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NBA FINALS: LAKERS v CELTICSJune 8, 2008David SternBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Two THE MODERATOR: Thanks, everyone, for coming. The commissioner will open with some opening statements and then we'll take questions. COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: My opening statements will be short. There's nothing that you haven't heard before. We're coming off what we think is one of our best seasons in years, exciting young stars, exciting little older stars, exciting international players, terrific, terrific race in the West, pretty good race in the East, and surprising playoffs; East, at least in terms of the competitiveness, great playoffs in the West, and lo and behold we've had a great playoffs both ways. And No. 1 seeds, which is not uncommon, have made it through into The Finals. So the two teams with the best seeds are showing America what NBA basketball is about coast to coast. We're very excited. If there were additional highlights for me of the year, in addition to simply the quality of the basketball, the development of our players, it's really harkening back to All-Star, where New Orleans, sort of since All-Star which is the last time we gathered, has become a great story to tell. The combination of the NBA Cares effort to bring in all of our 2,000 guests and partners to do something for that town, together with the winning record of the team, make it considerably more likely than not that that team, resurgent as it is, is going to be a very long and successful stay in New Orleans, which makes this particularly rewarding for us. We had an NBA Cares event here on Friday. We're going to have one next week in LA. It's what we do, it's who we are, with our players, with our NBA family members, and it's a pretty exciting time of year all around, but most importantly, it's exciting because of the basketball. And we've been talking a lot of basketball, and I'm here to answer your questions about basketball and non-basketball issues. So thanks for being interested, and ask me anything. Q. I wonder if you could talk about with the rookie salary cap and players coming from Europe, we're kind of hitting a new situation where players can actually make more in Europe than they can under the rookie salary cap in the States, and it seems to be preventing some teams from getting players that they've drafted over here. Is that a worry for the league? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: No, I don't think so. In most cases that is not accurate. Q. Well, we had a situation just with Tiago Splitter obviously, for example. COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Sometimes it's hard to know with our team whether they're not just as happy to have a player complete his contract, develop until exactly the right time. I've seen Mr. Splitter play in the European Final Four. He's a heck of a player. I'm sure he currently -- he's under contract for another year, isn't he? He signed a new contract. You know, there are plenty of players who have decided that it would be, Frederic Weis comes to mind, that it would be better to stay, play a shorter season and do what they're going to do. So I think your generalization of that is not exactly accurate. But we're not concerned about that. If players actually stay in Europe because they can earn more, that's fine. We think that European basketball, which we try to support, might be the better for it, and that's good. Q. Can you bring us up to date on the annual seeding question. COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: The annual seeding question. You know, there was no particular interest in discussing it at the Competition Committee, but we told the Competition Committee we were going to bring it up again at the governor's meeting in October when we -- since it's a preseason, anything that the Board wants to do with respect to next season can be accomplished there, and we'll bring it up again. There seems to be no great support for changing the seeding process at all, and we're, in this case, happy to hear from our teams and put anything on the agenda that they would like to. Q. Is there any news about expansion plans in Europe? And if so, what is the news? And if not, why not? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Is there one question or is there another one coming? Q. That would be it (laughter). COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Okay, there are no current plans for expansion. Right now our basketball plans in Europe are Nets and Heat in Paris and London in October, and Wizards and Hornets in Berlin and Barcelona and London. But looking at it the long way, a year ago we played in London, which had an NBA-ready arena, and it was a great experience and we're going back. And this year we're going to be playing in Berlin, which has an NBA-ready arena. And I would say over the next several years as those arenas get to be more NBA-ready, the dialogue will heat up. But we have no current plans. Q. If the Seattle situation is resolved and they're moving and that's over, what do you see as the next step towards getting some team back there? Or is it possible that there may not be another team in Seattle? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Well, I think that Seattle has been a terrific market for us, great fans. Unfortunately they weren't able to marshal timely support for a building of the future. But that doesn't change the way we feel about Seattle in a positive way. But we don't have any specific plans for replacing the team. But that doesn't preclude us from revisiting Seattle at a later date. I don't know, no specific plans, but good feelings about Seattle. I guess I would say, come back and see how we feel after the trial, but we'll see how that goes. Q. With the Olympics in China this year, I was wondering if you could talk about just how popular the NBA has become in China. Are you surprised at how popular it's become? And could you say was there a certain year that the NBA decided to really focus on China? