I'll tell you who my first choice would be for a new commissioner...Mark Cuban. His business track record speaks for itself. He's implored the NBA office to make improvements since he took over the Dallas Mavericks but his requests have fallen on deaf ears. He simply wants the game to be called the right way. If you think it's crazy to have an owner step up to become a league's commissioner I would refer you to Bud Selig. the commissioner of Major League Baseball. Cuban is the only owner who tried to step up and challenge David Stern.
A lot of admitted cocaine use all around the league..... continued on into the early 80s. Also the TV deal was non existent. Finals games were tape delayed and cut short. No money was being made off of merch. Not a well run business. Stern, whether you like him or not turned that shit around.
Options of stuff to do? Yeah, we have plenty of things to do here. And you can watch all sorts of sports on tv and online. I don't get why someone would follow a sport if they thought it was all fixed. It makes no sense to me.
I meant, we don't have a lot of options for professional sports. We have the Timbers... but the MLS isn't on the same level as NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL. If we had hockey or baseball, I'd probably throw myself into that, but as it stands I really only have the Ducks and that ends in December. With that said, I don't think the NBA is scripted like wrestling. There are no rehearsals. I do think that Stern will prolong a series to make more money, and that is what bothers me. The Kings/Lakers is a perfect example. That was back when the east was fucking terrible, and he knew the WCF was going to be the real Finals that year, so he needed to make his money. He couldn't have the Kings knocking LA out in five, or whatever it was, so he threw a couple games so it would go seven. It's all about making money. He does promote and coddle stars, so in that regard it's very much like wrestling. Why do I keep watching? Probably mostly out of habit. I've been a Blazers fan since I was a little kid. I'm not nearly as big a fan as I was when I was younger though.
For readers here who wonder how Stern directs referees, influencing game outcomes, I linked to an article a few months ago in which the League Office said they would have the Chief of Referees go over some issue in his daily briefing which he gives to all his subordinates (by phone, fax, e-mail, whatever). This is how they trickle down the daily marching orders to refs as to how to call the games of that day. Millions of Americans watch wrestling, knowing it's scripted. No one is saying the NBA games are scripted, just that referees know which players are on the League Office's shit list, and which preferred teams would make the League more money if they won a playoff series.
Exactly. It's not like Stern sits down and decides that Michael Jordan will hit a three pointer with 4:38 left in the third quarter, but there are certain players that the refs are instructed to favor, and certain teams that get most of the calls. If you want to call that scripted, so be it, but the NBA wasn't always like this. It has only gotten worse and worse as the years have gone by. I think originally a player would become a star naturally.... organically..... now stars are made. They are cultivated and polished and protected by the league.
In 1973, the national games changed from ABC (Saturday morning, I think) to CBS (Sunday afternoon, with football games on other channels). ABC had had guys like Chris Schenkel doing a serious narration, but CBS made the game into a comedy. An unfunny one. These stupid distractions made football and other fairweather fans lose their curiosity about watching basketball, lowering the ratings. The play by play guy tried to laugh and get his color man to laugh. Bill Russell (after the Sonics let him go) had an infectious laugh. Then they added Brent Musburger, who was a little more serious. The worst thing of all was halftime. Among other idiot timewasters yucking it up, former Miss America Phyllis George knew nothing about basketball. She lay on a beach chair laughing about nothing, showing off her loud personality. She was miles away, not in the arena. It was so bad that viewers would turn the channel at halftime and not return, lowering the ratings more. The Director or network vice presidents or whoever was in charge finally wised up to what I'd been saying for years, and changed to a serious tone, like local broadcasts had been doing all along. Ratings returned to the ABC days. The return to seriousness and drama happened around when Stern took over in the early 80s. He had NOTHING to do with it. Neither did Magic or Bird. (Another reason for late 70s low ratings was that smaller markets like Portland, Seattle, Washington were winning the championships.) Why does no media researcher compare LOCAL broadcast ratings, before and after Stern? Averaging all teams would be a much better sample size than just one carrier, and make the conclusion more immune to the vagaries in style of one carrier, CBS. Stern created the legend that he had raised the ratings. (Can you Stern fans please explain how he did this?) How? All writers on NBA.com must be approved by him. They worship him, though not as much as the Oregonian did Pritchard. The league started a film division and the films pushed Stern's false Dark Ages history. There was nothing dark about the late 70s. The Northwestern teams were both at their peaks, compared to either before or since.
The NBA in the late 70s was fine. They had a contract with CBS, though mostly I saw Lakers vs. Celtics games even back then. I don't know where you get the league was drug infested. If anything, the fact the league required guys to graduate college before joining the league kept some amazing talent from making it to the NBA, though many did make it ultimately via the ABA/NBA merger. In the 70s, we saw David Thompson (North Carolina) block Bill Walton's shots in tournament games, then go on to be a superstar in the ABA. We heard about this guy named Julius Erving who had this unimaginable array of moves, but we only got to see a video clip of him once in a blue moon. The NBA had the big contract with the network, the ABA couldn't get one. And Erving was typical of the "Player" vs. team. People paid to see him do his thing, but probably cared a lot less about the team he was on. But I think Wilt was pretty much Player vs. team, too. Same with Kareem. Those guys were before Magic and Bird.
