Saw the thread about him stepping down, and didn't want to hijack that one, so thought I'd start a new one. I'm not a big fan of his, but also don't hate him like I know so many do. Am curious what people's biggest complaints of him are. Especially compared to other sport commissioners. What did he or does he do wrong, what should have been done differently?
I don't like the direction that the NBA went under his direction. It became all about the superstars and not about teams. It became all about dunks and highlights and not about fundamentals. He made huge stars out of Michael Jordan, Shaq, and Kobe, but what happened to the game? It became all about big markets and superstar players, which has really killed the game for me personally. You can't watch a series like the LA/Sac series and tell me that's not coming from up top. It's a rigged sport and it's all about money, not the purity of the game. Fuck David Stern.
Appointing Clay Bennett as the head of the NBA Relocation Committee comes to mind... This smells like a troll thread though, the answers are so obvious...
All sports are about money, don't kid yourself. Do you think under a different commissioner, it would not have become about superstars? I feel like that ball began rolling before he came aboard. Magic and Bird were ushering in that era, and were already in college. Their title game was all about Bird versus Magic, not Indiana State versus Michigan State, no? I don't doubt he encouraged it, to gain the sport popularity(success) and make money(success). But was it not already starting, and would it have been different under anyone else?
I don't hate him. But what I've leaned is that the NBA was a drug infested wasteland with no TV deals when he took over. Now look at it........
While the NFL has created parity (and thus a much better product), Stern has created a league of haves and have-nots.
Yes, every business is about money, but you don't see the NFL or MLB steering games to get the big markets into the championship. It's about how the Stern regime marketed the sport, how they built the rules to favor the superstar wings, and how they instructed their refs to baby the Shaq's, the Kobe's, and the LeBron's of the game. You don't see the NFL doing that. Green Bay has to be one of the smallest markets in pro sports, but that doesn't stop them from going to the Super Bowl. We have no idea who will win the Super Bowl this year. None. There are a number of teams good enough to win, from different sized cities. That's what makes the NFL so great.
But the NFL is such a different sport than basketball is. It's so much easier in the NBA for one player to have a great affect on a team. It's also a lot easier, with a minimal amount of games, to have a TV deal the size of the one the NFL does, to create a huge revenue sharing pot. ESPN, Fox, and CBS aren't going to give the NBA that same amount of money, that they can split evenly.
stern 1. strict: rigid, strict, and uncompromising 2. forbidding: grim, austere, or severity of nature or manner
I liked Stern. He grew the product and was a gutsy, non apologetic dictator. I think he started losing it in the last year or two. Got too old.
Would maybe be better if the NBA controlled each team's separate tv deal, as well as their own, perhaps? So that the billion dollar deal LA signs and the much smaller one we sign would go to help all teams.
Yes, it's easier for one player to have a great affect on a game, BUT the NBA has exacerbated that by making the refs coddle the superstars with bullshit calls. Would LeBron, Wade, or Durant be as dominant as they are without the refs? They'd still be really good, but I don't think they'd affect the game nearly as much as they do. It completely changes how you can defend someone when you can barely touch them. Also, a good example is that Shaq was allowed to get away with bloody murder in his prime. The guy would literally knock people out of his way to dunk the basketball. He'd take a minimum of four steps, including a bunny hop to get to the hoop. Watching Shaq made me hate the NBA and everything that Stern stood for. I'm still bitter about that shit. If I was Sacramento I would have never gone to another NBA game again after they were robbed like they were.
and regards to MLB, I know it's gotten better, but as a Braves fan, I remember Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz always getting a little bit more favorable of a strike zone than nobodies.
8 franchises have won championships in the last 29 years. That's why the NBA is a bad product - and there's no question Stern's decisions and leadership have helped to fuel that.
I think there's always going to be a slight favor to the superstars. I remember when Jerry Rice was still playing, if he would make a motion to the refs, he would generally get a pass interference call on the DB, but that was a rare thing. Nothing like what a Shaq, Jordan, or LeBron gets with the NBA refs. The biggest difference between the NBA and the other major sports is that there's only 10 guys on the floor at a time. Completely different from the 22 football players on the field, or the 18 on a baseball field. Plus, it's much more personal. They aren't wearing helmets, and it feels like we're right in the middle of the drama on the court. It allows us to feel more connected to the players when we can see the emotions that are playing out. Because of that, I think we identify with these guys more. It allows for more drama.
Don't you think that this here leads more to the game being about superstars than anything Stern did? Unless he was to make them wear helmets or masks, or add 10 more guys to the floor?
