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NBA ALL-STAR WEEKENDFebruary 17, 2007Billy HunterDavid SternLAS VEGAS, NEVADA COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Thank you all for coming. There was one open item coming out of the most recently concluded Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association, and that had to do with additional pension. And after a series of rulings and other things that we've been able to accomplish I'm pleased to announce with Billy Hunter today that the Pre 1965 NBA players will have their pensions increased by 50 percent, as a result of this Collective Bargaining Agreement. And we will be adding a category to the Pre 65 designation of players who played in the NBA for three and four years, rather than the five-year eligibility that has heretofore been the rule and they will have a pension as well as the other Pre 65 players who made the five year limit. And that's something that I thank the NBA owners for and I thank the generosity of the National Basketball Players Association. NBPA EX. DIRECTOR BILLY HUNTER: I'm here to reiterate what David is saying. I think it's great that we've seen fit to step up, and the Pre 65ers have been lobbying us for threes as long as I've been here. I'm sure they're going to be rather ecstatic, especially those who have never received a pension, who played in the late '40s, '50s, and never participated in this benefit. I think that they will be extremely happy and it becomes retroactive to July 1st, 2005. It's the first time that the Union is actually contributing, so it's a partnership in terms of paying this pension. COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I guess one of the reasons why I asked Billy to join me at this early part and for this early part of the press conference is it's very much a partnership. We've been working very well together since the conclusion of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. And this represents, I would say, a commitment by both the NBA and the current NBA players to take care of the issues that have previously been raised. And so we're going to sort of cut this press conference into two parts. The first part, if anyone has any questions about what we just said, we'll be happy to take them. The second part is Billy ducks out of here and I take all the incoming artillery. Any questions on what we just announced? Q. Do you have any specifics on what the Pre 65 people are going to get who did not get anything before? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Funny you asked. Number one, there will be a lump sum catch-up payment for each one who played three or four years of $20,000. And then a three-year player would get $10,800, and a four-year player would get $14,400. These are pensions that previously didn't exist. I just want to thank the Maloof family, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Association, the hotels, the partners, Mayor Goodman, County Commissioner (Rory) Reid, for helping to make the All-Star possible. We're having a great time in Las Vegas. It's living up to all of the attributes in terms of a tourist destination that we could have hoped for, in terms of room availability, shows, restaurants, a little golf is getting played and I think a couple of people might have stopped in the casino, I'm not sure, I didn't see it. We're very much about a celebration of our game and for me this weekend really ties it all together or I should say this week. I've said it before, but I do believe we're in sort of a new, golden era of the NBA in terms of the stars that we have on a global scale and it's very exciting. The Rookie and Sophomore Game was just an additional opportunity for us to showcase what the future is and that's huge for us. The contests tonight are just to showcase additional dimensions, Slam Dunk, Three Point Shot, Skills, Shooting Stars. And in the case of the Shooting Stars it gives us an opportunity to pull a couple of players back into uniform who have left them hanging in the locker; and to showcase some of our WNBA stars. Of course the All-Star Game itself is the main event and the hunger of the world to see that, to blog about it, to do the broadband downloads in just about every language, on every continent, to get as much as they can is surprising even us in its scope. In addition, we have the opportunity today to have the All-Star Game of the NBA Development League, so we sort of complete the cycle, NBA, WNBA, NBA Development League, the entire basketball family. And two other things are very important to us, number one, we've been here since Monday with the NBA Cares Caravan. It's really quite extraordinary, I hope some of you got a chance to see what our players, what our WNBA players, what our moms, wives, are doing. I just came from the event at the Hoggard Elementary School, where we dedicated not only a refurbished basketball court, but a reading and learning center with computers and books. And it's really quite breath taking in its scope. I usually come at the end, but I'm just so proud of everyone involved and the effort the people on the ground here in Las Vegas and the NBA personnel, present and retired, that have been doing a great job. It makes me very proud to be associated with the NBA. And finally, the Legends