And that is a shame, because one week ago Adam Silver was in position to become the next commissioner of the NBA — a commisssioner who actually would have been beloved by the owners — after being the lead negotiator on one of the most lopsided labor deals in the history of professional sports.
But Adam is a lawyer, and lawyers operate differently than the rest of us. When lawyers are facing off against other lawyers, they don’t want to win by 40 points, they want to win by 50. They get greedy.
So now, Silver is becoming Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner who became Public Enemy No. 1 in Canada when he shut down the NHL for an entire season.
Instead of being the guy who wrangled $2.4 billion in financial concessions out of the players by cutting their share of revenue down from 57 to 51 percent, he is just another bad guy in a bad movie who is giving a bad reputation to lawyers everywhere. And that is a shame.
I spoke about Silver, the stalled negotiations and the endangered legacy of NBA commissioner David Stern this morning with host Jorge Sedano on 790-The Ticket in Miami. Click here to listen to the interview.
Chris: this is not just about money. After the Lebron, Melo, Chris Paul toast (at Melo’s wedding) etc, the owners have decided they want to show who is in charge and they will make the players return on the owners terms.
They could easily have a deal right now but the owners want the players to sweat and suffer. Of course, the owners are doing this at the expense of those who pay the bills (consumers) but they probably think people will somehow forget all of this. Personally, I hope the consumers send a loud message but we will see.
you really buy the Stern story about Hunter unilaterally walking out? seemed like more “it’s all their fault” nonsense spin again when he said it — maybe Hunter literally left first, but if the league was holding on the 50-50 split, they hadn’t actually dropped their “precondition” stance in the first place.
just because stern said it over and over again doesn’t make it credible — is there a better source than stern confirming his one-sided characterization? it could be true, but…