David Stern took over the NBA when basketball was on the rise. Magic and Bird ruled the NBA, Jordan, Barkley, etc. were on the rise. Everyone – and I mean everyone – I knew played and watched basketball, and I say this as someone who lived in a large city white middle class neighborhood bordering a white blue collar neighborhood but went (bussed) to a poor Black/Asian high school and a small-town University. When I graduated from college in the early 90s, we watched nearly every game on TV, whether college or pro, and discussed basketball endlessly. When the 1990 NBA seasoned opened, a bunch of us gathered to watch. Now, no one I know watches basketball — they all watch the NFL. Not just in my city, but all my work peers across all cities (i work at a large, national company)…
David Stern inherited a sport on the rise and he left it in decline and got rich along the way. I resent what he represents; he – like so many modern-day Business Leaders – “led” a sport that squeezed every ounce of blood from a turnip and killed something people believed in. The NBA – like all terrible Fortune 500 companies run by ridiculously-paid/right-place/right-time CEOs (see Microsoft) – will survive but is another sign of a society in post 1990s-decline and that is slowly evolving into an Aristocratic country not unlike Tsarist Russia. (The NFL will be like this too (10 years?) as Roger collects a huge salary based on the success of his predecessors and the sweat of an increasingly large poor populace).
10-Minute Scribblings 