David Stern regrets Jim Rome interview

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Jun 272012
 

David Stern hit some hot water during the Playoff in an interview with Jim Rome. Rome, in his ever-confrontational, smack-driven way, asked Stern how he would respond to those fans and observers who suspect the league rigs the lottery to get a result it wants.
Few are able to spar with Stern and come out looking victorious. Stern is well known for his quick wit and seemingly self-depricating responses to loaded questions. What he said to Rome when asked about the Draft Lottery was not funny and poorly illustrated his point. A rare slip up for the alway politically correct commissioner of the NBA.
Stern was on the radio in Washington, D.C. on Monday, admitting he did not handle the question well at all.
“You know, I would do it again differently if I were asked the question,” Stern said on Mike Wise’s radio show in Washignton. “What can I tell you? I’m like LeBron. You get a day older, and you hope you get wiser rather than just older.”
Rome asked a …

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NBA Finals 2012: A Laker Fan’s Perspective

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Jun 222012
 

I can pinpoint the exact moment I changed my mind about LeBron James: it was late in Game 4 of the NBA Finals as he was kneeling on the sideline desperately trying to will himself back into the game after suffering debilitating cramps. They’d been working on him with ice and pouring Gatorade down his gullet like they were refueling a racecar at a pitstop. It wasn’t really working but LeBron was crouched down waiting to get back in, his face a mixture of anxious worry and fear. Off camera someone obviously urged him to drink some more fluids. 

“I can’t drink no more.” 

It wasn’t a dismissive jerk athlete yelling at a trainer, rather a plaintive soul baring a cry of desperation.  He looked like he was on the brink of cracking up.  It perfectly captured everything:  the man child let down by the one thing he could always rely on – his supremely conditioned NBA body.  What must have gone through his mind at that moment? 

“How?  How can this be happening?  After all this hard work?  After finally getting it about not coasting?  After watching relentless Russell Westbrook playing out of his mind and then matching his intensity?  And the inevitable headlines flashing in his head– LeBron James collapses again in the fourth.  He can’t finish.” 

But LeBron willed himself to keep going and his three pointer on one leg will stand as his signature shot.  The one where he changed the narrative. 

Narrative.  LeBron James has spent a long time letting other people control the narrative. 

Michael Wilbon tells us LBJ has been reading a lot lately.  That’s a good thing.  And maybe it has helped LeBron.  Exposed him to some different points of view.  Made him reflect and understand that just because Nike says you’re the chosen one doesn’t mean the fans agree.  Wally Szczerbiak said the other night on Jim Rome’s show that LBJ is a people pleaser.  That explains a lot.  Like how he was so caught off guard by the negative reaction to the Decision and the forklift press conference.  And how his responses to all the criticism ranged from a hurt puppy to a defiant child. 

 

Fact or fiction, books tell stories.  They teach us things, and help us put our own struggles and journeys into perspective.  In my opinion, up until last year, LeBron’s basketball career had none of that.  In his defense, how could it have?  He’s a preternaturally gifted athlete who’s been fawned over and given special treatment for most of his life.  When that’s all you know, that’s all you know.

But as a pro athlete, it’s not just about you.  It’s about the fans too.  I say this all the time:  Ownership may sign your check, but the fans pay your salary.  You cannot take them for granted or alienate them, or they won’t show up.  You know what basketball is without the fans?  Practice.  Nobody’s giving out shoe contracts for practice.

For the fans, it’s not about all the swag and the bling, all the hoochiemamas and the bottle service.  If we’re going to spend our time and hard earned money paying to watch you play and wear your logos on our bodies, we just ask one thing in return:  effort. 

The Heat have spent way too much time the past two years coasting.  It came home to roost in last year’s Finals.  Dallas came to play.  They gave effort and fought through adversity.  Maybe now both James and Wade understand what an affront to the basketball gods their snickering at Dirk Nowitzki playing sick was.  Not so funny in retrospect.  Dirk showed you what a champion looked like.  It is supremely ironic that LeBron’s body failed him in Game 4. 