Brunch sort of is iconic for me and for us, because it gives an opportunity to have an element here of a family reunion. And the Legends have made over 220 appearances in the course of All-Star Weekend at all of these events and it's extraordinary for us to be able to include them in everything that goes on and to share with them our excitement and also our thanks. And it's another special treat to be able to announce the pension. This is where I'm supposed to say we're having a good year, and we are. It's our 4th consecutive year of record attendance. The international players are enriching our League. The young stars are getting older and both maturing on and off the court. And we were pleased to announce today our second NBA Europe Live Tour, will be taking teams to Istanbul, Turkey, Malaga; Madrid, Spain in October; Rome, Italy; and London, England. And later on we'll be able to announce a couple of teams, not this weekend, but hopefully in the next month or so, that will be playing in China in October, as well. So we're continuing our international activities. And by the by, we're going to be very much active here again this summer in Las Vegas, where the FIBA Tournament of the Americas will determine eligibility for the Olympics here. And seven of the ten teams will be Latin American teams, which gives us an enormous opportunity for outreach to the Hispanic community. And it will be a huge opportunity for us to reengage and reignite our reference there to this enormous segment of our fan base. The only other, I guess, business point I would make is that, as I said, our fans are really consuming us in new ways. We had a very good technology summit here, we have one each year. We had four or five panels. We had Eric Schmidt from Google interviewed by Soledad O'Brien. It was fascinating. And even though everything was off the record, the one thing I can say is that in this wonderful age of wireless, of video on demand, on the device formally known as the cell phone, which is now a handheld device, at a time when the statistics are overwhelming that there will be soon two billion people on cell phones with the third generation, to have compelling content -- which is our game -- means that our game is going to be brought to fans in ways that not only that we couldn't have anticipated, but we probably couldn't have imagined, and that's all good on a global scale. The most important thing about that is it really is about the game. We had our three and a half hour meeting of the Competition Committee yesterday looking for ways to continually evaluate what changes we should think about, shouldn't think about. It's just pretty exciting to be doing all of the above, but always coming back to the game, because that's what carries us. That's my opening. I thank you for being here and I'm happy to take any questions that you have. Q. Your concerns about gambling, you don't want fans betting on the games or a point shaving scandal, it's basically impossible to bet a large amount of money -- COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: If you've been around long enough you know that what you described has nothing to do with anything I've been saying for the last three years or every day this week in Las Vegas. So if you'd like to talk about it later, I'd be happy to. But I'm not worried about games being fixed and I'm surprised that you asked the question. Q. My question is the situation in Sacramento, which is pretty much connected to Las Vegas. With the owners being the Maloofs. What is the progress of the proposed new arena? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: There is no proposed new arena yet. The progress is we've had our representatives on the ground in Sacramento. We continue to be in touch with key elements there. We're analyzing it. We hope that sometime in the not too distant future we'll be able to come up with a proposal. But the one thing we agree at the NBA and the Maloof family agrees: They want the NBA to be in Sacramento, and they want to own the team in Sacramento. I don't know how to be more precise than that. That's what they confirmed for Adam Silver, the Deputy Commissioner, and Joel Litvin and me on Wednesday night at dinner. And so the rest is, in my view, not grounded in fact. We're trying very hard to take a team that has succeeded wonderfully in Sacramento, continues to succeed, and find a way to continue that marriage in a building that is better than the one they are in, which isn't the building for the long haul. And it's my charge to see whether there's a way to do that. I'm not predicting spectacular success, but I'm not discouraged, and there's a lot more work to be done, a lot more options to be considered. There are a lot of things we're looking at. And if we talked about them publicly, we'd probably ruin it all. Sometime in the future, maybe three months, four months, six months, whatever it is, we'll have something to say on the subject when we have something to say. Q. Two part question, Oscar Goodman told me last week that he thinks the fit between the NBA and Las Vegas is "a natural". How much of a natural do you think it is?" COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Well, it's a great city. It's a great tourism destination. I don't know if it's a natural fit because those