Dave Zirin
NBA Commissioner David Stern emits an aura that inspires an energy-sapping, dull fear in those around him. Players, media, and even the owners that pay his rumored eight figure salary all acquiesce meekly in his presence. The brave get gelatinous. The brown nosers polish their kneepads. The toadies ribbit.
It’s certainly understandable why. Players fear that their employment opportunities will wither upon retirement. Media members fear that their access to the league will simply end. Fans fear that Stern could pull a Seattle Sonics and simply jack their team. Even owners don’t speak out against him. After thirty years, he’s become more like a tin-pot dictator or a small town southern sheriff than a commissioner. Stern has become the emperor no one dares say is buck-naked and now the basketball world is paying the price. We are going to lose much or all of the 2010-2011 season due to a David Stern engineered owner's lockout. The NBA right now has more storylines than General Hospital. Could this be the year Lebron and the Miami heat figure it out? Will Kobe tie Jordan with six rings? Can the Miracle Mavs repeat? What could Derrick Rose do for an MVP encore? But these questions won’t be answered. We don't get answers to these questions because too many teams are losing money, and Stern has determined that only a lockout and taking it out of the union’s hide is a path to solvency.
There are of course exceptions to this conspiracy of silence. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks once made a sport of tweaking Stern, but after several million dollars in fines, he got the hint. Last year, Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said that there is no free speech in the NBA and Stern responded, “We won’t be hearing from him for the rest of the season.” He then said of Van Gundy, “I see somebody whose team isn’t performing…who seems to be fraying.” Rasheed Wallace was an exception, saying, "I ain't no dumb-ass n----- out here. I'm not like a whole bunch of these young boys out here who get caught up and captivated into the league…. I know what this business is all about…. I know the commissioner of this league makes more than three-quarters of the players in this league."
Stern responded publicly, "Mr. Wallace's hateful diatribe was ignorant and offensive to all NBA players. I refuse to enhance his heightened sense of deprivation by publicly debating with him." You might notice that Rasheed Wallace isn’t providing commentary on NBA TV.
Mess with Stern, and become an object lesson. As Stern said to a group of NBA All-Stars, “I know where the bodies are buried because I’ve buried some of them myself.” Stern has built an atmosphere of fear and intimidation over three decades with the subtlety of Rupert Murdoch. Even the owners, the ones who pay his salary, don’t dare ask how much Stern, ostensibly their employee, gets paid.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports quotes a source who says that “two maybe three” owners even know the answer to this question. As Wojnarowski writes, “Mostly, it speaks to the authoritarian culture created within the league office, and how Stern carries it out through the NBA. Some younger owners have been warned to never push the issue with him, never ask, because it’s simply unadvisable to get on the wrong side of the commissioner."
Meanwhile the solution to the NBA’s financial crisis is obvious. It’s doesn’t lie in dramatic slashing of salaries, or more public subsidies. It’s revenue sharing. The NBA shares less revenue than any other major league. In the NFL, the Green Bay Packers make the same television money as the New York Giants. In the NBA, it takes the Portland Trail Blazers more than 10 years to make the same broadcast revenue that the Lakers make in one year. Forbes magazine determined that the league as a whole made money and if revenue was shared, the league would be fine. Stern’s response to Forbes’s findings was a sneer and a growl.
It’s obvious to me that what stands in the way of a logical financial agreement is Stern himself. His intransigence is the logical extension of a decade of dress-code dictates, bullying officials, and even changing the material on the basketball despite the fact that it was cutting the hands of players. He has created a logic that no one dares stand up and say, “This guy has to go.” He has become like Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s dictator in the novel Autumn of the Patriarch. As Marquez wrote, “The regime wasn't being sustained by hope or conformity or even by terror, but by the pure inertia of an ancient and irreparable disillusion, go out into the street and look truth in the face, your Excellency, we're on the final curve.” We are on the “final curve” of a Commissioner’s reign that saw the league go global, win millions of new fans, and create a remarkable constellation of superstars. But it’s a reign that now ends with us, the fans, being robbed of the game we love. Yet this "inertia of disillusion" has fans, players, media members and owners on the sideline, too cowed to speak truth as obvious as it is unspoken: we don’t need David Stern to have the NBA. His removal as commissioner would provide a path to labor piece and get the league back in business. But if no one stands up, Stern gets to fulfill every dictator’s wish: to destroy the very world of his own creation.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Showing posts with label David Stern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Stern. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Stern-Cold: Losing the N.B.A.
Dave Zirin
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2011/04/david-stern-nba.html
“I don’t know where you were raised, but I lived with rats. I used to kill rats. We had a .22 rifle and we would lay in the kitchen and shoot them on the floor. One thing my grandmother taught me was that if you got a rat trapped, you’ve got to give his ass a way out, because he will fight you if he has to. If you don’t give us a way out, a chance for a compromise, you’re going to get a fight.” An American labor leader made the previous statement last month. It wasn’t a Teamster, United Autoworkers official, or anyone from the public-sector battles in the Midwest. The union in question is the National Basketball Players Association, and the man who promised “a fight” was their executive director, Billy Hunter.
Hunter was referring to the stalled negotiations over a new collective-bargaining agreement for the N.B.A. The current labor deal expires at the end of June; if no progress is made before then—and there hasn’t been much in several months—the league could join the N.F.L. as the second major American sports league whose players (and, of course, fans) are locked out.
There is an extra lacquer of anger and mistrust in the N.B.A. because of the particular commissioner with whom Billy Hunter is negotiating: David Stern. For thirty years, Stern has been arguably the most successful commissioner in all of sports. Having Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan in his league certainly helped, but Stern has taken the N.B.A. from a second-tier attraction to a global phenomenon. In recent years, however, another, utterly implacable side of Stern has emerged.
Fans in the greater Seattle area, who didn’t want to spend three hundred million dollars on a new, publicly funded stadium and lost their team, are familiar with Stern’s vindictive side. (The Sonics were moved to Oklahoma City, where they are now the Thunder.) But never has Stern seemed as unbending, isolated, or arrogant as he does now. Players are warned; complaining coaches are silenced; and negotiating partners are enemies.
Stern, speaking to a room full of N.B.A. stars during All-Star weekend, reportedly said that he knew where “the bodies are buried” in the league—presumably because he had buried some of them himself. “It was shocking,” the Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose told Yahoo! Sports. “I was taking off my gear, and when he said that, I just stopped and thought, ‘Whoa…’ I couldn’t believe that he said it.”
