HBO's Bryant Gumbel Compares NBA's Stern To "Plantation Overseer"

In his closing remarks on HBO’s “Real Sports” last night, host Bryant Gumbel said, “If the NBA lockout is going to be resolved any time soon, it seems likely to be done in spite of David Stern, not because of him. I say that because the NBA's infamously egocentric commissioner seems more hellbent lately on demeaning the players than resolving his game’s labor impasse.”

More Gumbel: “Stern’s version of what’s been going on behind closed doors has, of course, been disputed. But his efforts were typical of a commissioner who has always seemed eager to be viewed as some kind of modern plantation overseer, treating NBA men as if they were his boys. It’s part of Stern’s M.O. ... His moves are intended to do little more than show how he's the one keeping the hired hands in their place” (“Real Sports,” HBO, 10/18).