agreed to was that if it appeared that we were paying more than the agreed-upon amount, then a certain amount of the total compensation amount to players would be put into a fund and at the end of the season it would be either paid to the players or paid to the owners. We are getting up to like the 1.6 or 1.7 billion dollar number. I would say that from that perspective it is working the way we expected it to. And, in fact, it is working -- you know, we made very big concessions that actually had a large economic impact, sort of in the players favor in the first several years, which had the empty exceptions and the billion dollars, and next year is the first year in which the escrow will kick in, even though we have been shelling out the dough for a lot more years. From that perspective, it is the way it is supposed to work and we are happy with it. On the subject of movement, I'm not sure what I projected personally, and I'll leave it to these folks to comment on it, but there are certain trade-offs that have to get made. If there is not a lot of movement, it means that teams are over the cap and that they have spent a load of money on players already. There is supposed to be an inability, short of trades, to go out and simply sign players if you've spent more than a certain amount of money. That was the whole idea. If the net result of that, and I may have a different opinion than Billy having been at this, I firmly believe that any system that encourages players to stay with their own teams at a fair price is a great system or a better system in terms of building identity in communities and doing all of the things that free agency is said to chip away at. That's the fundamental principal behind our rules that say if your existing team can pay you more money and give you a longer contract than any other team, that was hard fought and well negotiated for from the NBA perspective. So if we are paying out 40 percent of basketball-related income in a deal where we hoped to pay out 55, that's the price that is to be paid for the way the money is paid out.

BILLY HUNTER: The thing is, as David has indicated and as you are aware, the agreement that we reached with the NBA was a compromise indicate. As he has indicated, the first three years it was sort of open-ended with the understanding that in the last three, there would be an escrow. As I have indicated to you, the agreement has worked beyond our expectations. We did not anticipate -- we were talking about 54, 55 percent of the BRI (Basketball-related income) in 1998 and 1999; that, in fact, we would be where we are today at 1.6 billion. A year from now, we are projected, even with the advent of the escrow, we anticipate our are going to be earning about 1.8 billion dollars, which would be about 67 percent of BRI. So notwithstanding the adoption implementation of the escrow, our players are certainly paid handsomely. The luxury tax kicks in when any team pays over 15 million dollars. Whether it will serve as a deterrant is obviously intended to be that way. I'm sure that it will deter some or a lot of teams but there may be other teams who might be inclined and might have the money and might be willing to play through it. It is hard to predict, just like two years ago that we did not anticipate that revenues would rise as high as they have.

COMMISSIONER STERN: We understood our teams better than Billy did. He said, "Don't worry, 55, an escrow, your guys won't spend more." We said: "No, no, we want the escrow." He said: "Don't worry, your guys won't spend more." I said, "No, no, no, we need a tax." And our owners never disappoint our expectations. (Laughter).

COMMISSIONER STERN: I've come to peace with that, having understood that the WWF draws more young male viewers than Monday Night Football some nights and a monumental multiple of what our games draw. That's that and we are us and we will continue to be us, striving hard to play very good brand of basketball that's intense and dignified. But at a time when Survivor and Big Brother and Temptation Island dominate the air waives and the intellectual program du jour, who is the millionaire, I find it hard to cast stones at someone having some reality sports programming. That is their programming, and the genre is there. I don't think that any programmer has to not have programming because they are the network of the NBA. They are free to compete with the other networks at whatever level that competition requires.

BILLY HUNTER: Let me say this. As an African American, probably the last thing we need in our community are more basketball players. So, you know, I'm not about discouraging any kids from not going to college. As a matter of fact, it has always been my position and I think as I've demonstrated with my own children, I've insisted that they get all of the education they can get. As a matter of fact, I'm still paying for it, and several are in their 30s so I'm trying to get them to get out of school. (Laughter). But, you know, that having been said, what would it take for me? Well, we've got an escrow coming up a year from now. David would laugh at that. What I would say, as an incentive to keep kids in, what we do is for each year they stay, eliminate a year of the rookie wage scale. That would be an inducement for me. In the past, some of the owners have suggested that for each year the kid comes in before age 20 that an additional year of wage scale should be imposed upon him, and I take the opposite view.

BILLY HUNTER: As David said, we talked about a multitude of issues.

BILLY HUNTER: No. The idea -- we may have discussed.

COMMISSIONER STERN: The negotiation that we are having up here was not negotiated, but the general idea was included in the multitude of issues. It's a discussion. It's a discussion that's on a lot of minds, but no proposals, no give and take on that other than -- the give and take was just to discuss the issue and agree that it is a subject that we should very much focus on.