Then, on April 7th, the N.B.A. referees union announced that they were complaining to the National Labor Relations Board that Stern and the N.B.A. had violated federal law by engaging in unfair labor practices. Their filing includes accusations relating to an “obscene expression” that Stern directed at union negotiators in a January 24th meeting. According to the report, Stern stormed out of the meeting in a rage when the stenographer refused to take his obscenity out of the record.
And there’s the tale of Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. When Van Gundy told reporters that Stern doesn’t allow dissenting opinions, the commissioner responded, “We won’t be hearing from him for the rest of the season.” He then said of Van Gundy, “I see somebody whose team isn’t performing, whose star player was suspended, who seems to be fraying.”
Most fans could care less about Stern’s attitude—but his state of mind is a problem for the sport of basketball. If he’s not willing to negotiate in a way that shows respect, then there likely won’t be a season in 2011. Stern is pursuing a strategy similar to the one N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell has adopted: demanding wage cuts and claiming financial hardship, while offering players, at best, a limited look at the books. But Stern’s demands extend further. Stern and the owners also want teams to be able to retain players at their discretion, even if their contracts have run their course. This would effectively end free agency and turn back the clock on sports labor relations by decades.
“That’s a dealbreaker,” Billy Hunter told me. “I’m dead set against it, and most players would be as well. This would oppress players. Why was free agency fought for and achieved? You take that away if you have a franchise player tag. We will be just as adamant as not accepting it as we would about not accepting a hard salary cap…. If they continue to put forth the same demands, we are going to find ourselves in the same situation as the N.F.L.P.A.”—the football players, who are still locked out.
In a season where ratings and interest are up, and players like Chicago’s Rose and the L.A. Clippers’ forward Blake Griffin are leaving a new generation of fans breathless, David Stern is practicing his own version of the extreme austerity. But, just as there are no schools without teachers and no fire stations without firefighters, there is no league without the players. No one buys an N.B.A. ticket to watch David Stern. This seems to be a reality he has forgotten—no matter where the bodies are buried.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2011/04/david-stern-nba.html
“I don’t know where you were raised, but I lived with rats. I used to kill rats. We had a .22 rifle and we would lay in the kitchen and shoot them on the floor. One thing my grandmother taught me was that if you got a rat trapped, you’ve got to give his ass a way out, because he will fight you if he has to. If you don’t give us a way out, a chance for a compromise, you’re going to get a fight.” An American labor leader made the previous statement last month. It wasn’t a Teamster, United Autoworkers official, or anyone from the public-sector battles in the Midwest. The union in question is the National Basketball Players Association, and the man who promised “a fight” was their executive director, Billy Hunter.
Hunter was referring to the stalled negotiations over a new collective-bargaining agreement for the N.B.A. The current labor deal expires at the end of June; if no progress is made before then—and there hasn’t been much in several months—the league could join the N.F.L. as the second major American sports league whose players (and, of course, fans) are locked out.
There is an extra lacquer of anger and mistrust in the N.B.A. because of the particular commissioner with whom Billy Hunter is negotiating: David Stern. For thirty years, Stern has been arguably the most successful commissioner in all of sports. Having Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan in his league certainly helped, but Stern has taken the N.B.A. from a second-tier attraction to a global phenomenon. In recent years, however, another, utterly implacable side of Stern has emerged.
Fans in the greater Seattle area, who didn’t want to spend three hundred million dollars on a new, publicly funded stadium and lost their team, are familiar with Stern’s vindictive side. (The Sonics were moved to Oklahoma City, where they are now the Thunder.) But never has Stern seemed as unbending, isolated, or arrogant as he does now. Players are warned; complaining coaches are silenced; and negotiating partners are enemies.
Stern, speaking to a room full of N.B.A. stars during All-Star weekend, reportedly said that he knew where “the bodies are buried” in the league—presumably because he had buried some of them himself. “It was shocking,” the Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose told Yahoo! Sports. “I was taking off my gear, and when he said that, I just stopped and thought, ‘Whoa…’ I couldn’t believe that he said it.”
Then, on April 7th, the N.B.A. referees union announced that they were complaining to the National Labor Relations Board that Stern and the N.B.A. had violated federal law by engaging in unfair labor practices. Their filing includes accusations relating to an “obscene expression” that Stern directed at union negotiators in a January 24th meeting. According to the report, Stern stormed out of the meeting in a rage when the stenographer refused to take his obscenity out of the record.
And there’s the tale of Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. When Van Gundy told reporters that Stern doesn’t allow dissenting opinions, the commissioner responded, “We won’t be hearing from him for the rest of the season.” He then said of Van Gundy, “I see somebody whose team isn’t performing, whose star player was suspended, who seems to be fraying.”
Most fans could care less about Stern’s attitude—but his state of mind is a problem for the sport of basketball. If he’s not willing to negotiate in a way that shows respect, then there likely won’t be a season in 2011. Stern is pursuing a strategy similar to the one N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell has adopted: demanding wage cuts and claiming financial hardship, while offering players, at best, a limited look at the books. But Stern’s demands extend further. Stern and the owners also want teams to be able to retain players at their discretion, even if their contracts have run their course. This would effectively end free agency and turn back the clock on sports labor relations by decades.
“That’s a dealbreaker,” Billy Hunter told me. “I’m dead set against it, and most players would be as well. This would oppress players. Why was free agency fought for and achieved? You take that away if you have a franchise player tag. We will be just as adamant as not accepting it as we would about not accepting a hard salary cap…. If they continue to put forth the same demands, we are going to find ourselves in the same situation as the N.F.L.P.A.”—the football players, who are still locked out.
In a season where ratings and interest are up, and players like Chicago’s Rose and the L.A. Clippers’ forward Blake Griffin are leaving a new generation of fans breathless, David Stern is practicing his own version of the extreme austerity. But, just as there are no schools without teachers and no fire stations without firefighters, there is no league without the players. No one buys an N.B.A. ticket to watch David Stern. This seems to be a reality he has forgotten—no matter where the bodies are buried.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Clippers stay true to word and draft Blake Griffin
http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/basketball/la-sp-clippers-nba-draft26-2009jun26,0,7652786.story
Clippers stay true to word and draft Blake Griffin
The consensus college player of the year from Oklahoma, who had 30 double-doubles last season and was considered by some to be the only sure thing in this draft, is taken No. 1 overall
By Lisa Dillman
June 26, 2009
Reporting from New York -- There would be no last-minute plot twist for the often-surprising Clippers.
