Judging by the webcast I'm viewing, it will start momentarily.
Wonder if that front row is reserved for, say, Murray Weiss of the New York Post.
If Jim Gray gets up and starts singing Lady in Red, I'm outta here.
Is Lady in Red reading The Post? Must work for one of the 10,000 media outlets which improbably got scooped on this story. Seriously, how does the New York Post get this story before The Times or ESPN?
David Stern WILL HAVE SILENCE!
Apparently Diddy hasn't woken up yet. Too bad, I'd love to hear what he has to say about Stern's tie. (I hear Ian Thomsen is also curious.)
(The rest is after the jump.)
The production value of NBA press conferences is amazing. Look at those fades and sweeps! Someone in the league's control room has a future in soft porn.
That security company Stern just mentioned... sell that stock. Yeesh.
Wow, the NBA has three layers of auditing with regards to referee performance. Can you imagine what kind of fun is in the Phoenix-San Antonio Game 3 paper trail?
I think Stern's eyes just turned red when he mentioned Donaghy's name. We have a new consensus top choice in the 'Who Sent the Death Threats?' pool.
The news so far: the league investigated his neighborly dispute, told him to knock it off, investigated his rumored gambling problem, turned up nothing, he ranks in the 'top tier' for accuracy among refs, the league first heard about the FBI investigation on June 20, met with the feds on June 21.
Stern confirms all the previous reports concerning the investigation: the feds think he bet on games he worked, and also possibly other games. Stern doesn't know the amount of games nor which games. He said he has been restrained in searching this information out due to FBI requests not to talk to anyone, even internally.
Donaghy quit before he got fired. A true tough-guy move.
Donaghy worked four preseason games the past two seasons. Dammit! I knew Ronnie Price got screwed last October in Fresno... Jose Juan Barea clearly hacked him.
Stern: "This is an isolated incident." He said no one else in the league is under investigation.
Stern is getting ready to take questions. This is where he can shine, cracking jokes and charming the pants off the basketball world. Cross your fingers.
Stern says the NBA will spare no cost in getting back the fans' trust.
I think the Commish just compared Donaghy to the Taliban. Something about 'turning on your country.' Wait, he's not shipping Donaghy to Gitmo, is he?
Rachel Nichols of ESPN wants to know if Stern cried when he found out. Killing machines DO NOT CRY. Didn't she get the memo from John Clayton? Stern dodges by announcing everyone's invited to the 'NBA Family Picnic.' I hear Pops Mensah-Bonsu makes a killer potato salad.
Which producer does Liz Robbins have to pay off to get some screen time? That crafty Rachel Nichols is a camera hog.
As a longtime NBA fan, I'm unaware of this 'covenant with the fans' Stern keeps mentioning. I'd like to hang it in my sitting room, but I never received one. I wish Chris Sheridan would ask how fans can alert the NBA they never received their covenant. I feel like I can't trust the NBA until I have it in my hands.
Stern: "I feel betrayed on behalf of the sport."
This CBS dude asks how Stern feels about the death threats made to Donaghy. Come on, people... 2+2=4. You don't need the Commish's phone records to figure it out...
David Stern has no patience for punk journalists who can't even put on a damn polo for a press conference. His first smackdown victim lies in his wake.
There he is, that cattily hilarious commissioner we know and love. (He's poking at Armen Keteyan's phrasing.) Unfortunately, the FBI shackles are restraining him quite a bit. Down with government.
Phil Jasper of the Philadelphia Daily News brings the heat with a 'Joey Crawford fisticuffs' question. Stern said that, plus the other stories about Donaghy's short fuse, was enough to warn him (and pull him off some playoff work) but not enough to sack him.
Only Stern can quote himself from an interview six months ago to refute a particularly tricky question. (He asserts he was taken out of context in a Las Vegas interview from the All-Star Weekend, an interview no one remembers but some newspaper researcher dug up. Yes, I'm a Stern fanboy.)
My connection's gone wonky, so this is it. My reaction, in short: Stern wasn't himself, but he said what needed to be said at this point. His aura of assurance allows us to believe him, I think, when he asserts the NBA didn't know until late June. That was the most nuclear accusation volleyed at the league -- that it knew but let Donaghy work nonetheless. I think we all, though upset to various degrees, understand crap happens. One bad cabbage and all that noise. But to be assured this is a singular problem, that this is a crisis but not a pandemic... that's what we needed. Call me doe-eyed, but I think the worst is behind the league. The damage is great, but repair is possible. Our NBA will survive.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. I knew I can count on Fanhouse to do this. I'm at work right now and can't watch the press conference live. Thanks in advance!
Posted at 11:08AM on Jul 24th 2007 by Marie
2. All I've got over here is CNN.... rrrrgh CNN sucks. They keep showing the same looping clip of Donaghy at a Rockets/Magic game. why?
And why is Kareem guesting on CNN? really?
Posted at 11:14AM on Jul 24th 2007 by Miss Gossip
3. Anything really interesting yet? I'd love to know, if the reports are true, why Stern continued to let Donaghy officiate if the league knew of the whole gambling thing and if he was already under investigation. And also, how could they not know of his violent past, or if they knew, why not do something about it?
Posted at 11:21AM on Jul 24th 2007 by Marie
4. "Rachel Nichols of ESPN wants to know if Stern cried when he found out."
Total chick question. As Mark Jackson would say, "come on Rachel, you're better than that."