BILLY HUNTER: I don't think that David and I have ever specifically discussed that. I'm sure there's been rumination at some time or another, probably had it -- Mike Wise (NY Times), Chris Sheridan (AP) has raised the issue -- and Scott Soshnick (Bloomberg News) every time they see me, they seem to talk and raise those issues. No, we really have not given it much thought at all. I don't know that it would be acceptable. As I've indicated, I'm not prepared at this stage to impede or bar those kids who demonstrate the ability to come in the League to take that opportunity away. I think it is an issue of choice. It is First Amendment. It is the right to work. My attitude has always been that if they are not wanted, then they should not be encouraged to come. They no should not be recruited, etc. Not to point a finger at the media, but I think some of you guys are responsible. I was looking at a program last week, late at night, and they showcased three high school kids who the media was contending were eligible, capable of playing with the NBA and would more than likely be drafted. One of them was he Eddie Curry out of Illinois, like 6'11, 290 and this kid DaJuan Wagner from Camden, New Jersey and one other kid, I think out of Compton, California. And so they are being touted. You turn around and you look and people say there they are -- these guys are destined for the NBA. If they keep reading those kind of stories even if they are not inclind to come, all of the sudden you plant the seed and they are capable of playing here. So I think to some degree, the media has to exercise some some restraint and not always look to us to serve as the bar. At least not look to the union to serve as the bar.

RUSS GRANIK: When we sent a 20-year age limitation in the development, we were really looking at that separately, because we said to ourselves: Without any agreement with the Players Association on how the two leagues might interact, we had a deal that with that as a separate entity. For purposes of the development league itself, on that basis, we felt that we simply would be better off not having players who are not 20, except in a rare circumstance, such as a player who gets drafted in the NBA maybe gets cut and then has nowhere else to go. Maybe a player like that. But other than that, we felt it would be better for the brand of basketball, it would be better for the purposes of having players who could be called up. Also, we felt that in terms of our dealings with NCAA basketball, has certainly been great for the sport and great for us, that that was a better solution because we wanted to say that we were not creating this league to go into competition with the NCAA and create a parallel path. Now at some point, if as things evolve, and we try to keep Billy and the Players Association up to date on what our plans are, as this evolves, if there is opportunity down the road to work with the union in terms of some relationship that we would both see as beneficial, then it might be that that changes. I mean, if there is something that can be done about -- about age requirements in the NBA, it might be the development league changes its rules because it ends up being helpful to the situation, but that would have to come out of discussions. Certainly you're aware, I met with the commissioner on college sports a few months ago, and that is a group of primarily current and former college presidents. And their view was we should not an age restriction on the Development League because they felt that if a player is only interested in going to college for a year or two, maybe they would just assume have them not go to college. But that was college presidents. The Basketball Coaches Association and I'm sure most athletic directors in the colleges don't agree necessarily with that view. But I think it is all subject to change as things evolve.

COMMISSIONER STERN: Billy and I have a fundamental strategic disagreement on this issue, but I don't think that this is the place to negotiate those differences. I respect his -- his positions and I think that he does negotiate historically on behalf of non-union members, with respect to the draft, you know, he's negotiating on that, but I think that we have a fundamental -- so it's okay for him to negotiate, and I recognize his concern for them, for non-union members. I just think that we have a fundamental opportunity here in context of everything that we do to set some standards, to help the college game, and to make some statements to the community as well, and also, to overall help individuals and our business. But since I recognize my motives may be subject to my own preferences on this from a business perspective, I do it quietly and I think it is something that we and our players and our owners, and Billy will have a very open discussion about in the coming months.

COMMISSIONER STERN: And how down is the attendance?

COMMISSIONER STERN: But that's the kind of reporting we get stuck with, okay. It's down, it's down in Detroit, down in Houston.

COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, if I were writing, I would have the numbers before I made the statements.

COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, you should buy a dish so you could see some full ones. The only point being, there are teams that are down and there are teams that are up. The fact is that attendance is flat with last year. I think in fairness, we are probably down about 70,000 --

COMMISSIONER STERN: Because at 85 percent capacity in the present market which relies on a lot of 41-game season ticket sales, when the entertainment options including new leagues and kids spending hours in front of their computer in addition to their television, with 500 networks, DVD's and you name it, that is putting enormous pressure on all viewing options. That's why, for example, every major sports program was down this year. Now the fact is that our ratings are down and that's something, I don't mind dealing with that but when it gets lumped in that your players are X, I don't like stereotypes; that our attendance is -- thank you very much; there will be about 20 million fans, which we've only done about five times in our history. But go ahead.