The Clippers said May 19 after winning the draft lottery that they would take Oklahoma power forward Blake Griffin with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, and today, , their actions followed their words.
This time, the predictable course was the right one at the glitzy NBA draft tonight at Madison Square Garden. Griffin shook hands with NBA Commissioner David Stern and started his Clippers career.
Griffin, the consensus college player of the year, led the nation in double doubles, recording 30 of them, and averaged 22.7 points and 14.4 rebounds.
He was considered the only sure thing in what had been called an unpredictable draft. Griffin worked out for just one team: the Clippers, and the Clippers, who don't have a second-round choice, did not bring in any other players for an individual workout.
Clippers General Manager and Coach Mike Dunleavy made a trip to Europe in May to watch dynamic point guard Ricky Rubio, and happened to be in Spain the night the team won the draft lottery. That made his long journey a moot point.
The Clippers won only 19 games last season and have missed the playoffs in 11 of the last 12 seasons.
Griffin was asked earlier in this week about the Clippers poor history, and he said: "I am not worried about anything that has happened in the past. I wasn't a part of that and a lot of the guys that are there now weren't a part of it.
"So, I mean, we're only looking forward to the future."
lisa.dillman@latimes.com
Clippers stay true to word and draft Blake Griffin
The consensus college player of the year from Oklahoma, who had 30 double-doubles last season and was considered by some to be the only sure thing in this draft, is taken No. 1 overall
By Lisa Dillman
June 26, 2009
Reporting from New York -- There would be no last-minute plot twist for the often-surprising Clippers.
The Clippers said May 19 after winning the draft lottery that they would take Oklahoma power forward Blake Griffin with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, and today, , their actions followed their words.
This time, the predictable course was the right one at the glitzy NBA draft tonight at Madison Square Garden. Griffin shook hands with NBA Commissioner David Stern and started his Clippers career.
Griffin, the consensus college player of the year, led the nation in double doubles, recording 30 of them, and averaged 22.7 points and 14.4 rebounds.
He was considered the only sure thing in what had been called an unpredictable draft. Griffin worked out for just one team: the Clippers, and the Clippers, who don't have a second-round choice, did not bring in any other players for an individual workout.
Clippers General Manager and Coach Mike Dunleavy made a trip to Europe in May to watch dynamic point guard Ricky Rubio, and happened to be in Spain the night the team won the draft lottery. That made his long journey a moot point.
The Clippers won only 19 games last season and have missed the playoffs in 11 of the last 12 seasons.
Griffin was asked earlier in this week about the Clippers poor history, and he said: "I am not worried about anything that has happened in the past. I wasn't a part of that and a lot of the guys that are there now weren't a part of it.
"So, I mean, we're only looking forward to the future."
lisa.dillman@latimes.com
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Chilly stars under the stars
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=jy-nbaoutdoor101208
Chilly stars under the stars
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
10-12-8
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Always searching for new ways to grow the game, the NBA took the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets outside on Saturday night, a cute experiment that would have been more warmly received had anyone packed a blanket.
Give David Stern credit. He sold out a preseason basketball game aired in front of a national TV audience, and he didn’t have to cross the Atlantic to do it. More than 16,000 people packed the Indian Wells Tennis Center to see the Suns and Nuggets play under the stars, and most of the fans seemed to enjoy the experience, even if they came away colder for it.
“It felt like Edmonton, Alberta, out there,” said Suns point guard and Canadian transplant Steve Nash.
The NBA hadn’t played a game outdoors since 1972, and there’s probably a good reason why league officials waited 36 years to stage another: When it comes to the weather, even Stern has to answer to a higher power. Even in the desert.
Temperatures, which hit 105 degrees here three days earlier, dropped to the low 60s in the second half. The steady wind made it feel at least 10 degrees cooler. Several players used towels as makeshift hoods to stay warm on the bench. A few admitted to being too cold to sweat.
“Growing up we played outside in weather cold like this all the time,” Nash said, “but I would say that’s been about 16 years ago.”
Allen Iverson, perhaps, had the evening’s best seat, watching from the warmth of his home in Denver. Iverson skipped the trip because of what the team described as a sore knee and Carmelo Anthony sat out his second exhibition game with a sore finger. Suns forward Amare Stoudemire, still trying to work his way back into shape after being sidelined by an ankle injury and a torn iris, also didn’t play.
“I’m not going to spend too much time looking at the film tonight,” Suns coach Terry Porter said, pausing to blow on his hands.
The Nuggets won 77-72, but the low-scoring game had more to do with the 10 mph wind gusting through the stadium than the defensive improvements both teams have pledged to make this season. Grant Hill tossed up a 3-pointer from the top of the arc in the first quarter only to watch the breeze gently catch it. He shouldn’t have felt bad. Of the 27 3-pointers the teams combined to take, only three found the bottom of the net. Former Suns coach Mike D’Antoni couldn’t have taken that much mojo with him to New York, could he?
Said Nash: “When you shoot a ball and it starts slicing right … ”
Denver even bricked 20 of its 38 free throws, though not everyone on the court could use the unusual elements as an excuse. Shaquille O’Neal, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich will be happy to know, can miss free throws outside just as well as he does inside; in the game’s opening moments, he clanged a pair hard off the rim. One backboard, perhaps already worrying about its fate, mysteriously splintered on its own Friday afternoon before the Suns had even stepped foot into the stadium for their shootaround. Workers replaced the broken backboard, but NBA officials ordered two more reserves brought in as insurance.
Nuggets coach George Karl was disappointed to see the league had neglected to include one longtime playground staple: chain nets. Karl’s first impression when told Denver would be playing outdoors?
“I have to admit,” he said, “I had some thoughts of, ‘What?’ ”
The NBA shrugged off such skepticism by throwing its marketing muscle behind the event. One of the Suns owners sold the league on using Indian Wells as the ideal location for the game, and the team trucked in a special court emblazoned with “NBA Outdoors!” just in case anyone hadn’t noticed the roof missing overhead. TNT played along, bringing Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller and Marv Albert to broadcast the game, though their largest viewing audience (Phoenix) lost feed of the telecast for much of the first quarter.
As that opening quarter came to a close, Suns public-address announcer Cedric Ceballos shouted, “One quarter of history already intact!” When it comes to watershed moments in NBA history, Saturday night ranked slightly ahead of the introduction of the microfiber ball. None of the players openly complained, but none were clamoring to sign up to do it again, either.