are the kinds of analyses that we do. I know there's one issue, it's a tiny little issue we have, about betting on basketball games. And I've invited Oscar to make -- Oscar and really Commissioner Reid, because we know this is a duality here, to make a proposal on the betting issue. As it relates to everything else, I just want to say that you can't be against gambling, just as gambling, anywhere in America, because 48 states have a version of a lottery, by which their citizens are betting their grocery money. If they don't have a lottery, they have video poker, slots, casinos, and if they don't want the casinos to be in the state they float a barge. We're a country where every government official who has a budget deficit decides gambling is the answer. If the owners were to be satisfied with respect to the disposition of the basketball betting issue, then there's analysis to be done about whether this city can support an NBA team. Its market size, a building, convenience, and indeed whether on a night where there's -- after the team, if there were a team settled in and it wasn't a very attractive game, whether there would be anybody to go to it, if all were working or playing, at a hotel, a show, a casino or a restaurant. But those are the kinds of things that would naturally happen by way analysis. Fortune 500 corporations that have headquarters or offices, there's a huge slate of disposable income. We haven't done that yet, so this is not -- there's one thing that has to be done first, and then that would follow, if it were to follow. Q. But Mayor Goodman said you guys met this week, and I'm wondering what specifically you talked about in terms of a NBA future in this city? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I've announced it earlier, I said, "Oscar, get together with Commissioner Reid and tell us what you're prepared to do with respect to the basketball book. I have an owners meeting on April 20th, why don't we split the difference and sometime on or about -- no, no, it's February 20th, we have a meeting on April 20th, and we'll split the difference by March 20th, tell me what your proposal is." Oscar's response was, "You mean the ball is in my court?" And I said, "Yes." Q. Ramon Calderon of Real Madrid has said his club signed some kind of agreement to be part of the NBA ... COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: You know better than that, because he said he never said that. And so that's the game that the Spanish media plays. He never signed an agreement. We've said that he never signed an agreement. And he said that he never signed an agreement after the media reported it. So actually I've never met him. I've never signed an agreement with him. And the Spanish media is having a ball with a fictional event. Because I've seen the denials, I can assure you that there's no agreement signed. If you need independent verification, I'm here to tell you there's no such agreement. We wish Real Madrid well. I gather we're playing them in Madrid. Maybe we've signed an agreement to play a game, but there's been nothing else done. And we look forward to greeting our fans in Madrid in October. And the A Team goes there. Anything else is pure fiction that we can't seem to put to rest. Q. Can you describe the criteria you use in determining the length of suspension for a player involved in a fight on the court and do you feel the proper message was sent by the extent to which you suspended Carmelo Anthony? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: It's hard. We are well aware of what previous suspensions were. We look at each transgression in that context, and we tried to see what we think is appropriate in the circumstances. It's not a fixed formula. But we think the message has been getting out and it's rather firm and clear. I hate to sound like a complete old-timer, but I will, when I say that the amount of fighting in the NBA is so low that the exception somehow bubbles up and makes it seem, because of the press coverage, which is fine, because that's what we ask for, the press coverage, makes it seem like it's a big deal. It's not. But we're determined, because of the risks involved to our players, to some degree to our fans, and to some degree because of the obligation I think we have as a sports league to do everything in our power to send that message that it's not tolerable. And we think that what we've done does that. But if you're asking whether I thought we would forever stamp it out I'd say, with large men in tight places at big speeds, high speeds, it's unlikely. But the message that we are trying to send in as strong a way as possible, there will be flare-ups, but if there's a break in the action, woe is to you if you don't take advantage of that break to calm things down. Because we fear the involvement of others and the kind of incident we had in New York, and that provided us the opportunity to send that message. Q. I'm asking this in part because obviously things changed a bit by putting an All-Star Game in a non-NBA city. I wondered what you thought about criteria going forward and specifically whether Charlotte with the new arena is going to get one of these? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: The reality of these is one of the benefits of having a few more cities to think about in sort of a neutral site way is that the All-Star Game is a real issue for some cities. And that has to do with trying to house our guests in a place within sight of the venue in first-class accommodations that don't take them many miles and spread them out dramatically. And that's a burden for some cities. And that's one thing. Another thing that makes a neutral site seem more attractive, is the fact we don't have to displace season ticket holders. That's always an issue, no matter what is said, when the game is granted. This is, in effect, for entertainment purposes, this is our combination of our Super Bowl and the World Series. At the NBA Finals we have a policy, if you've been a season ticket holder you get your tickets all the way through, and we don't displace fans. But that's not true of the Super Bowl, where the commissioner has a huge block; and it's not true in the World Series, but it's true in the All-Star Game. If you're a season ticket holder, sometimes you don't see the benefit, even though the city gets a huge benefit. So for us the opportunity to have a neutral site that has the hotel rooms and the destination opportunities together with not offending the season ticket holders, it's very attractive. That said, there are still many cities that are looking to line up for the NBA All-Star Game, but we're going to get a little more picky, because we've had more complaints -- not more complaints -- more sort of sensitivity to the selection of the location of the hotel, depending whether you were a retired player, an international guest, the team personnel, all of those things, that it's really quite wonderful to have as much good hotel stock as we have here in Las Vegas and is available in certain NBA cities, but certainly not all. Q. Can you clarify your concerns about gambling and the NBA if they have games on the books here? And secondly, can I ask you also a question on the Hardaway issue. By you sending Tim home, did you send a message to NBA players and other NBA-connected people that hateful comments cannot be tolerated and won't be? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Well, taking the first one, which is the easy one (laughter), I guess I would say that the NBA's position over the past 40 years or so has morphed with respect to gambling and betting. That's the good news. The bad news is that I was here for those 40 years. And where we have come out is that our fans, we believe, for the most part, despite the history and despite illegal gambling, which we know goes on, and despite the fact that, yes, a regulated industry is good, it ferrets out bad things, is that our fans for the most part, when they leave a game, if the home team has won, they're happy. They're not unhappy because it won but didn't cover the spread. And so we have evolved a position that says we'd like not to change the relationship of our fans and our game. It was consistently applied going back to 1990 -- I'm making it up -- 2 or 4, when then-Senator Bradley got legislation that prohibited sports betting in every jurisdiction that have it. It was applied when we expanded to Ontario and Vancouver when they eliminated the book -- they eliminated betting on -- they eliminated predicting outcomes of games on their lottery. We applied it when the Maloofs built The Palms. There's no sports -- there's no basketball betting. And we did it when the ITT Sheraton called The Garden and it was eliminated from Caesars. It was not this anti-gambling sort of pronunciamento, and it was not about the evils of criminality. And that's been our sort of expressed view on the subject. And frankly, as the march has occurred I think this is an issue that is ultimately for our owners to decide, especially given what is the prevalence of sports gambling on a global scale, legalized, and increasingly the 300 to 500 sites that you can do on-line. It's a very complex subject, but one that we want to be comfortable with understanding and discussing and that's why we actually, with the NCAA representative, for the former Government Attorney, with the Mayor, we had a Gambling Panel on our Technology Summit, because simply not to talk about it doesn't make any sense. So that's been the evolution of our policy. And people of goodwill do differ. On the Tim Hardaway subject, it was a reaction to those facts at that moment, which was somebody who was here representing the NBA said something that didn't make it appropriate for him to represent us. I applaud the First Amendment, anyone can say what they want to say, but they can't work for whoever they want to work for if that is inconsistent with what is going on or what that view is, in the context of just that. I don't want to make any rules or lay anything down. We just thought, given what we heard, the hateful speech, that we thought there was only one thing to do and that was to disassociate ourselves from it as quickly as we possibly could. And to send the message that it's not us. Stay tuned, I'm sure we haven't heard the end of it. I can tell you that we sort of in our Mission Statement, we say that the game is our passion and the game puts us in a position where we have to be leaders, we're obligated to be leaders in social responsibility. And in a funny kind of way even the dialogue which is ensuing from