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Thanks for the question (smiling). The year we decided to focus on China was 1985 when we invited the Chinese national team over here to be our guests, and we actually had them tutored, I think it was. We hired Ed Badger, a name from the past, as their coach, Wes Unseld, Red Auerbach, lots of visits, and indeed the team played, in a preliminary to Boston somebody at the Hall of Fame, they played the Cleveland Cavaliers, and we have the footage to prove it. And over the years we've just kept our relationship going. I'd say that we really came into a sport that had been an Olympic sport since 1936, and China sent a team to the Olympics in 1936. I was more interested in finding out not how they did, but they did finish 16 out of 22, but how they got there. And I think it's by ship. So they've had a high degree of interest in the Olympics and in basketball since early in the 20th Century. I think that Yao Ming and Yi have created interest, but even as both of those have been injured and slowed down during the year, we monitored China media and it's extraordinary to see the interest, to see the fact that you could cut it both ways. Yao's jersey is not No. 1, but that might be because everyone has one already. So they're now going out and getting Kobe and Yi and Allen Iverson and LeBron, but it's up there. We have 51 different TV deals, and we're closing in on not only having the arena, the Olympic basketball arena, which we've been involved with, which is very much NBA up to standards, but we hope to have other arena announcements soon and an agreement that would cause more buildings to be built. So it's as popular as ever, and we're really looking forward to its development further in a very cooperative way. Q. With this rivalry, the Celtics-Lakers, it brings to mind a lot of the series of the '80s, and I recall that play where Mr. McHale clotheslined Mr. Rambis in Game 4 of the '84 series. How would you have dealt with that had that happened today? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I think there might have been some games lost by the player involved. We have, over the years, made a determination that the sport is really quite beautiful and quite graceful and quite extraordinary, and that our players are capable of inflicting great harm on each other if we don't regulate it. And through the rules that have ejection, if you throw a punch, whether you connect or not, through the rules that suspend players for coming off the bench, for the rules that have Flagrant Fouls 1 and 2, those represent our determination that we would not be responsible for either allowing or condoning or generally sort of turning a blind eye to an increase in violence in our game. Q. Another China question: LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have recently spoken out publicly about the situation in Darfur and how that relates to China, and it's going to be a topic that comes up again over the summer before we go over there. I wanted to ask you, where do you stand on that issue yourself personally? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I am here not as a personal person but as the commissioner of the NBA, and my view is that people like our players are free to speak out and have their views. They've been encouraged to have those views by the USOC and the IOC, and I think that's where it should properly be. Q. After the earthquake disaster took place in China, I know the League has donated lots of money and stuff to China, but are there any further action taken by the League like the possibility of having a charity game in China or bring back the Basketball without Borders back to China? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Yes. Well, we immediately made contributions, provided website directions, did promotions with Yao Ming to step up and help with this terrible tragedy. I think we're now looking to see whether we can squeeze in a Basketball without Borders to raise more money or other exhibition games, but clearly in conjunction with two games that we hope to stage in China in October in Hangzhou and in Beijing. We will be amplifying our efforts of earthquake relief. This is a terrible tragedy, and the NBA wants to be solidly on the side of all those who are helping to have our friends in China dig out from this terrible situation. Q. I wanted to know if you could analyze the role of Gasol and the other Spanish players in the NBA. And I also want to know if it's had any noticeable impact on the Hispanic audience for the NBA. COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Well, we do best of all the leagues against the young Hispanic audience. That's what our research tells us. I think that audience likes the speed and style of our game. I can't sit here knowing for sure that Calderón, Garbajosa, Gasol and others, I think the starting Spanish Olympic team, all of them were NBA players. I do know that it enriches our league greatly, that the number of international players in our league at the highest possible level have had a real impact. And I think interestingly enough that our Spanish fans, it depends where they live because they're interested in their hometown team, and indeed sometimes they root against the Spanish players if they don't represent their hometown. And that's the wonderful thing about sports and about the openness of our fans; they want to know does a player have game, can he play, and they embrace him wherever he comes from. That's a big deal, and I think that's a place where sports has an important role to play, and we're proud that the NBA plays it. But Spain, I think Spain and Argentina, in addition to the U.S., are going to start NBA teams of five NBA players, I could be a little bit off, and I guess China will start likely three if you include Wang Zhizhi, so it's a pretty exciting time for us, but really because of the incredible richness of our game because of the international players. Q. After the Competition Committee meetings there were reports that there was going to be penalties for flopping next year. I had read somewhere -- COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Are those unauthorized reports from the Competition Committee based upon ruminations by the commissioner? There's no action taken, you understand that. Q. Yes. COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: So what do you want to know? I think it's