And no one certainly sounded ready to play any game of merit outdoors, even if Barkley was already pitching the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field as an alternate site for this season’s All-Star Game in Phoenix. Much like the NBA’s annual preseason sojourns to Europe, the outdoor experiment should probably be limited to the exhibition level for the near future. At the least, Karl suggested, the league should consider moving up the start time a couple hours to take advantage of warmer weather.
“I thought the best part was seeing the moon,” Karl said. “You think you should be drinking a beer or drinking a bottle of wine and just relaxing.”
Shaq, too, claimed to welcome the unique experience. But would he be willing to do it again?
He nodded then smiled.
“In June.”
Johnny Ludden is the NBA editor for Yahoo! Sports.
Chilly stars under the stars
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
10-12-8
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Always searching for new ways to grow the game, the NBA took the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets outside on Saturday night, a cute experiment that would have been more warmly received had anyone packed a blanket.
Give David Stern credit. He sold out a preseason basketball game aired in front of a national TV audience, and he didn’t have to cross the Atlantic to do it. More than 16,000 people packed the Indian Wells Tennis Center to see the Suns and Nuggets play under the stars, and most of the fans seemed to enjoy the experience, even if they came away colder for it.
“It felt like Edmonton, Alberta, out there,” said Suns point guard and Canadian transplant Steve Nash.
The NBA hadn’t played a game outdoors since 1972, and there’s probably a good reason why league officials waited 36 years to stage another: When it comes to the weather, even Stern has to answer to a higher power. Even in the desert.
Temperatures, which hit 105 degrees here three days earlier, dropped to the low 60s in the second half. The steady wind made it feel at least 10 degrees cooler. Several players used towels as makeshift hoods to stay warm on the bench. A few admitted to being too cold to sweat.
“Growing up we played outside in weather cold like this all the time,” Nash said, “but I would say that’s been about 16 years ago.”
Allen Iverson, perhaps, had the evening’s best seat, watching from the warmth of his home in Denver. Iverson skipped the trip because of what the team described as a sore knee and Carmelo Anthony sat out his second exhibition game with a sore finger. Suns forward Amare Stoudemire, still trying to work his way back into shape after being sidelined by an ankle injury and a torn iris, also didn’t play.
“I’m not going to spend too much time looking at the film tonight,” Suns coach Terry Porter said, pausing to blow on his hands.
The Nuggets won 77-72, but the low-scoring game had more to do with the 10 mph wind gusting through the stadium than the defensive improvements both teams have pledged to make this season. Grant Hill tossed up a 3-pointer from the top of the arc in the first quarter only to watch the breeze gently catch it. He shouldn’t have felt bad. Of the 27 3-pointers the teams combined to take, only three found the bottom of the net. Former Suns coach Mike D’Antoni couldn’t have taken that much mojo with him to New York, could he?
Said Nash: “When you shoot a ball and it starts slicing right … ”
Denver even bricked 20 of its 38 free throws, though not everyone on the court could use the unusual elements as an excuse. Shaquille O’Neal, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich will be happy to know, can miss free throws outside just as well as he does inside; in the game’s opening moments, he clanged a pair hard off the rim. One backboard, perhaps already worrying about its fate, mysteriously splintered on its own Friday afternoon before the Suns had even stepped foot into the stadium for their shootaround. Workers replaced the broken backboard, but NBA officials ordered two more reserves brought in as insurance.
Nuggets coach George Karl was disappointed to see the league had neglected to include one longtime playground staple: chain nets. Karl’s first impression when told Denver would be playing outdoors?
“I have to admit,” he said, “I had some thoughts of, ‘What?’ ”
The NBA shrugged off such skepticism by throwing its marketing muscle behind the event. One of the Suns owners sold the league on using Indian Wells as the ideal location for the game, and the team trucked in a special court emblazoned with “NBA Outdoors!” just in case anyone hadn’t noticed the roof missing overhead. TNT played along, bringing Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller and Marv Albert to broadcast the game, though their largest viewing audience (Phoenix) lost feed of the telecast for much of the first quarter.
As that opening quarter came to a close, Suns public-address announcer Cedric Ceballos shouted, “One quarter of history already intact!” When it comes to watershed moments in NBA history, Saturday night ranked slightly ahead of the introduction of the microfiber ball. None of the players openly complained, but none were clamoring to sign up to do it again, either.
And no one certainly sounded ready to play any game of merit outdoors, even if Barkley was already pitching the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field as an alternate site for this season’s All-Star Game in Phoenix. Much like the NBA’s annual preseason sojourns to Europe, the outdoor experiment should probably be limited to the exhibition level for the near future. At the least, Karl suggested, the league should consider moving up the start time a couple hours to take advantage of warmer weather.
“I thought the best part was seeing the moon,” Karl said. “You think you should be drinking a beer or drinking a bottle of wine and just relaxing.”
Shaq, too, claimed to welcome the unique experience. But would he be willing to do it again?
He nodded then smiled.
“In June.”
Johnny Ludden is the NBA editor for Yahoo! Sports.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Stats don't back up David Stern's claims
http://blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2008/10/gambling-maven.html
Gambling maven says stats don't back up David Stern's claims
By Reid Cherner & Tom Weir
October 03, 2008
NBA commissioner David Stern said in a press conference that he believes that disgraced referee Tim Donaghy did not affect the outcome of games and that he acted alone.
R.J. Bell of pregame.com, a gambling information site, believes that doesn't pass the smell test.
According to Bell's numbers:
The first 15 games of the 2006-07 refereed by Tim Donaghy that had big enough betting to move the point spread by at least 1.5 points were undefeated against Las Vegas - meaning that the big-money gamblers won 15 of 15 times on his games. The odds of that happening randomly are 32,768 to 1.
Here is what he said about referee Scott Foster whom Donaghy called 134 times from 2006-2007:
During the 2006-07 period under investigation, 10 games refereed by Scott Foster had lopsided enough betting on one team to move the point spread by at least 2 points; those ten teams were undefeated against Vegas – meaning that the big-money gamblers won a perfect 10 of 10 times on Foster’s games; the odds of that happening randomly are greater than 1000 to 1 against.
Gambling maven says stats don't back up David Stern's claims
By Reid Cherner & Tom Weir
October 03, 2008
NBA commissioner David Stern said in a press conference that he believes that disgraced referee Tim Donaghy did not affect the outcome of games and that he acted alone.
R.J. Bell of pregame.com, a gambling information site, believes that doesn't pass the smell test.