The Heat crashed and burned last year. Icarus is the obvious parallel.  Fill in your own Heat related pun. 

As Lakers fans, we know all about effort because we have the (purple and) gold standard here in Los Angeles:  Kobe Bryant.  Love him or hate him, you must respect that.  And respect for effort is never given, it’s earned.  Always.  That’s a big reason why Lakers fans are uneasy about the mantle of franchise leader eventually passing to Andrew Bynum.  He acts a little entitled and doesn’t always give max effort.  Sound familiar?

 

So Miami triumphed and LeBron proved something to the haters and most importantly to himself.  He’s a champion now and no one can ever take that away.  The Thunder deserve praise too.  They played hard.  Their time will come.  In fact, the Lakers will be battling these two (and a few other Western Conference contenders) in the foreseeable future.

What the Heat found out last year is a super team in and of itself doesn’t work.   You’re not entitled to a title.  You have to earn it. 

And when you do sometimes that means the new narrative is redemption.

Congratulations Miami Heat – now you can bask in the glory.   This time you earned it.

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Why NBA Would Be Unwise to Penalize Flopping

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Jun 192012
 

Flopping has started to become a major issue in the NBA, particularly during the playoffs when the stakes are highest. Players throw their bodies around without much contact at all, acting not in hopes of receiving an Emmy, but rather drawing a whistle and picking up an extra foul against their opponents. 

Frankly, I’m amazed we haven’t seen the rare double-flop since LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and James Harden all like to act so much. 

Presumably as a result of the embarrassment on the court and the constant griping of NBA fans and teams, David Stern brought up the issue during a committee meeting and suggested that retroactive penalties could be levied against those who flop. 

Stern has made some bad moves lately, namely asking Jim Rome if he had stopped beating his wife, this would be the worst move of all, setting the stage for so many more complaints against his dictatorial power of the league. 

While flopping is indeed a problem, retroactive penalties aren’t the solution. There needs to be some sort of statute of limitations on minor things like trying to draw extra fouls.

It’s one thing to hand down suspensions after the fact when a player elbows someone in the temple or goes into the stands to punch a fan. It’s another thing to do the same when a player does no damage to anything or anyone other than their own pride and reputation.

Acting is part of the game. Don’t act so surprised. Players have always tried to milk things and receive the benefit of the doubt.

If we’re going to penalize players for flopping, we also need to penalize them for not telling the official, “Hey man, that ball actually hit off of me. It’s the other team’s ball.” Isn’t that the same thing? In both situations, the players are concealing the truth to gain an advantage for their squad.

Moreover, how do you decide what is a flop and what isn’t? It’s too difficult to come up with any hard and fast rules, meaning that everything would be entirely subjective.

If LeBron drives into the lane and takes contact before flailing his arms wildly to sell the call, is that a flop? Or does the rule only apply if there was no contact and he tried to act like there was?

Eliminating subjectivity is important, but a rule like this would just be promoting after-the-fact subjectivity.

Until I hear a better system, I can’t agree with any penalties, even though I do acknowledge that flopping is a black eye on the sport.  

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Stern pressed again about draft lottery

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Jun 182012
 

Last week, NBA commissioner David Stern took our attention away from the remarkable success of his league’s shortened season and exciting playoffs when he nailed Jim Rome with a loaded question when asked if the NBA was fixed. “I know that you appreciate a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy,” asked Rome. “Was the fix in for the lottery?” Responded Stern, “I have two answers for that. The simple easy one, no, the second, a statement, shame on you for asking.”
Stern could have stopped there, but he pressed the issue by asking Rome, “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” And mouth-breathers everywhere, not knowing what a loaded question is, were like, “LOLWUT? Jim Rome beats his wife???” Of course he doesn’t, and once again the diabolical Oz hid behind the curtain.
So was Stern a little more behaved when Michael Wilbon asked a similar question during halftime of last night’s exciting Game 3 o…

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Top Five Reasons that Fans Believe the NBA is Fixed (Yahoo! Contributor Network)

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Jun 152012
 

Talk show host Jim Rome and NBA commissioner David Stern made headlines recently when they got into an on-air altercation about whether the NBA Draft is (or ever was) rigged. Stern clearly took offense to the question, and challenged Rome in order to make a point. Rome also seemed to take offense to Stern’s response, but what is all the fuss about? This is not a new accusation. Here are five reasons that some fans continue to believe that the NBA is rigged.

