jbeecham
ASFN Addict
On ESPN right now...
Good riddance.
Kobe also retiring in 2014... Coincidence?
Good riddance.
+2+1
Take your frozen envelopes and crooked refs with ya!
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His negation of the Chris Paul trade was one of the biggest fubars in all of sports history.
"Bad for the game"
WOOWOWOW
His negation of the Chris Paul trade was one of the biggest fubars in all of sports history.
"Bad for the game"
WOOWOWOW
Stopping that trade was one of the best things he's done. Hornets are much better for it.
As you, I don't like Stern's dirty tricks. But hey, the owners chose an attorney.Good riddance.
But the conflict of interest is the problem. The league never should have "owned" the Hornets. They claimed that the Hornets front office would have full autonomy, yet they're sitting there rigging trades that effect multiple teams. That vetoed trade decimated the Rockets rebuilding plans. Then you have the Hornets win the draft lotto it the middle of the NBA attempting to finalize their sale...
Even if it wasnt rigged the league never should have put themselves in that situation. If the NBA had an owner like Al Davis then all hell would have broken out in the courts after the fiasco with the absurd benefits that magically were bestowed upon the Hornets franchise while the league controlled it.
As you, I don't like Stern's dirty tricks. But hey, the owners chose an attorney.
I also don't like that the average NBA player salary skyrocketed from $250,000 when Stern took over to $5 million. But it has happened in every major sport.
It is true, though, that under his watch, the NBA achieved a lot of accomplishments:
— The Dream Team's Olympic participation, starting in 1992 at the Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain. Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan lighted the torch and the legacy has endured, landing in the safe hands of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant in the London Games last summer.
— Impressive league expansion under his watch. There were 23 teams when Stern arrived, and he has added seven franchises in the United States and Canada. Exhibition games have been played in China, Russia and Mexico, and NBA games are telecast in 215 countries.
— Team values have soared. Forbes magazine put the value of the average NBA team at $393 million, an increase of 6.5% from 2011. (The Lakers were valued at $900 million.) The Golden State Warriors sold for a record $450 million two years ago, and for the sake of crazy contrast, the Seattle SuperSonics were purchased for $16 million in 1983, the year before Stern became commissioner.
— TV ratings are at an all-time high. The NBA has gone from a league whose playoff games were once tape-delayed to record-setting viewership on ESPN/ABC, NBA TV and TNT. The broadcast rights are worth $930 million a year to the NBA, from an eight-year agreement negotiated in 2011.
— Explosive growth in the social media community. The NBA is like a small nation with 320 million likes and followers. NBA.com's page views during the Finals in 2012 were up 29% and video streams up 62% from the previous years.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-stern-accomplishments-20121026,0,690033.story