According to Bell's numbers:
The first 15 games of the 2006-07 refereed by Tim Donaghy that had big enough betting to move the point spread by at least 1.5 points were undefeated against Las Vegas - meaning that the big-money gamblers won 15 of 15 times on his games. The odds of that happening randomly are 32,768 to 1.
Here is what he said about referee Scott Foster whom Donaghy called 134 times from 2006-2007:
During the 2006-07 period under investigation, 10 games refereed by Scott Foster had lopsided enough betting on one team to move the point spread by at least 2 points; those ten teams were undefeated against Vegas – meaning that the big-money gamblers won a perfect 10 of 10 times on Foster’s games; the odds of that happening randomly are greater than 1000 to 1 against.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
As dirt piles up, fans may yet wash hands of it all
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/justice/rockets/5000331.html
July 26, 2007, 7:45AM
COMMENTARY
As dirt piles up, fans may yet wash hands of it all
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Your place has been taken by thugs and crooks and cheats.
At least that's the way it has felt the last few weeks as our sports world seems to have spun out of control. One instance of bad behavior has been followed by another and then another.
Dog torture. Point shaving. Steroids. Guns. Brawls. Strippers. High-speed chases. Are these isolated examples of a few bad apples? Or is something else at play?
Thanks to the likes of Barry Bonds, Michael Vick and Tim Donaghy, even the fun and games are no longer fun and games. We're pelted by scandal, endlessly and relentlessly.
After years of coddling athletes, after allowing them to think they don't have to play by the rules others play by, are we getting what we deserve?
Once upon a time, you looked to the sports pages to escape the sewer of everyday life. No more.
If you saw the look on NBA commissioner David Stern's face Tuesday, you learned everything you need to know about sports in 2007.
Stern might be the most brilliant man in sports — brilliant and thin-skinned and condescending. That David Stern was nowhere to be found Tuesday. This one was frightened and humbled as he faced reporters to discuss charges that Donaghy, who recently resigned as an NBA referee, had bet on games, including perhaps some in which he officiated.
The FBI apparently believes Donaghy made calls to manipulate either the outcome or the point spread. These charges cut to the heart of everything sports is supposed to be. One of the reasons we go to games is because we believe anything can happen. David can slay Goliath.
Suspension of belief
If we find the outcomes of some games have been fixed, if some games were nothing more than staged events for a scared loser, fans will be a long time believing in the NBA again.
Stern is hoping and praying the FBI finds Donaghy to be a lone wolf who got himself into trouble with gambling debts and did what mobsters ordered him to. If it turns out Donaghy is part of a larger conspiracy, if he names the names of other refs and perhaps even some players, the NBA will have taken a crippling hit.
It's a really bad week when Donaghy isn't the most repulsive player on the stage. That honor belongs to Vick.
I have trouble working up any rage for the Atlanta Falcons quarterback because I simply can't wrap my mind around what he's accused of doing. I can't comprehend any human being is capable of such things.
A federal felony indictment places Vick in a key role in a Virginia dogfighting ring. If you can swallow that much of the story, brace yourself. It gets much worse.
Who's the animal?
Vick and his thugs also are charged with torturing dogs, with hosing them down and then electrocuting them, with throwing them to the ground again and again until they died.
Wait, there's more. Vick's case has opened a door into a sickening NFL subculture.
''I would bet you that every player in the NFL knows someone who has been to a dogfight," Tampa Bay cornerback Ronde Barber told a reporter this week.
One fool is one fool too many. But Barber doesn't seem to be alone. Emmitt Smith, the NFL's all-time rushing leader, joined the chorus of supporters for Vick last weekend when he said the government was picking on Vick.
''Granted, he might have been to a dogfight a time or two, maybe five times, maybe 20 times, may have bet some money, but he's not the one you're after," Smith said. ''He's just the one who's going to take the fall — publicly."
Sure. Vick's only sin was going to a few dogfights and cheering as one dog mauled another. And maybe he tortured the losing dog a few times. No big deal — right, Emmitt?
What kind of world do these people live in? Are they so out of touch that they think anything they choose to do is fine because they're special?
Statements like Smith's will do nothing to counter the widespread belief that the NFL is populated by thugs. Nothing could be further from the truth, but still.
One day, it's another Cincinnati Bengal getting arrested for driving under the influence. The next, there's Tennessee Titans cornerback Pacman Jones, who has been banned from the NFL for an assortment of incidents.
Bonds a relative boy scout
If things keep going as they are, Bonds is going to look like a good citizen. All he allegedly did was take illegal performance-enhancing drugs on his way to becoming baseball's all-time home run king.
Bonds has 753 home runs, two behind Hank Aaron, and should pass him sometime in the near future. Bonds thus becomes the poster boy for an era in which a large number of players took steroids.
As the players union fought testing, as owners focused on economic issues, the most sacred page of baseball's record book is now a joke. Bonds won't be out of the headlines even after he breaks the record. The New York Daily News reported that Bonds probably will be indicted for perjury and/tax evasion this fall.
Tipping point?
Funny thing is, for all the sermonizing about the damage done to sports, fans don't seem to care. Baseball is going to break its all-time attendance record for the fourth straight season, and almost no one believes the NFL will suffer in any substantive way from players getting into trouble. The NBA was already a marginalized sport, so evidence of point shaving likely won't hurt the league much more than it was already hurt.
But while Bonds, Vick and Donaghy have yet to be convicted of anything, there's a sense that things are coming apart, that sports in this country has reached some sort of tipping point. Maybe fans really will get tired of the dirt. Maybe they'll turn the channel and stop buying tickets. Only then, when the TV cash isn't there and the luxury suites are empty, might there be more urgency about cleaning it up.
richard.justice@chron.com
July 26, 2007, 7:45AM
COMMENTARY
As dirt piles up, fans may yet wash hands of it all
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Your place has been taken by thugs and crooks and cheats.
At least that's the way it has felt the last few weeks as our sports world seems to have spun out of control. One instance of bad behavior has been followed by another and then another.
Dog torture. Point shaving. Steroids. Guns. Brawls. Strippers. High-speed chases. Are these isolated examples of a few bad apples? Or is something else at play?
Thanks to the likes of Barry Bonds, Michael Vick and Tim Donaghy, even the fun and games are no longer fun and games. We're pelted by scandal, endlessly and relentlessly.
After years of coddling athletes, after allowing them to think they don't have to play by the rules others play by, are we getting what we deserve?
Once upon a time, you looked to the sports pages to escape the sewer of everyday life. No more.
