29 replies to this topic

[Greg Pappas]

http://deadspin.com/... ... urned-ugly

[SportsGuy]

WOW!

[mweb08]

He didn't actually accuse him of beating his wife. He was making a point.

[SammyBirdland]

I stared into the ego of those two men and saw infinity.

[Greg Pappas]

He didn't actually accuse him of beating his wife. He was making a point.

I agree with you, and was trying to make that point to my brother and father, but we all agreed that Stern should have refrained from getting into that mess. Rome was being Rome and asked a question that he knew would get a reaction. He did... but not necessarily the one he expected.

[Pedro Cerrano]

David Stern is an insanely defensive prick IMO. Yea, it's absurd to think that the lotto is fixed IMO but enough people believe it might be fixed that the issue should be addressed.

I'm no Jim Rome apologist, but getting uber-defensive when asked about it doesn't help Stern.

[Oriole85]

I've already said this and it's fairly obvious, televise the lottery itself. I don't think it's fixed at all, I'm sick of all the sports conspiracy theorist out there, but not being transparent here is clearly hurting his case.

[Adam Wolff]

I've already said this and it's fairly obvious, televise the lottery itself. I don't think it's fixed at all, I'm sick of all the sports conspiracy theorist out there, but not being transparent here is clearly hurting his case.

Yeah, how difficult would that be?

[bnickle]

Words can't describe how much I despise Stern and I don't like Rome either.

[Adam Wolff]

Words can't describe how much I despise Stern and I don't like Rome either.

Same here. I think Stern is a rat and Rome is way too pompous for my liking.

[mweb08]

David Stern is an insanely defensive prick IMO. Yea, it's absurd to think that the lotto is fixed IMO but enough people believe it might be fixed that the issue should be addressed.

I'm no Jim Rome apologist, but getting uber-defensive when asked about it doesn't help Stern.

I agree.

Of course we both probably dislike him a bit more post nixing of the CP3 deal.

[Pedro Cerrano]

I agree.

Of course we both probably dislike him a bit more post nixing of the CP3 deal.

To be sure.

[DJ MC]

I didn't click the link, so I'm going to assume Rome started calling him "Daniel" or "Howard" Stern instead of "David", and got what was coming to him.

I've already said this and it's fairly obvious, televise the lottery itself. I don't think it's fixed at all, I'm sick of all the sports conspiracy theorist out there, but not being transparent here is clearly hurting his case.

Except that the most famous "fixed" lottery is the televised 1985 lottery, with the stories of the frozen, or creased, or otherwise doctored Knicks envelope.

[mweb08]

I didn't click the link, so I'm going to assume Rome started calling him "Daniel" or "Howard" Stern instead of "David", and got what was coming to him.



Except that the most famous "fixed" lottery is the televised 1985 lottery, with the stories of the frozen, or creased, or otherwise doctored Knicks envelope.

Your assumption is incorrect.

[PD24]

Rome did absolutely nothing wrong. He could have phrased it "How do you respond to people who believe the fix is in?" but I understand him asking the direct question.

He asked the question, and gave Stern the platform to explain why it was not fixed.

All he did was become a defensive, out of line prick.

[Oriole85]

Remember the "Chris" Everett interview? http://www.youtube.c...h?v=dOVxitMy47c

[LanceRinker]

I think the reason why so many people believe, or accuse, the lottery is being fixed is because:

a) Stern is kind of a prick and not very likeable, IMO (and the opinion of many fans and beat writers)

b) The lottery is kind of a joke in the eyes of many fans, especially fans of teams who are truly terrible.

The NBA draft is really the only way horrible teams can build themselves up and into a somewhat competitive team and that only happens when you pick in the top 5, sometimes the top 10 in particularly deep draft classes (but those don't always happen).

Free Agency and the money Free Agents can command is pretty crazy and can seriously impede the development of an organization if you get hamstrung by a bad contract or two (which most teams do when they venture into FA).

Unfortunately, having the worst record does not guarantee you'll actually get the number 1 pick and can build your team up via the draft by picking in the spot that you actually should be.

I understand the concern that teams can tank it at the end of a season to get into better draft position, but they can do that anyway to improve their odds of winning the lottery.

There has to be a better way to divy out the draft picks for the horrible teams so the worst of the worst could actually build their team up more quickly. That's just my two cents though and also part of the reasons why I'm a casual basketball fan at best now.

[Greg Pappas]

Agree with most about Stern being hard to like... but I feel the same about Rome... so as some have noted, I could do without either of them.

[Oriole85]

I understand the concern that teams can tank it at the end of a season to get into better draft position, but they can do that anyway to improve their odds of winning the lottery.

I don't believe teams tank if they do it's from orders of upper management. Why do the coaches and/or players who will not be on the team care who they will not be coaching or playing with respectively?

The big difference between tanking to get a better draft position versus tanking to move up in the draft is the former is not guaranteed. Sure it improves your odds, but it won't necessairly get you your goal. The latter will.

[LanceRinker]

I don't believe teams tank if they do it's from orders of upper management. Why do the coaches and/or players who will not be on the team care who they will not be coaching or playing with respectively?

The big difference between tanking to get a better draft position versus tanking to move up in the draft is the former is not guaranteed. Sure it improves your odds, but it won't necessairly get you your goal. The latter will.

I don't believe teams tank it either, horrible teams in the NBA have a much more difficult time beating the best teams in the NBA than the worst teams in other sports versus their assumed best teams. There's not much competitive balance, IMO, in the NBA and I think that's what leads some people to believe that teams tank it and that the lottery could actually be fixed - when I don't believe either to be true.