that is an interesting dialogue. And I would just remind everybody that there are some people in this room or probably their parents who held different views on race, religion, ethnicity. And as their parents grew or they grew they realized what was right and what was wrong and they were capable of evolving. I have reached out to Tim, I haven't connected yet, but I've talked to his agent and I'm trying to reach out to him. And as I've reached out to John Amaechi, we're missing each other, and so really I think maybe the NBA has another opportunity, as we did 15 years ago, when Magic Johnson scored that last three-point shot at the Orlando game, where we could tell the world that you couldn't get HIV from perspiration, even though a lot of people still believed that. And we didn't ask for it and we didn't ask for this. But here we are. Welcome to the NBA. Q. It seems like there's been an extraordinary number of injuries this year in the League to a number of key players. Is that something that you've looked into or are going to on any level? Does having played in the summer, have any affect on that and is that an issue? Of course the natural follow-up is, is this all caused by the synthetic ball (laughter)? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Or the synthetic floor or the synthetic Commissioner. We'll look into it. We haven't started anything yet. Our view is if you go down to Houston or UCLA or certain places, our players are bouncing the ball all summer. They're staying in shape. They're playing in charity games, they're doing lots of things. And so we've embraced the international play. You know, I think maybe we ought to develop a cap, a whole new idea that I've had rejected every time I've proposed it the last 20 years, have a minute cap on all the players. Every player has a certain number of minutes in their career, and we should manage that better. And that joke aside, or not such a joke, we feel as though we've learned something from the rest of the world; and that is that all of our international players have a passion to play for the national team. And we like that. And we've learned something from football, what you Americans call soccer, that there are great leagues, but there are great national team competitions, and it doesn't take anything away from the league to have these competitions, the World Cup, et cetera. And we like being part of the international community. But we'll analyze it, because we certainly don't want to put our players at extreme risk, but it's been an island of faith by our international players that they want to play for the National Team. At Athens, 10 of the 12 teams had NBA players. And at the Beijing Olympics, we think that six teams will have a majority of NBA rosters. France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, the U.S. who am I leaving out? A couple of Eastern European teams. It's really quite extraordinary. And so we think it enriches our game, and we're looking forward to being part of it. Q. I've got two questions. The first one is what's your thoughts in general about New Orleans hosting this event next year? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: What's my thoughts? We're looking forward to it. We've been checking on other conventions that have been housed there, hosted, and the reports have been very positive and upbeat. Our team will be playing there next season, but I don't want to be Pollyanna-ish. You read in the New York Times that people are -- yesterday's, I guess, front page of the Times -- not yesterday -- yes, I think it was yesterday, actually I've been here a long time. About people just tossing the towel in and leaving. And although sort of politics and government are not our beat, it sure would be nice to see a plan, almost unrelated to basketball, completely unrelated to basketball, to deal with the issues for the people of New Orleans that hasn't been dealt with. We want to be good citizens, but we'd like to see just something that takes care of the displaced people and a place that hasn't really made a lot of progress, because it really is not going to be that much fun to be there if progress hasn't been made, even though it won't affect our visitors. We think it's time to move past having this wonderful tourist ability, a great convention center, and a covered arena, and then you take your guests on tours of areas that have been devastated and where it seems like very, very little has been done. We don't understand it. But that doesn't stop us from being behind our Hornets, having worked with them to have a sponsorship lineup that is going to be better and larger than it was before they were displaced and working to have ticket sales that will be very robust. But that's going to be, to me, we'd love to be part of the rebirth and vibrancy of that community rather than something that is an exception to what's going on. Q. Do you have concerns about their long-term viability in New Orleans, considering what's going on there right now? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Well, you know, what we said to the folks in New Orleans was we are concerned that we would like not to come back and not be successful. And that's why we're putting in enormous efforts into the return of the team, to using All-Stars, to combine and have sales with and tickets and corporate sponsorships, Crescent City Partners. I've been down there. I've met with potential investors. I've met with potential sponsors. I've met with season ticket holders, Suite holders, you name it. I think we can probably make it work and we're very optimistic about that. But it doesn't make me feel so good when I go down there and see the inaction for the people in New Orleans. But we're not going to be part of the problem, we're going to be part of the solution, if there's a will in Louisiana and New Orleans to solve the issues. Q. You mentioned that you may want to have a conversation with Turner regarding Charles Barkley's public comments about his gambling. What might that conversation sound like? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: What's going through my head is, do you just say it's a private conversation between me and Turner or do you stick your foot in your mouth and go with the rest? Go ahead, take a vote, all right? What it might be like, as every one in the front row from the NBA says, "Oh, my God, here it goes." What it might go is along the lines of, is that even though we have a perfectly legal pursuit and no betting on our games, that maybe there comes a time when we should cap the conversation about losses and the like, as not sending a socially responsible message to our viewers and young fans. And I could be wrong. But it's just been sort of banging around in there and then I'm not sure that the conversation, as an adjunct to NBA games, makes me feel as good as I feel about how good the production is on TNT, how insight full it is to have Charles and Kenny and Ernie there, actually how much we enjoyed having Charles on that panel at the Tech Summit on the whole issue of how the game should be televised and how to go about miking the players, and how you could do it, because he's such an extraordinary asset to our game. I often kid that one of his beauties is that you never know what he's going to say. But of course then he doesn't know what he's going to say. And that's okay, too. But on this subject it just makes me a little uneasy. And that's a conversation that I think we'll have, as time goes on. Q. The situation in Seattle seems to be paralleling the one in Sacramento, and it appears that it's going to be headed for a public vote. What are your thoughts on such a sensitive topic going to a public vote, with Sacramento's track record; and if it does fail are you willing to step in and resuscitate the situation there as you are doing in Sacramento? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: No, I think that -- two different things. First of all, in California it's really hard to get anything passed, because the citizens have spoken. I think that Seattle is a much more mature situation. The new ownership has done so much, beyond what we could have hoped. They were very poorly treated at first. Everyone thought they were simply going to go in and wanted to move the team to Oklahoma City again. And they were disbelieved when they said they would like to keep it there. They've spent enormous sums of money and time and the like to come up with a plan, a funding plan. They've laid it out. They've got a site selected, et cetera. And it will either happen or it won't. We've been around this track a long time and I hope it happens because Seattle has been a very good city for the NBA and the Clay Bennett Group, I think, would be great, great, and will continue to be great owners for the Sonics. I don't see a role for me at this point. Q. Do you have any concern relative to Charles's comments that that could only be the tip of the iceberg. You've got young players, your players are relatively young men, making a lot of money, there's a certain vulnerability that goes along with their present posture? We hear anecdotally that there's lots of guys betting lots of money. COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: That's not fair to say that you hear anecdotally. Is there some specific allegation you'd like to make before the assembled group? Q. No. COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Then I don't want to respond. I'm too busy dealing with anonymous sources already. If there's something you'd like to bring to us, I think I'm showing you an honesty talking about your questions. And the fact of the matter is that we have young men that go to Atlantic City, go to Las Vegas, bet. There's nothing against it. We don't have any rules about it and I don't think any other sport has any other rules about it. And the idea that they're somehow sinning. How nice it might be to legislate morals for the world. That's not what's happening. And it wouldn't be very nice. So of course we have concerns about the care, feeding, and development of our young players. But we have many concerns across a broad variety of ways on subjects. And we spend a lot of time with them from the time they're rookies every year through the Team Awareness Meetings, the Business of Basketball Meetings. We will continue to grow it, to counsel them and to advise them and make their passage safe, we hope. But we have no over arching concerns about the anecdotes that you have heard. Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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