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Leagues and Governing Bodies

ESPN The Magazine Claims David Stern Runs NBA Much Differently Now Than In Past

NBA Commissioner David Stern is "not the same as the old Stern, the Stern once considered the most player-friendly of all commissioners, the one credited with understanding both Main Street and Madison Avenue better than his peers, resulting in a boomtown NBA," according to Howard Bryant of ESPN THE MAGAZINE. Today's Stern has "presided over two lockouts in a dozen years, with a referee fixing games in between." More important moving forward, he has been "exposed as the enabler of the hopeless cadre of small-market owners who shut the game down." Stern "escaped any real blowback for his mishandling of the [Chris] Paul trade or for interjecting himself into the deal in the first place." At the same time, he "exploited the anti-player, anti-union sentiment in this country that always gives institutions the advantage in winning over the public -- and he did so without much scrutiny." Still, Stern's moves "will come back to haunt the league." He sent a "clear signal that the Lakers needed curbing, the way baseball for years tried to rein in the Yankees." Bryant notes Stern, who "rose to power during the Bird-Magic-Jordan years, shouldn't need a history lesson to know the NBA has been at its most profitable when people care enough to love or hate the superteams in Boston and Chicago, New York and LA -- and Miami today" (ESPN THE MAGAZINE, 2/6 issue).

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE INJURED: In Austin, Kevin Lyttle notes the NBA "feared a backlash from the lockout, which delayed the season's start from Nov. 1 to Dec. 25, but attendance is down only 3 to 4 percent, and TV ratings have soared." TNT's ratings are "up 65 percent from last season while ESPN's ratings are up 20 percent." NBA TV ratings have "risen 68 percent." But Lyttle notes scoring and shooting percentages "are down, turnovers are up, benches are being used more as coaches rest their weary stars and injuries are piling up, likely because of grueling schedules and the lack of a real training camp" (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 1/27). NBA.com's Shaun Powell asked, "Have you ever witnessed so many injuries, so many poor shooting nights, so many lopsided scores in so short a time? Has there ever been a first month of a season as astonishing as this one?" Powell: "Part comical, part tragic and totally freakish, this season is starting to separate itself from all others, and not entirely for the better" (NBA.com, 1/25).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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