You could be forgiven for not thinking too much about basketball today. With the Super Bowl taking all of the sports-related attention, and only one game (and that Orlando-Boston) on the schedule, it’s one of the quietest days of the NBA season, right up there with Christmas Eve. I, on the other hand, would not be forgiven if I didn’t think too much about basketball, because it’s my job to bring you the latest news from around the NBA every weekend.
David Stern called it quits today. Over 30 years and billions of dollars later, it’s hard to deny the impact he had on the NBA. Stern grew the league to new heights. When he became commissioner in 1984, annual revenue of the league was $165 million, today it’s more than $5.5 billion. When he started, the average player salary was a mere $290,000, currently it’s $5.15 million. He had help along the way. Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and LeBron
Saturday marks the end of one of the NBA’s most profound era’s. Not the “Jordan” era. Not the “LeBron” era. Saturday, February 1st marks the end of the “David Stern” era. [Read more…]
As it was in the beginning, so it will be in the end, an NBA without David Stern, amen. It’s true. There is going to be an NBA without its commissioner of the last 30 years, who’s handing over his axe, er, stepping down in favor of Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver on Feb. 1. It just won’t seem like the NBA, though. Not that the league won’t continue on its merry way. The stars will still be stars. The league will continue to
Hours after it was reported that Mark Cuban would be receiving a fine from the NBA, the Dallas Mavericks owner took to Twitter to voice his thoughts on the matter. Never one to bite his tongue, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Cuban chose to comment on the issue. As he took to social media upon hearing of the $100,000 fine, Cuban hinted that this would not be the last time he would be getting penalized by NBA officials. [Read more…]
Mark Cuban said he wanted to get fined one more time by commissioner David Stern before the old man steps down. Mission accomplished. The NBA socked the Dallas Mavericks owner with a $100,000 fine Saturday for confronting the officials and directing inappropriate language at them following the Mavericks’ 129-127 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, Jan. 15, at Staples Center. Cuban has been fined 20 times, including 14 for criticizing officials. The penalties have added up to nearly $1.9 million, and
These fans are sitting in what used to be press row at Madison Square Garden David Stern never really cared about the people who did more to publicize his product than any other group: the NBA beat writers for the daily newspapers, and later, for the major Web sites. Stern pretended to evince a modicum of interest in his meetings with us, which came a couple times during the year. He’d listen, then basically ignore everything he heard.
Adam Silver is a nice guy, or so I’ve come to believe. There are those who will tell you the exact is opposite, but they say so in a whisper. They are not what is known in NBA headquarters as an FOA (Friend of Adam), and thus they fear and loathe him the same way so many basketball fans fear, loathe … and hate, yes hate, outgoing commissioner David Stern. Fairly or unfairly, Stern has become a lightning rod for every grievance