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The 8 Dumbest Controversies in the 2012 NBA Playoffs

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Jun 142012
 

We can’t get through an entire NBA postseason without having some sort of controversy, right?

It seems to always happen in basketball, more times than any other sport. There are so many storylines developing from seemingly every team that you have to find at least one or two instances of something worth talking about.

Commissioner David Stern certainly added some fuel to that fire on Wednesday with some questionable comments to Jim Rome. Outside of him, we’ve also had some quotables from a certain Los Angeles Lakers’ center, a press conference debacle and even some beverage being thrown upon the head of an NBA player by a disgruntled fan.

However, the purpose of this article isn’t to blow up these controversies anymore than they already were, but rather to tone them down and look at them without jumping to immediate conclusions. The problem with a few of these controversies are the fact that they come as a result of people jumping to conclusions just to get a story out of it.

We’ll explore eight of these controversies that have taken place during the postseason, and I’ll describe just why they’re not really worth talking about it as much as some would like.

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Jim Rome, David Stern Interview: Stern’s Rant to Rome Embarassing for NBA

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Jun 142012
 

Let’s play a game. In one corner, we’ll have a 19-year-old baseball phenom who is tearing his sport to shreds right now. In the other, we’ll have a 69-year-old commissioner of one of the most popular sporting leagues in the world.

Now, we’ll ask both a question that toes the line of journalistic etiquette and see which one explodes.

If you picked 19-year-old phenom Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals, that’s a clown answer, bro.

If you picked the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, you deserve a cookie.

That’s because David Stern was asked by sports talk radio show host, Jim Rome, whether the NBA Draft Lottery was rigged. Stern’s response to Rome was interesting: “Uh, you know, I have two answers for that, I’ll give you the easy one—no—and a statement: Shame on you for asking.”

After a bit of back and forth between Rome and Stern in which Rome defended himself for asking the question, Stern fired back with, “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?”

Before I go after Stern, I do want to say that I felt like Rome was baiting Stern to get a juicy sound bite(which he wound up getting, by the way).

As Stern mentioned later in their interview, Rome has made a career off that and it’s a good bet that was the motive of asking that question. For that, point Stern.

On the other hand, it is a fair question for Rome to ask. People do think the lottery is rigged, and people do think there’s a conspiracy. Even Charles Barkley, one of the top voices of the NBA, voiced concern over the process.

Accusing leagues and teams of conspiracies is how sports fans work when their team doesn’t win something. As a Timberwolves fan, I’ve heard people believe that Stern would not have given such a hard punishment for an under-the-table Joe Smith signing if it had been done by a bigger market team.

(NOTE: The Timberwolves were stripped of five first-round picks in 2000 after the deal, which many attribute to the Kevin Garnett era having limited success for the team.)

With that, there are plenty of reasons that people could think there’s a fix. So if there isn’t a fix, Stern should just be able to laugh it off and say “No, there’s not a fix.” End of story.

Instead, Stern took the low road and acted like a 19-year-old with his comments. Even the addition of a domestic assault accusation (as Rome does not have any history of domestic violence) makes Stern look paranoid that people are uncovering his secrets.

The NBA should be embarrassed that their fearless leader melted in front of some scathing comments, and it may be time that Stern rides off into the sunset before it’s too late.

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NBA: David Stern Shows Us All Why He Is One of the Most Hated Figures in Sports

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Jun 142012
 

“Was the fix in for the lottery?”

“Have you stopped beating your wife yet?”

As some would say, that escalated quickly.