If you saw the look on NBA commissioner David Stern's face Tuesday, you learned everything you need to know about sports in 2007.
Stern might be the most brilliant man in sports — brilliant and thin-skinned and condescending. That David Stern was nowhere to be found Tuesday. This one was frightened and humbled as he faced reporters to discuss charges that Donaghy, who recently resigned as an NBA referee, had bet on games, including perhaps some in which he officiated.
The FBI apparently believes Donaghy made calls to manipulate either the outcome or the point spread. These charges cut to the heart of everything sports is supposed to be. One of the reasons we go to games is because we believe anything can happen. David can slay Goliath.
Suspension of belief
If we find the outcomes of some games have been fixed, if some games were nothing more than staged events for a scared loser, fans will be a long time believing in the NBA again.
Stern is hoping and praying the FBI finds Donaghy to be a lone wolf who got himself into trouble with gambling debts and did what mobsters ordered him to. If it turns out Donaghy is part of a larger conspiracy, if he names the names of other refs and perhaps even some players, the NBA will have taken a crippling hit.
It's a really bad week when Donaghy isn't the most repulsive player on the stage. That honor belongs to Vick.
I have trouble working up any rage for the Atlanta Falcons quarterback because I simply can't wrap my mind around what he's accused of doing. I can't comprehend any human being is capable of such things.
A federal felony indictment places Vick in a key role in a Virginia dogfighting ring. If you can swallow that much of the story, brace yourself. It gets much worse.
Who's the animal?
Vick and his thugs also are charged with torturing dogs, with hosing them down and then electrocuting them, with throwing them to the ground again and again until they died.
Wait, there's more. Vick's case has opened a door into a sickening NFL subculture.
''I would bet you that every player in the NFL knows someone who has been to a dogfight," Tampa Bay cornerback Ronde Barber told a reporter this week.
One fool is one fool too many. But Barber doesn't seem to be alone. Emmitt Smith, the NFL's all-time rushing leader, joined the chorus of supporters for Vick last weekend when he said the government was picking on Vick.
''Granted, he might have been to a dogfight a time or two, maybe five times, maybe 20 times, may have bet some money, but he's not the one you're after," Smith said. ''He's just the one who's going to take the fall — publicly."
Sure. Vick's only sin was going to a few dogfights and cheering as one dog mauled another. And maybe he tortured the losing dog a few times. No big deal — right, Emmitt?
What kind of world do these people live in? Are they so out of touch that they think anything they choose to do is fine because they're special?
Statements like Smith's will do nothing to counter the widespread belief that the NFL is populated by thugs. Nothing could be further from the truth, but still.
One day, it's another Cincinnati Bengal getting arrested for driving under the influence. The next, there's Tennessee Titans cornerback Pacman Jones, who has been banned from the NFL for an assortment of incidents.
Bonds a relative boy scout
If things keep going as they are, Bonds is going to look like a good citizen. All he allegedly did was take illegal performance-enhancing drugs on his way to becoming baseball's all-time home run king.
Bonds has 753 home runs, two behind Hank Aaron, and should pass him sometime in the near future. Bonds thus becomes the poster boy for an era in which a large number of players took steroids.
As the players union fought testing, as owners focused on economic issues, the most sacred page of baseball's record book is now a joke. Bonds won't be out of the headlines even after he breaks the record. The New York Daily News reported that Bonds probably will be indicted for perjury and/tax evasion this fall.
Tipping point?
Funny thing is, for all the sermonizing about the damage done to sports, fans don't seem to care. Baseball is going to break its all-time attendance record for the fourth straight season, and almost no one believes the NFL will suffer in any substantive way from players getting into trouble. The NBA was already a marginalized sport, so evidence of point shaving likely won't hurt the league much more than it was already hurt.
But while Bonds, Vick and Donaghy have yet to be convicted of anything, there's a sense that things are coming apart, that sports in this country has reached some sort of tipping point. Maybe fans really will get tired of the dirt. Maybe they'll turn the channel and stop buying tickets. Only then, when the TV cash isn't there and the luxury suites are empty, might there be more urgency about cleaning it up.
richard.justice@chron.com
Monday, July 23, 2007
Probe of ref is a gut shot to the NBA
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/21/SPG4AR4M2B1.DTL
Probe of ref is a gut shot to the NBA
Ray Ratto
Saturday, July 21, 2007
David Stern's worst nightmare as NBA commissioner has just come true. The FBI is investigating whether one of the league's referees bet on games, including ones he officiated, and his possible connection to organized crime.
Friday's news that Tim Donaghy, a 13-year journeyman official, was being investigated to determine if he wagered on games and made calls that affected point spreads was a monumental fist to a sport already dealing with its full measure of troublesome issues.
It is potentially more damaging to basketball than the Barry Bonds debates are to baseball and more disturbing, at least for many fans, than even the Michael Vick dog-abuse case. This is sport's last true vulnerability -- the concept that the games might be crooked, that the only thing that binds all fans together has been compromised.
It also brings into doubt the idea that the games are officiated fairly and as accurately as possible, because basketball is the sport that requires the most judgments per minute of action of any sport, and is therefore the one most vulnerable to chicanery.
Donaghy is a second-tier NBA official. He'd been in the league more than a decade but worked only 20 playoff games, five this past season (one of them was Game 3 of the Warriors-Dallas Mavericks series, which Golden State won 109-91). Thus, all the Internet conspiracy freaks who threw out dozens of names and cited hundreds of games will have a difficult time finding Donaghy's alleged footprints on games of import, because he didn't seem to work in that many.
His last game was Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals between ultimate champion San Antonio and Phoenix, which the Spurs won 108-101. It is unknown if that is one of the games under suspicion (the Spurs were favored by 4). Meanwhile, out in the Wild West of the Internet, one gaming Web site, Webwire.com, claimed Donaghy's games end up "over the Las Vegas total points line 57 percent of the time," an unusually high number that proves nothing but suggests way too much.
The suggestion alone leads to the great unmentioned weakness of any sport -- the idea there are lots of games out there for the fixing, and that some get fixed. College football has had its recent scandals (Northwestern in the mid-'90s, most notably), college basketball as well (Arizona State in the late '90s). College sports are particularly vulnerable, because the players are either not paid or paid illegally at less than market rate.
The professional leagues' stance for their competitive sanctity had always been that the money was so good the players would never be tempted to gamble on games. The money is that good, but players get caught in more exotic and disturbing ways, and their real collateral when the money gets tight is the game.