COMMISSIONER STERN: I'm jealous. I would like to have a record-attendance year. But the reality is that we are just gooding a good-attendance year, not a record-attendance year. And if the test is that we have to set a record every year, I can't do it. But that doesn't mean that we don't want to sell more tickets, and yes, we would like to make sure that the people who buy them come to the games and we would like our television ratings, unlike every other television rating, to go up. We are optimistic that we will have a -- you know, a good Playoffs, a good Final, good attendance for the rest of the year and next year will be even better.

COMMISSIONER STERN: He is having an All-Star season, and therefore, he played himself on to the All-Star team. The fans recognize it, with the number of votes that he got, and there was no sort of finishing the record or righting an injustice or marketing tool or anything else. Latrell Sprewell played his way on to the All-Star Team and I got a chance to put the exclamation point on it, period. Next subject. We have a few more minutes. We're on a roll here.

COMMISSIONER STERN: We have never been in a stronger sponsorship position. We have anticipated for years that what we are seeing here. Basketball is undergoing a worldwide boom. The WNBA had two-and-a-half million fans come through, and these are going to be basketball fans for the future. The Development League is going to be in eight cities, and if that works, watch out; it will be in 64, because grass roots basketball is our strength. 40 million people are playing basketball in the United States. It is the largest-played team sport among young people. NBA.com TV and NBA.com, a billion people are going to be on the Internet in five years and 700 million of them are going to be outside of this country. It may be there are certain stresses on the television market in the U.S. that have caused the NCAA, Major League Baseball, the NFL, all to suffer record-low ratings. We don't think that's going to turn itself around on the NBA. Record-low ratings, probably. Although, ours will not be record low, but they will be low. But we think that we are perfectly positioned to take advantage of the talents of our players, the game they play in this increasingly technological world and our sponsors, blue chippers all, are re-upping in record numbers. We expect to have more sponsors next year than ever before who are able to involve themselves with the NBA across platforms that are not even available across other players. And sports, talk about TIVO, talk about Replay, talk about all of these reasons why sponsors are worried. The one place they are much less worried, whether it is first down markers or NBA courts or you name it we are perfectly positioned to resist the sort of erosion that technology is going to cause in other television viewing and other sponsorship values. That's what our sponsors are telling us. So we could not be in a happier situation, and we are -- we are busy and we are visited on a -- literally weekly basis by foreign leagues, teams in our sport and others asking to work with us so we can demonstrate how to satisfy sponsors. So we could not be happier about our sponsorship situation.

COMMISSIONER STERN: I think we are only concerned about what is seen sometimes as the absence of movement. It does not necessarily -- ball movement and player movement. I think that the discussions that Russ and the Competition Committee have been having would tend to move the game a little bit faster, a five-second rule, an eight-second rule, things like that. But the beauty of that, and I'll accept the criticism here, we are talking tinkering here. We have been very slow to change, and it has always been my view that that is our obligation, to be slow to change, because this is a pretty good game. Those of us who were here for periods of time have an obligation to it to treat it with the respect that it deserves. So I'm not ready to -- you know, I don't think that we have to get a particular result. I think there will be certain changes as teams become successful. Other teams will adapt styles, and I think -- I think it will be okay. It's not about getting back to fast break basketball.

COMMISSIONER STERN: You know, we don't usually name rules necessarily. I mean, I guess there is the Bird exception. But I don't think -- no offense meant to Spencer. We had him in to visit with our rookies and consider him to be a valued member of the NBA family. But actually, based upon these considerations, having -- I'm not sure that having a rule that we're trying to change would actually make Spencer that happy. (Laughter) so we're spending a fair amount -- I'm twisting Billy's arm to change the Spencer Haywood rule. But no offense meant. We just never really thought that it needed a name. We embedded it in the Collective Bargaining Agreement by, you know, by a requirement that -- by an agreement with the Players Association that -- and we do have a limit, by the way. The limit is 18 and a high school class graduation. So you can have limits. So now we just have to get Billy move just a little bit more than that subject (smiling). With or without Spencer's name, no offense meant at all. But I'm not sure we are going to name the rule for him any time soon. We would rather eliminate it. Thank you very much. Enjoy the game.