NBA Commissioner David Stern and syndicated radio host Jim Rome got into an odd back-and-forth this afternoon on Rome’s show. Rome brought up the topic of the Hornets winning the Draft Lottery and whether it was fixed.
Stern: “I have two answers for that. I’ll give you the easy one: No, and a statement: Shame on you for asking.”
Rome: “I understand why you would say that to me, and I wanted to preface it by saying it respectively. I think it’s my job to ask because I think people wonder.”
Stern, sounding perturbed: “No, it’s ridiculous, but that’s okay.”
Rome: “I know that you think it’s ridiculous. But I don’t think the question is ridiculous, because I know people think that. ... I’m not saying that I do, but I think it’s fair to ask you that.”
Stern: “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?”
After a couple minutes of back and forth, Rome said he can “understand why you’re frustrated” by that line of questioning.
Rome: “I would hope that you would not hold that against me.”
Stern: “I wouldn’t hold out that against you. You and I have been into more contentious discussions than that.”
Rome: “I don’t know. I’d put that one right up there.”
Stern: “Well, it’s good copy, and you do things sometimes for cheap thrills.”
Rome: “I did not do that for a cheap thrill, that’s not what that was.”
Stern: “Well, it sounded like it.”
Rome: “I got no thrill out of that” (“The Jim Rome Show,” 6/13).