Officials have always been considered vulnerable because they aren't paid nearly as well (NBA referees make from a low of $90,000 to a high of $225,000). That is great money by most standards, but temptation is still temptation, and vice is still vice, and human judgment is still human judgment.
In other words, if this FBI investigation produces what it purports to, Donaghy was tempted by vice, his judgment was compromised and he got squeezed in a most vulnerable way -- his work product.
Which brings us back to Stern, and his league's tarnished image this year.
There were the low television ratings for both the regular season and the playoffs, which the league tried to slough off by redefining what good ratings actually are. There was the infamous Joey Crawford-Tim Duncan on-court argument that caused Crawford, one of the game's best officials, to be suspended for the duration of the season. There was the study by an academic and a graduate students purportedly showing evidence of racial bias in the volume of calls made against African American players as opposed to other ethnic groups. There was the All-Star Game in Las Vegas, which was cited by a number of observers as a weekend of debauchery and lawlessness that rebounded, largely without merit, back to the NBA and its African American clientele.
Stern, the NBA's undisputed leader for the past 23 years, has in recent times behaved more like a dean of privileged students trying to regain classroom control than a commissioner. Dress codes, more technicals for dissent, a general shrinking of tolerance for the talent has all been noticed.
But the Donaghy investigation changes everything. Stern now faces an audience that won't be so willing to bow to his contemptuous pique when confronted publicly by a difficult subject. He may have to convince people that his game is not only fashionable and exciting and telegenic but on the up-and-up. The possibility of manipulated games raised the stakes about NBA officiating beyond the Crawford or racial bias stories. They called the game itself into question, and mere glibness or disdain won't work for Stern here.
Nor world it work for the NFL's Roger Goodell, Major League Baseball's Bud Selig, the NHL's Gary Bettman, MLS' Don Garber or any league commissioner. Ultimately, the personalities and the athletic gifts and the celebrity wheel and the bling and the multimedia machine balance on the virtue of the game itself. If the game is not to be trusted, we have professional wrestling, only without the stylized violence. We have art forms without validity. We have entertainment that is a lie.
That is why David Stern must hope to his very soul that Tim Donaghy is innocent at best, and an isolated case at worst. Stern must live in daily dread that there might be another official, or a player, or a team official in a position of influence who is weak, or vulnerable, or venal.
The sport is nothing without the game, and if no other useful lesson is learned here, it is that.
E-mail Ray Ratto at rratto@sfchronicle.com.
Probe of ref is a gut shot to the NBA
Ray Ratto
Saturday, July 21, 2007
David Stern's worst nightmare as NBA commissioner has just come true. The FBI is investigating whether one of the league's referees bet on games, including ones he officiated, and his possible connection to organized crime.
Friday's news that Tim Donaghy, a 13-year journeyman official, was being investigated to determine if he wagered on games and made calls that affected point spreads was a monumental fist to a sport already dealing with its full measure of troublesome issues.
It is potentially more damaging to basketball than the Barry Bonds debates are to baseball and more disturbing, at least for many fans, than even the Michael Vick dog-abuse case. This is sport's last true vulnerability -- the concept that the games might be crooked, that the only thing that binds all fans together has been compromised.
It also brings into doubt the idea that the games are officiated fairly and as accurately as possible, because basketball is the sport that requires the most judgments per minute of action of any sport, and is therefore the one most vulnerable to chicanery.
Donaghy is a second-tier NBA official. He'd been in the league more than a decade but worked only 20 playoff games, five this past season (one of them was Game 3 of the Warriors-Dallas Mavericks series, which Golden State won 109-91). Thus, all the Internet conspiracy freaks who threw out dozens of names and cited hundreds of games will have a difficult time finding Donaghy's alleged footprints on games of import, because he didn't seem to work in that many.
His last game was Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals between ultimate champion San Antonio and Phoenix, which the Spurs won 108-101. It is unknown if that is one of the games under suspicion (the Spurs were favored by 4). Meanwhile, out in the Wild West of the Internet, one gaming Web site, Webwire.com, claimed Donaghy's games end up "over the Las Vegas total points line 57 percent of the time," an unusually high number that proves nothing but suggests way too much.
The suggestion alone leads to the great unmentioned weakness of any sport -- the idea there are lots of games out there for the fixing, and that some get fixed. College football has had its recent scandals (Northwestern in the mid-'90s, most notably), college basketball as well (Arizona State in the late '90s). College sports are particularly vulnerable, because the players are either not paid or paid illegally at less than market rate.
The professional leagues' stance for their competitive sanctity had always been that the money was so good the players would never be tempted to gamble on games. The money is that good, but players get caught in more exotic and disturbing ways, and their real collateral when the money gets tight is the game.
Officials have always been considered vulnerable because they aren't paid nearly as well (NBA referees make from a low of $90,000 to a high of $225,000). That is great money by most standards, but temptation is still temptation, and vice is still vice, and human judgment is still human judgment.
In other words, if this FBI investigation produces what it purports to, Donaghy was tempted by vice, his judgment was compromised and he got squeezed in a most vulnerable way -- his work product.
Which brings us back to Stern, and his league's tarnished image this year.
There were the low television ratings for both the regular season and the playoffs, which the league tried to slough off by redefining what good ratings actually are. There was the infamous Joey Crawford-Tim Duncan on-court argument that caused Crawford, one of the game's best officials, to be suspended for the duration of the season. There was the study by an academic and a graduate students purportedly showing evidence of racial bias in the volume of calls made against African American players as opposed to other ethnic groups. There was the All-Star Game in Las Vegas, which was cited by a number of observers as a weekend of debauchery and lawlessness that rebounded, largely without merit, back to the NBA and its African American clientele.
Stern, the NBA's undisputed leader for the past 23 years, has in recent times behaved more like a dean of privileged students trying to regain classroom control than a commissioner. Dress codes, more technicals for dissent, a general shrinking of tolerance for the talent has all been noticed.
But the Donaghy investigation changes everything. Stern now faces an audience that won't be so willing to bow to his contemptuous pique when confronted publicly by a difficult subject. He may have to convince people that his game is not only fashionable and exciting and telegenic but on the up-and-up. The possibility of manipulated games raised the stakes about NBA officiating beyond the Crawford or racial bias stories. They called the game itself into question, and mere glibness or disdain won't work for Stern here.
