NBA Commissioner David Stern discussed his nearly 30 years leading the league today on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike in the Morning" and said as his tenure winds down, the league's biggest on-court issue is "we just have to keep it going." Stern said, "We have to keep looking at getting it right with respect to replay ... and we have to continue in the age of increased technology available to all. You just can't be in an arena where every fan can see the replay on his or her smartphone. It's up there on the board, but the referees don't have access to it because of our rules, and we have to find a way to accommodate not killing the game by having replay every time. But also assuring the fans that we're trying to get it right." Stern said the league has to "continue to manage the extraordinary opportunity, particularly digital and global, that this game now presents to us." Following Pacers C Roy Hibbert being fined Sunday in part for using a homophobic slur after Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, ESPN's Mike Greenberg asked what the league can do to "change the culture of phrases" like what Hibbert said. Stern: "All you can do is continue to stress the inappropriateness of conduct and speech, and the ramifications that come from it, if it's mean-spirited or prejudiced or the like. We've been working with our players for years on this subject. We've been working with anti-bullying organizations and I'm comfortable that we're getting there." Stern noted the league can do a lot to curb flopping "if we decide to." Stern: "The whole idea this year was to dip our toes into the water by identifying the most egregious and issuing the small fines. We could ramp it up if we decide to, and that's something that we'll have to talk to the Competition Committee and the owners about."
A DIFFERENT GAME: Greenberg asked how different Stern feels approaching the Finals than he did 30 years ago. Stern replied, "It was a completely different league. I was reminiscing with someone last night at the game. All of the arenas that we have didn't exist then in their current form. The popularity of our game, despite the great stars, was only beginning to rise. The television was nowhere near where it is now. The global exposure, the digital age -- it's a completely different league, in a good way" ("Mike & Mike in the Morning," ESPN Radio, 6/4).
