White Sox and Bulls Chair Jerry Reinsdorf recently discussed the tenures of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and NBA Commissioner David Stern, as well as the "differences between ownership in MLB and the NBA," in a Q&A by Barry Bloom of MLB.com. Below are excerpts from the interview.
Q: Let's start with Selig.
Reinsdorf: Bud without doubt is the best commissioner we in baseball have ever had. His ability to build consensus is amazing. If he weren't commissioner, he could have been a majority leader in the Senate. He's on the phone every day with everybody. We hardly ever have a vote that's not 30-0. And they don't start out that way.
Q: How do you replace him?
Reinsdorf: I don't think we're ever going to have a guy who did it the way he did it. Part of why he's so good is that he ran a team, so he understood the difficulties of running a team. ... The guy is a baseball junkie. He watches all the games he can watch every night. I don't know. I haven't got the slightest idea who's going to succeed him, but he's going to be a tough act to follow.
Q: Are there any areas in which he has particularly excelled?
Reinsdorf: He surrounded himself with good people, with [MLB Exec VP/Business] Tim Brosnan, [MLB Network President & CEO] Tony Petitti, [MLB COO] Rob Manfred and [MLBAM President & CEO] Bob Bowman, and he let them do their jobs. But I think the biggest thing that he's done since he's been commissioner is MLBAM. He grasped it right away, and if it wasn't for him we never could have sold it to the teams.
Q: How do you compare him with Stern?
Reinsdorf: Their styles are completely different. David is more autocratic than Buddy. He gets teams to go along with him because they know he's so smart. He gets his votes in the meetings. He doesn't build consensus ahead of time. He's more of a corporate CEO, I guess. ... David doesn't really deal with his shareholders the way Buddy does, but the results are the same.
Q: What do you think Stern's major impact has been?
Reinsdorf: David's greatest achievement has been international. ... David does more things himself than Buddy does. David negotiates the TV contracts. David negotiates the labor agreements. He does it himself. Buddy tends to empower people to do things.
Q: Where do you see the NBA going under league [Deputy Commissioner & COO] Adam Silver?
Reinsdorf: Adam is going to be more of a Selig type. He's going to involve ownership more in the decision-making process and be a consensus builder more like Selig than like Stern. And that's not a knock on Stern. That's just Adam's personality (MLB.com, 11/21).