Nor world it work for the NFL's Roger Goodell, Major League Baseball's Bud Selig, the NHL's Gary Bettman, MLS' Don Garber or any league commissioner. Ultimately, the personalities and the athletic gifts and the celebrity wheel and the bling and the multimedia machine balance on the virtue of the game itself. If the game is not to be trusted, we have professional wrestling, only without the stylized violence. We have art forms without validity. We have entertainment that is a lie.
That is why David Stern must hope to his very soul that Tim Donaghy is innocent at best, and an isolated case at worst. Stern must live in daily dread that there might be another official, or a player, or a team official in a position of influence who is weak, or vulnerable, or venal.
The sport is nothing without the game, and if no other useful lesson is learned here, it is that.
E-mail Ray Ratto at rratto@sfchronicle.com.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
David Stern's Hip-Hop Thug Life Gangsta Army
David Stern's Hip-Hop Thug Life Gangsta Army
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070504/vegas_nba.html
MGM Mirage CEO Blasts NBA All-Star Game
Friday May 4, 2007
By Ryan Nakashima, AP Business Writer
MGM Mirage Executive Blasts NBA All-Star Game for Hurting Earnings
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- MGM Mirage Inc.'s chief executive said Thursday that the NBA All-Star game potentially hurt its earnings and soured the company on bringing a franchise to Las Vegas.
Chief Executive Terry Lanni made the comment after the company, which owns the most casinos of any operator on the Las Vegas Strip, reported first-quarter earnings that fell below analyst forecasts, sending MGM Mirage shares down more than 4 percent. They rebounded 2.4 percent in after-hours trading.
The company said the earnings shortfall was partially due to the rowdy crowd surrounding the NBA All-Star game in February, which fell on the same weekend as Chinese New Year, a crucial period for bringing in high-rollers from Asia.
"The gang-bangers and others who came for purposes other than attending the game, they weren't very good for Las Vegas," Lanni told The Associated Press.
Lanni said there was little action on the gambling tables the day of the game.
"In talking to our casino hosts, a number of people stayed in their villas and suites. They felt uncomfortable," he said.
Excluding Beau Rivage which opened in Mississippi in August, quarterly casino revenues slipped 6 percent from a year ago, and table game revenue, including the baccarat game that Asian players favor, fell 7 percent.
During the All-Star game weekend there was a spike in arrests and complaints about rowdy behavior. Five people were shot, including three outside a strip club. Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones and two friends are being investigated for their roles in an earlier brawl at the club. The NFL suspended Jones for the season, but he has appealed.
"Mr. Stern can keep his basketball franchises out of Las Vegas as far as I'm concerned," Lanni said.
Later, Lanni backed away from the comments about the possibility of having an NBA franchise in Las Vegas. His complaints were "only meant to refer to the All-Star game," MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said.
Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, who has worked with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman in wooing an NBA franchise to the city, said Lanni made his concerns abundantly clear even before the city sent its proposal to commissioner David Stern last month.
"Frankly, it's a concern if a company like that has concerns on that scale, it's obviously something that we'll have to address if we're going to move forward," he said.
He also said he and the mayor tried to reassure Lanni that having a team based in Las Vegas might not cause the same trouble as a single, high-profile event.
"That was one game on one weekend," Reid said. "If there were 41 games here, it may be different, but I don't know."
Goodman said having a team cheered on by local fans would be vastly different from the rowdy tourist spectacle that the All-Star weekend became.
"There's a big difference between out-of-towners coming to Las Vegas to party and locals going to a ball game," he said. "The crowd that was disruptive is different from loyal Las Vegas fans who back their home team."
Stern had long opposed having a team in a city in which sports betting was legal, but said last month he would appoint a committee of owners to study the proposal Goodman submitted. The city's bid made no concessions that would block betting on a team.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070504/vegas_nba.html
MGM Mirage CEO Blasts NBA All-Star Game
Friday May 4, 2007
By Ryan Nakashima, AP Business Writer
MGM Mirage Executive Blasts NBA All-Star Game for Hurting Earnings
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- MGM Mirage Inc.'s chief executive said Thursday that the NBA All-Star game potentially hurt its earnings and soured the company on bringing a franchise to Las Vegas.
Chief Executive Terry Lanni made the comment after the company, which owns the most casinos of any operator on the Las Vegas Strip, reported first-quarter earnings that fell below analyst forecasts, sending MGM Mirage shares down more than 4 percent. They rebounded 2.4 percent in after-hours trading.
The company said the earnings shortfall was partially due to the rowdy crowd surrounding the NBA All-Star game in February, which fell on the same weekend as Chinese New Year, a crucial period for bringing in high-rollers from Asia.
"The gang-bangers and others who came for purposes other than attending the game, they weren't very good for Las Vegas," Lanni told The Associated Press.
Lanni said there was little action on the gambling tables the day of the game.
"In talking to our casino hosts, a number of people stayed in their villas and suites. They felt uncomfortable," he said.
Excluding Beau Rivage which opened in Mississippi in August, quarterly casino revenues slipped 6 percent from a year ago, and table game revenue, including the baccarat game that Asian players favor, fell 7 percent.
During the All-Star game weekend there was a spike in arrests and complaints about rowdy behavior. Five people were shot, including three outside a strip club. Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones and two friends are being investigated for their roles in an earlier brawl at the club. The NFL suspended Jones for the season, but he has appealed.
"Mr. Stern can keep his basketball franchises out of Las Vegas as far as I'm concerned," Lanni said.
Later, Lanni backed away from the comments about the possibility of having an NBA franchise in Las Vegas. His complaints were "only meant to refer to the All-Star game," MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said.
Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, who has worked with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman in wooing an NBA franchise to the city, said Lanni made his concerns abundantly clear even before the city sent its proposal to commissioner David Stern last month.
"Frankly, it's a concern if a company like that has concerns on that scale, it's obviously something that we'll have to address if we're going to move forward," he said.
He also said he and the mayor tried to reassure Lanni that having a team based in Las Vegas might not cause the same trouble as a single, high-profile event.
"That was one game on one weekend," Reid said. "If there were 41 games here, it may be different, but I don't know."
Goodman said having a team cheered on by local fans would be vastly different from the rowdy tourist spectacle that the All-Star weekend became.
"There's a big difference between out-of-towners coming to Las Vegas to party and locals going to a ball game," he said. "The crowd that was disruptive is different from loyal Las Vegas fans who back their home team."
Stern had long opposed having a team in a city in which sports betting was legal, but said last month he would appoint a committee of owners to study the proposal Goodman submitted. The city's bid made no concessions that would block betting on a team.
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