The above quotations are not from some viral YouTube video of two guys throwing around insults, nor are they from two comedians in a sketch on SNL. These are from an exchange between Jim Rome and NBA Commissioner David Stern.

In case you’re a bit lost, the first quote is from Jim Rome. The following is David Stern’s reaction.

To give you some background, Rome set up the question by saying that a lot of people thought the lottery was rigged, and he expected Stern to answer, “No.”

What he got was something very unprofessional.

Just so you know, I don’t like Jim Rome either. I think he’s a blowhard, and perhaps he might have been a little out of line asking the question to Stern, but the response he got was worse than the actual question.

The questioning is meant to trip somebody up. Answering yes or no will still lead to the realization that they are being incriminated either way.

If Stern had just answered the question, which he did eventually, it would have been fine. I actually would have enjoyed watching Rome get shut down on his own radio show.

But he didn’t. Intermixed with the reasonable answer, Stern provided insults that hinted at Rome not being a respectable journalist. At the end, Stern even says that he has to “go call somebody important.”

Stern is disliked for making questionable calls for the league and being a jerk, the Rome interview being another example of such. This just fuels the fire for the people who dislike him. Stern showed the unprofessional side of him, which is even more hated than his professional side.

The only thing I would have liked more is for Rome to ask this:

“Are you still the worst commissioner is professional sports?”

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NBA Owners Must Force David Stern to Resign After Jim Rome Interview Blunder

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Jun 142012
 

After David Stern‘s thoughtless and careless response to an admittedly irresponsible question while appearing on Jim Rome’s show, the NBA owners need to step up and demand that the commissioner of the NBA step down immediately. 

This isn’t about any ridiculous conspiracy theories, even though that’s what Rome’s question pertained to. Whether or not Stern fixed the lottery or the 2012 NBA playoffs is irrelevant right now.

Here’s what happened when Rome decided to broach that subject. 

Stern originally gave a responsible answer, just choosing to say that the lottery was not fixed and that Rome should be ashamed for even asking the question. However, upon being pressured by the show’s host to change his answer, Stern asked Rome if he had stopped beating his wife. 

Now, that is far more unacceptable than any question Rome asked. Without missing a beat, Rome came up with the perfect response after defending his last question and contesting that it was a fair interview question: “Yeah, I dunno if that’s fair.” 

It’s not fair. It’s inappropriate, and there should be repercussions. 

If that had been one of Stern’s players or owners, the retribution would have been swift and severe. Just because Stern is the one making the rules doesn’t mean that he gets to be held to a higher standard. 

In Stern’s mind, I’m sure that he simply thought he was following one stupid question with another stupid one. It’s just that he could have picked any number of stupid questions to respond with and not one that referred to the touchy subject of domestic abuse. 

Lately, Stern hasn’t been able to let the league have enough time to recover from a black eye before he gives it yet another one. 

In the past calendar year, the NBA suffered through a prolonged lockout under Stern’s watch. The season was condensed to 66 games, and the compressed schedule may have altered the outcome of quite a few games and potentially even some playoff series. 

Just a short while after the lockout was lifted, we witnessed the Chris Paul fiasco. There was a clear conflict of interests during the trade, and Stern ended up reversing a trade that sent the best point guard in the league to the Los Angeles Lakers. It just so happened that the league controlled the New Orleans Hornets, who were the other major player in the deal.

After that, if we fast-forward to the present, there are constant allegations flowing through the interwebs that Stern has fixed both the NBA draft lottery and the playoffs.

It’s too perfect, in the minds of some people, that the same Hornets that shipped off CP3 happened to win the Anthony Davis sweepstakes. It’s too perfect that two of the most marketable teams with the biggest stars in the league happen to be playing in the NBA Finals. 

Regardless of whether or not those allegations are true, it’s Stern’s job to comfort NBA fans and make sure that the league continues to run smoothly and fairly. He’s failed to do that for quite some time now, and his response to Rome is just the latest and most outrageous example. 

Stern’s arrogance is giving the league a negative image. It’s time for the owners to step up and attempt to remove him from the situation. 

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