An article by Eric Barrow in the New York Daily News asserts that the NBA has a David Stern-led inferiority complex, and the league needs to “embrace what [it] is: Black and proud.”
Barrow points out that “[a]ll the dress codes and league fines won’t change what’s already ingrained. Hip-hop and the NBA are one.” Stern, he says, is fighting a losing battle against hip hop in an effort to market a predominantly black sport to a predominantly white audience.
This certainly isn’t news. Anyone who has observed the NBA and the actions the league office has taken in the past three years knows that David Stern is not just ashamed of his players, he’s disgusted by them. David Stern has no respect for any players in the NBA; his disapproving attitude to his employees and their culture has even become fodder for satire. That he is still the commissioner is only testament to his ego; Stern wants to show that he can outlast his players, that he is constant while his employees come and go.
This can only damage the NBA. Stern treats his players like children, even legislating their body language during the National Anthem. He tells them how to dress, how much they can complain, what ball to use — and all unilaterally, without consulting any of the people his rules affect. When someone feels that they can tell you what to do and when, without any discussion or agreement, that conveys a severe lack of respect. Stern has no regard for his players as men and does not see them as equals.
Stern gets a pass from the media when it comes to his motives. Whether they agree or disagree with him, most writers believe that Stern’s actions are strategic; a sort of necessary evil caused by a need to make the “sport more palatable to White America” and “put a big, fat smiley face on the angry black athlete.” The truth is, while part of Stern’s reasoning does stem from trying to keep the league mainstream and afloat, his motives come from his own egomaniacal need to enforce his rules and ideals his way.
One need only look at the way Stern has treated Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban. Cuban, successful in most of his ventures, disagrees with the way Stern markets the league. Cuban believes the league should market more within the U.S., to build on the success from last year’s playoffs. Cuban is quoted as saying that “[a]n increase of 10,000 viewers each in [mid-market, non-NBA cities] could go a long way to increasing television revenues.” Stern, on the other hand, spent the offseason pushing the league in China and elsewhere. Certainly, nobody is saying that Stern should do whatever Mark Cuban says, but the commissioner shows little to no respect for the Mavericks owner or his opinions, not even answering his phone calls and going so far as to create new rules specifically targeting him.
Anyone who opposes Stern, either from an ideological or cultural standpoint, is either shunned or stifled. Stern will impose his views on how the league should be run, without allowing for any opposing views. And included in his vision is an idea of how the players should act and who they should be. This is where Stern will destroy his league. By being disgusted with his players and by wanting them to conform to his — and others — standard of decency, he will turn his league into the NFL, his players mostly anonymous. Unlike the NFL, which thrives on having its players be second fiddle to the game itself, the NBA lives through the personalities of its players.
As long as David Stern continues to disapprove of his league’s personalities, allowing for the media and others to do the same, he will become the main catalyst of the destruction of his league. The NBA survives on personalities. That the league’s commissioner seems to despise so many of them only gives the league’s critics more ammunition, and casual fans fewer reasons to watch.