Posted at 11:48AM on Jul 24th 2007 by Brett
5. YAYYYY is there really an NBA Picnic? I missed that part. I can't wait! Pops does make a mean potato salad!....
Posted at 11:55AM on Jul 24th 2007 by Miss Gossip
6. Nice job Tom.
One thing I picked up (this was early on in the presser), and that's when Stern mentioned they wanted to fire Donaghy immediately when they found out, but that the FBI told them they could gather more data if he was allowed to remain employed.
So if the NBA really didn't know until June 20-21, there weren't any games left for Donaghy to officiate, so what more information could they possibly gather? Those two things seem contradictory.
Posted at 12:08PM on Jul 24th 2007 by Brett
7. $250,000 for eight months work. I wanna be an NBA ref that is awesome.
Posted at 12:25PM on Jul 24th 2007 by MICHAEL
8. Thanks, Brett. The only thing I can think of as to why the FBI wanted the NBA to keep Donaghy under employ is that perhaps Donaghy's lawyer was in contact with NBA Legal, and the FBI thought they could something of value from it. It's a long shot, but who knows. We're all certain Stern would've loved nothing more than the personally deliver Donaghy his walking papers.
Posted at 12:50PM on Jul 24th 2007 by Tom
9. @Gossip, re: picnic --
Yeah, someone asked about whether the league was meeting to decide what to do. He said he's going to the NBA family picnic (which I now assume is for the corporate office folks) to reassure everyone the league will do what it takes to fix this and prevent it from happening again. Adam Silver is improbably manning the grill. (Another way in which we miss Granik -- mean-ass London broil on that son-of-a-gun.)
Posted at 12:53PM on Jul 24th 2007 by Tom
10. Seriously, how does the New York Post get this story before The Times or ESPN?
if you do not know by now then you never will
Posted at 1:05PM on Jul 24th 2007 by Jon
11. I listened to Mr sterns press conference regarding the gambling ref. And I dont think he took responsibility for his own negligence in allowing this to happen.Being an NBA FAN,I've said all along that the ref's should be investigated. Mark Cuban and players called for the same.Are so many bad calls in a game do to poor officiating? or is it something more sinister.Whatever the case, Mr Sterns over-protection of the ref's allows them or one in this case, to rise above suspicion so that a call is not just a bad call it's also covering the spred!
Posted at 1:20PM on Jul 24th 2007 by Jeff L
12. i would love to see the n.y. knicks - houston rockets championship series investigated,when fouls
were being called against patrick ewing and the knicks and allowing the rockets to just play
Posted at 1:50PM on Jul 24th 2007 by vee
13. Jeff L
You are not very bright.
Posted at 2:01PM on Jul 24th 2007 by Collar
14. Collar, If you have a point to make please make it. Obviously you didn't detect the sarcasm in my statement but at least I made a point.You, on the other hand, have nothing interesting to say.Idiot!
Posted at 2:33PM on Jul 24th 2007 by Jeff L
15. Collar,before we resort to name calling in these blogs, I'll explain the former statement for you. It was made tongue-in-cheek for the all the player's and owners who were fined for critizing the referees'for bad calls over the years.It's so frustrating for player's after a game, not be able to comment on bad calls, knowing that they will be fined by the league if they do so. As a fan, when I see a bad call, I want the player to say so after the game.Example} When Lebron James was intentionally fouled by Bruce Bowen in the final seconds of a game,he refused to say it was a bad call when it clearly was. The league say's don't critize the ref's so he didn't.
My statement was for fans like myself, who want them to call it like it is!
Posted at 3:07PM on Jul 24th 2007 by Jeff L
16. Jeff L
I had an answer all typed out and lucky i read your latest post first. I see where you are going and i apologize for the name calling. Now i will switch over the other browser i have to delete 40 minutes of typing.
Posted at 3:16PM on Jul 24th 2007 by Collar
17. I understand that Stern knew of Donaghy's problems in January. If so how could he let him ref a play off game. I have serious doubts about Stern's integrity over how he handled the Suns suspensions after the Nash shove into the scorers table. He should be forced to resign!!!!
Posted at 3:20PM on Jul 24th 2007 by marvdoc
18. As an executive. David Stern in an absolute joke, his main focus now is to keep his 20 mil a year salary. He marketed a league of superstars, and no team concept, and when the superstars stopped being athletes, and more like thugs, he tried to pacify his white fan base by making them wear attire that HE deemed suitable. What a joke. A good executive is proactive and not reactive, now all he does is damage control, to save his ass. If an owner who have invested hundreds of millions questions the officials, he has one of his minions fine them etc. But it turns out one of the officials in his emply has stained the intregity of the game. It's time to put this old relic out to pasture. Your time on the throne is way past overdue Stern.....Step aside and let someone with vision and passion take the reins and not some old now increasing biter old man. The NBA IS NOT about you and never will be.....You have become a JOKE.
Posted at 6:19PM on Jul 24th 2007 by The U Is Dead
19. I was surprised how upset Stern seemed about the whole ordeal today. Here's a funny article about his press conference and the situation:
www.sportsdopes.com
Posted at 10:19PM on Jul 24th 2007 by allamericandream
20. I was surprised how upset Stern seemed about the whole ordeal today. Here's a funny article about his press conference and the situation:
http://www.sportsdopes.com
Posted at 10:20PM on Jul 24th 2007 by allamericandream