a bad thing. It's not a good thing. I'm not sure how you exactly deal with it. FIBA has a rule that's not much enforced. We know football has -- soccer has a rule. I don't think it's the most -- it's not the best part of our game, because it's either designed to fool the official or to make the crowd think that the official did a bad thing by not giving him a call. So we're struggling with exactly how the best way to deal with it, if at all. But, you know, I'm allowed, as this is my 25th Finals, I'm allowed to say that we've got to do something about flopping and we have to do something about fireworks at games (laughter). The fireworks have been much more popular with the media than the flopping, but you have to say something at press conferences as you go around, and so those are my two topics for the playoff season. But I dare say we'll talk to the board about it. We did make one rule, okay; no matter what you do pregame, it is a very important that the fans, the players and the television audience be able to see the court when the game starts. That's my line in the sand, okay? And we're going to enforce that very strictly. And it hasn't always been enforced, so we're there. But beyond that, we're trying to find something that does not change the essential exciting nature, et cetera, but maybe there's something to do with noise versus fire. We want to be as welcoming as we can to the broad array of ways that our teams like to entertain their fans. And indeed, really the question is how the fans like to be entertained, and that's what we're trying to find out. Q. Yesterday it came up, Doc was asked about the 2-3-2 format, and he made the comment that, we won 66 games to get the home-court advantage, and Game 5 is on the Lakers' court, and he pointed out that in the Celtics' playoff run, they've won, well, three critical Game 5s here. Any comment coming on the -- COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Yeah, I think we have to do a little research on it, because I think under 2-3-2, I think that the team with the better record has won The Finals about 60 percent of the time. I don't know if that's good or bad. To me that's not so bad. I don't think it's about Game 5, it's about how do you do under the format. And this tends to be a pretty even format. I guess if it's only 60 percent of the time. Is it higher? Is it 75 percent of the series? Okay, 60 percent of the games, 75 percent of the time. So it's even higher. I misspoke. So I don't know. You could talk about all of the incantations about Game 5, Game 7, but if you have a 75 percent win rate for the team with the better record, I don't know what else to say about it. I will say, and I guess if you wait long enough everything comes around, there were two reasons that I think we went to 2-3-2; one, although he's not here to defend himself and deny it, I tell you that Red said to me back in '84, this is too much; play, travel, play, travel, play, travel. In subsequent years he said it was terrible that we changed it to 2-3-2, but a young commissioner was motivated by the father of us all. And number two, we thought with the three-game format in the middle, we could induce media to cover us. And guess what; it may be that sports is back again to that, as every media cuts back on coverage, Stanley Cup, World Series, not the Super Bowl, that's one thing. It may be that we'll look fondly to those media that will make the exceptions to their cutbacks as they do buyouts and lay-offs and analysis of how many pages each journalist is responsible for doing, that they'll say, what the heck, we'll send one reporter out to the three games in the second site. So that's it. Everything is open. We'll take it up if the board wants to do it. We're not married to that. Q. How set in stone are the 9:00 o'clock starts in the future? And if they are, how much concern is there over kids who have bedtimes? Like I can think of three at home who have bed times at 8:30 who can't see any of the games. COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Nothing is set in stone. We wrestle with it because if the idea is to let the largest audience see the game, including youngsters, there's no doubt that at 11:30 Eastern, that's when the largest audience is gathered in. We get the quarter hours -- you wouldn't think that. And second of all, we're wrestling with a time where if you take ESPN.com, Yahoo, NBA.com, FoxSports.com, CBSsportsline.com, we're literally having billions of visits a year to those sites and hundreds of millions of downloads of video streaming and we're spending a lot of time focusing on the kids that are very much involved in that and video games and the like, so we wrestle with it. I was excoriated on Boston radio for this issue, and having thought about it, it wouldn't be a terrible thing to have a Sunday night game at 7:00 o'clock, but our network partners tell us that your ratings will be lower, and to me that isn't just about selling air time, that means that you'll have a lower audience count, and why would you want to have a lower audience count? So that's the dilemma that we face. But it's not set in stone. It's something that we're prepared to look at on a continuing basis. Q. On the subject of media cutbacks, and it's nice to see you're concerned about our livelihood -- COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: We are. We worry about the intensity of our coverage. Q. On the subject of media competition, in the last ten years or since the end of the Jordan/Chicago era, the coming of Tiger has created a bit of a huge event at the US Open this time of year, whereas before the NBA Finals had a window where it was really the only championship event. Are you concerned about that? And in a larger scope, as the world gets more and more connected, now we have Euro 2008 on ESPN for the next couple weeks, is that a concern that a championship event like yours could get a little diluted in terms of the competition at this time of year? