duncan228
11-01-2008, 09:50 PM
Financial problems trouble NBA commish (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Financial_problems_trouble_NBA_commish.html)
Mike Monroe
NEW YORK — In my first interview with NBA commissioner David Stern, in a storage room in ARCO Arena two days before the start of the 1985-86 season, I encountered the intellect that almost always makes Stern the smartest person in any room.
Now, Stern's brainpower underscores the unsettling situation the league faces in the months, perhaps years, of economic stress that seem to await us.
Even the commissioner seems befuddled by what is happening to the world economy, and this is stunning.
On many past occasions, Stern has called the period of early-to-mid 1980s as the most challenging in NBA history. Too many players had problems with substance abuse. Attendance lagged. Some games in the 1983 Finals were tape-delayed by CBS because there wasn't enough interest to rationalize pre-empting regularly scheduled primetime shows.
Bad times for the NBA, indeed. But when I asked him Friday how the economic crisis compares to those scary days, Stern's answer was as frightening as it was honest.
“The only honest answer is: I have no idea,” Stern said. “And, I'm now persuaded, neither does anybody else, particularly (executives) of all the iconic American companies that are now on the ropes. And if they don't know, and if government officials don't know, what we're all doing is groping, together, to do the best we can.”
At the NBA's offices in midtown Manhattan, this means getting by with about 80 fewer employees eliminated in recent layoffs.
Stern is like the rest of us: waiting to see how bad the economic downturn gets. Only then will he know how to respond.
“I don't want to predict gloom and doom,” he said, “and I also don't want to be Pollyannish about it, because this may be terrible, and something seems to be happening for which we have no experience and no frame of reference, except each time someone tells us this is worst since 1982, and the worst since 1969 and the worst since the Depression ... I don't know, and I don't think we will know until we leave whatever we're going to get to. Then, we'll all look back and say what it is.
“Right now we just know it's a very turbulent and unsettling time, and it may be catastrophic.”
Stern guided the league through the bad, old days of the early 1980s by tackling each problem forcefully, and in concert with the league's partners, especially the players' union. He negotiated TV contracts that created important new revenue streams and beefed up the league's marketing operations. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan helped a lot.
Today's solutions are dicier because the problems are harder to define.
“Then,” Stern said, “at least you sort of knew where the gushing sound was coming from and where you were trying to put the tourniquet. Here, you cut expenses, you cut travel, you cut jobs, you sell harder, you try to create value. But ... it's just like how many tens of billions of dollars does it take to save an ailing insurance company? The answer is: We'll know when they're saved, and in the meantime, just keep putting the money in.
“So I don't know, and the only comfort I get, which actually makes me more uncomfortable, is that nobody knows.”
Not even the smartest person in the room.
Mike Monroe
NEW YORK — In my first interview with NBA commissioner David Stern, in a storage room in ARCO Arena two days before the start of the 1985-86 season, I encountered the intellect that almost always makes Stern the smartest person in any room.
Now, Stern's brainpower underscores the unsettling situation the league faces in the months, perhaps years, of economic stress that seem to await us.
Even the commissioner seems befuddled by what is happening to the world economy, and this is stunning.
On many past occasions, Stern has called the period of early-to-mid 1980s as the most challenging in NBA history. Too many players had problems with substance abuse. Attendance lagged. Some games in the 1983 Finals were tape-delayed by CBS because there wasn't enough interest to rationalize pre-empting regularly scheduled primetime shows.
Bad times for the NBA, indeed. But when I asked him Friday how the economic crisis compares to those scary days, Stern's answer was as frightening as it was honest.
“The only honest answer is: I have no idea,” Stern said. “And, I'm now persuaded, neither does anybody else, particularly (executives) of all the iconic American companies that are now on the ropes. And if they don't know, and if government officials don't know, what we're all doing is groping, together, to do the best we can.”
At the NBA's offices in midtown Manhattan, this means getting by with about 80 fewer employees eliminated in recent layoffs.
Stern is like the rest of us: waiting to see how bad the economic downturn gets. Only then will he know how to respond.
“I don't want to predict gloom and doom,” he said, “and I also don't want to be Pollyannish about it, because this may be terrible, and something seems to be happening for which we have no experience and no frame of reference, except each time someone tells us this is worst since 1982, and the worst since 1969 and the worst since the Depression ... I don't know, and I don't think we will know until we leave whatever we're going to get to. Then, we'll all look back and say what it is.
“Right now we just know it's a very turbulent and unsettling time, and it may be catastrophic.”
Stern guided the league through the bad, old days of the early 1980s by tackling each problem forcefully, and in concert with the league's partners, especially the players' union. He negotiated TV contracts that created important new revenue streams and beefed up the league's marketing operations. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan helped a lot.
Today's solutions are dicier because the problems are harder to define.
“Then,” Stern said, “at least you sort of knew where the gushing sound was coming from and where you were trying to put the tourniquet. Here, you cut expenses, you cut travel, you cut jobs, you sell harder, you try to create value. But ... it's just like how many tens of billions of dollars does it take to save an ailing insurance company? The answer is: We'll know when they're saved, and in the meantime, just keep putting the money in.
“So I don't know, and the only comfort I get, which actually makes me more uncomfortable, is that nobody knows.”
Not even the smartest person in the room.