Retired NBA Commissioner David Stern has plenty of time and lots of opinions, and is no longer bound by executive decorum. All of that added up to a highly entertaining 35 minutes this morning at the opening session of Day 2 of the ’15 IMG Intercollegiate Athletic Forum. Stern held little back in an interview with Executive Editor Abe Madkour, repeatedly slamming both Congress and plaintiff’s lawyers attacking the NCAA. “What the NCAA is running into now is what I like to think of as judicially abetted collegiate ambulance chasing,” Stern said. “You get lawyers who find, ‘Oh, they’re an organization that can only exist by conspiring.’ Any agreement by two organizations at least provides a predicate for the claim that it violates anti-trust laws, but then this whole issue of amateurism, and whether you can pay athletes, it’s just too easy for lawyers for plaintiffs, who say we don’t want to say what they should do, we just want you to say it’s illegal, and then, at the end of the conclusion of the case, make an award of legal fees and let everyone else figure out what to do.” And then he quickly turned to Congress: “If there were some legislative bodies in Washington who could ever pass anything of relevance, I think they should help the whole college situation by coming up with a legislative set of rules to protect whatever definition of amateurism they’d like to apply.”
ON THE HORIZON: Stern predicted trouble down the road caused by cost-of-attendance stipends. “The concept of colleges bidding for players against each other, how do you spell ‘unseemly’?” And he touched on a variety of other issues, repeating his calls for legalized sports gambling, and calling the ongoing dispute over daily fantasy “ridiculous.” “It’s clearly a game of skill,” Stern said. He predicted that large tech and digital companies will soon become serious players in media rights bidding wars, saying, "That’s inevitable.” He also downplayed concerns about it limiting audiences, saying sports fans will always be willing to do what it takes to watch games. The NBA did its first cable deal in '79, when only 4 million homes in the entire U.S. had cable, he said. “Suppose Apple says, ‘We’ll take the Super Bowl, and it can only be seen on Apple TV, or your iPhone, or your iPad, or your watch,’” he speculated. “Everyone would then have the watch.”
DO-NOTHING CONGRESS: But back to Washington. In the context of legalized gambling, he again mentioned the possibility of federal legislation, only to again doubt Congress’ capacity to successfully address it. “On more occasions than I care to remember,” he said, he traveled to DC to testify at a poorly attended Congressional hearing that amounted to little more than member speeches. “And nothing ever happens,” Stern said. “Except unless Bud (Selig) brought along Hank Aaron, and then they want to talk to him. And I can say it now, because my general counsel isn’t saying you should go. I’d say, 'why should I go?' Nothing ever happens. ... It’s totally dysfunctional.” As Madkour tried to wrap up, Stern turned to the audience with a wide smile. “I thought I was going to be here all morning. I’m having a ball!”