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: No. I'll tell you, we look at it, who covers the US Open? It's ABC, isn't it? NBC covers the US Open. To us we look at it and we really -- we're programmed away from it indeed, and we like sporting events to do well. We think that that's good for us. The fact that the NHL had a good Stanley Cup we think is a positive for all sports. The fact that the Super Bowl holds up -- we worry that all sporting events over the past several years have had a decline in their big events, and to see that reversing, where it was reversed this year in the Stanley Cup, it has been reversed in our playoffs, in our Conference Finals in double digits, and it's going to be reversed in our Finals in double digits, we would like to see all sporting events do better. That's really not a concern for us at all. And as we do become more global, and we see more and larger audiences aggregating. We understand the Euro in Switzerland, which is taking place, but we think that we get fans in a sports mind, and that's good for us. So we're okay. And our fans have an enormous way and intriguing way of finding us out as our games are both televised and streamed, and we seem to be connecting to more and more fans with our game. We like sports to do well. Q. In the Conference Finals there was a play where Brent Barry was fouled by Derek Fisher, and the League came out the next day and said that the call should have been made. Generally do you feel that it's more important to set the record straight or do you worry about undercutting your officials by coming out the next day and pointing out their errors? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: The League didn't come out the next day. The League made a terrible mistake. It gave an honest answer to an honest question. Q. So is that something that in the future will be done? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: See? Serves us right (laughter). Yes, yes, if we're asked something on a key play. And by the way, that doesn't undercut the officials at all. We spoke to the officials in question before we did it, and it actually isn't about one official, it's about the reality today that with the benefit of 18 different angles and slow-mo, there are things that you can know that are unknowable in the speed of the game. And if everybody knows it, it doesn't seem like a great idea for us to deny it. So we're not going to go crazy on the subject, but we are going to try to be more direct on it and more open so that what everybody knows, we can acknowledge; that's all. Certainly it was not meant to undercut anybody, and I think that -- it's kind of interesting to me, it's sort of like we don't say anything, we're covering up; we say something, we're undercutting. I accept the fact that we can't win on that one, but we're going to give -- we're not going to go rushing out to give everyone the box score, correct, incorrect, correct, incorrect, although we have it, and we do it for every game. But on something like that where people are asking the question on a very important play, we gave an honest answer to a direct question. But we didn't rush out and hold a press conference on it. Q. There's been a lot of reminiscing about these two teams back in The Finals, and that '84 Finals coincided with your tenure as commissioner. What memory does that bring back for you? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: You know, I thought that if it was June, you're supposed to go from LA to Boston and back again. It was the old Garden, the fabulous Forum, the differences in the crowds, the difference in the ambience. I just was like a kid. And I can remember, I guess, being at a Marriott having something to eat with Red Auerbach after a game. I mean, to me it was like, it doesn't get any better than this; look at my job. It was very exciting. That was in '84, and '85 I guess then it was Houston-Boston, and I remember calling up at yelling at somebody because they glamorized Jerry Sichting going after Ralph Sampson, If I'm not getting my Finals... I don't have it all, like, locked down. To me that takes away from enjoying it, and I just focused on how exciting the basketball was and how the world was paying a lot of attention to the NBA. And by the way, in 1983, I guess I may be confusing it, the '83-'84 season was actually a season in which we only had -- I could be wrong by a year, could have been '84-'85, but I think it was '83-'84, but we only had like three CBS games scheduled for the whole season, so it was not a time of splendiferous attendance or focus, and ESPN probably had 10 million homes and regional sports networks maybe had 20 million, and so it was very much our world, despite the fact that we now think that everyone was watching. It was a good time, though, because it was Larry and Magic, but it was also -- and people tend to forget about it, there were Hall of Fame teams at that period of time. To me that's the extraordinary thing, that the Celtics and the Lakers had managed to gather up these Hall of Fame teams. I'm not sure you realized it then, but as the years went on, you began to realize and ask yourself, will that ever happen again, as the league has continued to expand and as it's harder to gather in that kind of talent on a roster. So it was a heady time for the NBA. But the good old days sometimes were not quite as good as people say they are, and these may be the good new days, and the richness of talent, the 75 international players that we didn't have available to us in 1984, all of the young talent that's coming in. I'm a fan, and I think it's as good as it's ever been. Q. Have you made any contact or communication with the courts regarding a recommendation or an opinion regarding the sentencing of Tim Donaghy? COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: The answer to that is yes, I believe, but only to the extent of correcting certain what we thought were errors in his attorney's letter about what the NBA may have done or didn't do. In other words, we wanted the court to know we had no influence whatever on the investigation of the co-defendants. It was suggested that we had, and in fact we were very much at arm's length. So other than correcting the record that might have been set by that letter and indicating that we were, in fact, damaged monetarily, because that's one of the restitution issues, that's it. We didn't go deeper and recommend a particular sentence or not. End of FastScripts |
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