[Previous entry: "Violence and Philadelphia Schools"] [Next entry: "Charter Schools"]
11/23/2004: "David Stern"
I don't have much to say about the throwdown in Motown, other than to note that many of Commissioner Stern's comments deserve wider circulation.
The whole news conference can be found here but several paragraphs are worth considering:
The penalties issued today deal only with one aspect of this incident, that of player misconduct. The actions of the players involved wildly exceeded the professionalism and self-control that should fairly be expected from NBA players.
We must affirm that the NBA will strive to exemplify the best that can be offered by professional sports and not allow our sport to be debased by what seem to be declining expectations for the behavior of fans and athletes alike.
But in all deference to Coach on that one, the spectacle of state troopers having to separate college kids is part of the same problem that we're all dealing with. It's what is acceptable from players, athletes and fans alike. And we'll deal with our problems and they should deal their substantial problems.
I made a reference earlier that in order to restore order in the college game, there seemed to be a battalion of state troopers, which is not something that we have gone to in the NBA and are not looking to go to. We'd like to think that the civil contract that guides us in our games is such that we understand what may happen and can adequately deal with it.