They said the New York accent would never play nationally but they sure were wrong. The voice is a huge part of the allure. He’s New York City through and through, born in the city, school in the city, all that crap. Lots of stories about his dad and his dad’s business. The neighborhood! The… Continue reading David Stern part 5: portrait of a honcho
Category: David Stern
David Stern part 4: The DelCo files and the plane ticket scandal
Somewhere at the intersection of Pac-12 sports and David Stern is this particular forgotten 2013 scandal: Ed Rush forced to resign after bounty comments. Ed Rush was the head of basketball officiating for the Pac-12. Before a game he told a group of officials that he was putting a bounty out to reward whomever would… Continue reading David Stern part 4: The DelCo files and the plane ticket scandal
David Stern part 3: basketball as a business
One of the best things ever written about sports, business and fandom was this essay by Bill James in his 1987 Baseball Abstract. I’ve never seen it reprinted online and no doubt this is a fair use violation but I need to quote it in its entirety. If you have never read a Bill James… Continue reading David Stern part 3: basketball as a business
David Stern part 2 : NBA popularity
The Party claimed, for example, that today 40 per cent of adult proles were literate: before the Revolution, it was said, the number had only been 15 per cent. The Party claimed that the infant mortality rate was now only 160 per thousand, whereas before the Revolution it had been 300 — and so it… Continue reading David Stern part 2 : NBA popularity
On the matter of David Stern
David Stern died just over two years ago. If someone wrote the obituary he deserved I did not see it. They have all fallen on a spectrum between “breathless hagiography” and “chin-stroking encomium”. Let us summon the Advocatus Diaboli. Let us dig up the old pope. The truth demands it. Future generations take note. If… Continue reading On the matter of David Stern