David Stern retiring

#26
#26
Again...he takes all the heat for the BS in the league, they continue to make record profits...what more could the owners want?
 
#28
#28
n_huffhines said:
Doesn't he work for them?
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The entire notion of the American sports commissioner started when Kennesaw Mountain Landis was appointed following the Black Sox scandal. A commissioner is (or at least was) supposed to be the guy above the fray, a theoretically independent guy with the best interest of the sport at heart. This may sound crazy if you're under 30, but believe it or not, there used to be a time when all the various commissioners would sometimes take action that ran against what the owners wanted. The owners employed the commissioners, of course, but they weren't always just a rubber stamp for what the owners wanted.

Eventually this mostly died, of course, with the most egregious milestone being when the baseball owners fired their commissioner and just appointed one of themselves to the job. Baseball effectively hasn't had a commissioner for 30 years. The other sports at least have the pretense of having a semi-autonomous robot in place.

Bettman is the worst (or, arguably, the best) modern commissioner [1] because he has literally no independent presence at all. He is not there. He is a focus of hate for the fans, and that is all. The owners screw the fans and the fans boo Gary Bettman at the All-Star Game and nothing ever changes.


[1] Other than Selig, of course, who does not count.
 
#29
#29
n_huffhines said:
I have a hard time blaming Stern for most of the stuff he does because he is just acting in his own interest like most would in his position. My beef is that the NBA was more fun to watch 20 years ago than it is today. I think part of that is they took a lot of the toughness out of basketball because they were so scared of the urban thug image.
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This! The league has become so soft with everybody crying about every little call. I'd love to stick today's stars back in the Jordan era. They would literally be crying after a game with the Bad Boys or the Knicks with Oakley. Conversely, could you imagine MJ in today's game? No hand checking, breathing too hard on someone is a foul, he wouldn't have to worry about someone killing him if he went inside. He'd average 40, and I dont even like MJ, but he'd be ridiculous with these rules.
 
#30
#30
No matter what, the owners pay their salary so that pretty much determines all the commissioner's incentives are centered around making the owners happy.

I'm sure commissioners have ruled against individual owners in the interest of the league/fans. Do you have an example of a significant issue where the commissioner ruled against all the owners?
 
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