At the end of Tuesday’s new episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO, the eponymous host was highly critical of NBA commissioner David Stern.
Calling him “infamously egocentric,” Gumbel said Stern “seems more hell-bent lately on demeaning the players than resolving his game?s labor impasse” (HBO, 10/18).
To any and everyone who?d listen, [Stern] has alternately knocked union leader Billy Hunter, said the players were getting inaccurate information, and started sounding chicken-little claims about what games might be lost if the players didn?t soon see things his way.
Stern?s version of what?s been going on behind closed doors has, of course, been disputed. But his efforts were typical of a commissioner who has always seemed eager to be viewed as some kind of modern plantation overseer treating NBA men as if they were his boys. It?s part of Stern?s M.O. Like his past self-serving edicts on dress code or the questioning of officials, his moves are intended to do little more than show how he?s the one keeping the hired hands in their place.
Some will, of course, cringe at that characterization, but Stern?s disdain for the players is as palpable and pathetic as his motives are transparent. Yes, the NBA?s business model is broken, but to fix it, maybe the league?s commissioner should concern himself most with a solution, and stop being part of the problem.
(Transcript from HBO Sports via Fang’s Bites)
