(The playoffs are) a road you have to follow if you want to be considered among the great ones, because it demonstrates that you're either making the players around you better or management is putting better players around you in order to showcase your talent longer into the playoffs. |
[Abdul-Jabbar is not the only former NBA player looking -- without success -- to get back in the game.] There are numerous Hall of Fame players who would like an opportunity to work in the NBA, ... and hundreds more who are not in the Hall of Fame. We field calls, meet with many of them and sometimes even hire them in our coaching camps to expose them to teams. In the end, the marketplace takes care of itself. |
[Mohamed's defense attorney David Stern asked the jury not to make his client a martyr.] Send him to jail and he'll be forgotten, ... Kill him and you guarantee him immortality. |
[The commissioner stopped short of saying the incident set the league back to the 1970s, when its image was of drugs and militants.] I didn't see that at all, ... In fact, in a funny kind of way, business was OK. ... Dress codes are a separate issue, a lot less important, but apparently more important to a lot of people than we would have thought. |
[Yes, Bryant is innocent until proven guilty. And until he is convicted of a crime he has every right to earn a living. NBA commissioner David Stern said the right thing (publicly) when asked recently by a newspaper reporter whether Bryant should play as he awaits (along with the rest of us) the outcome of the criminal case against him:] Absolutely. ... could be [his] choice but [he] shouldn't be forced to. |
a cool cat. I think he's from the 'hood. |
a merger between the basketball capital of the world and the entertainment capital of the world. |
A substantial amount has been done for the baseball and football teams. I'm here personally to find out whether the same is being considered fairly for the NBA. |
A two-year suspension for a first offense would, as a practical matter, end the player's career in the vast majority of circumstances. |
All corporations have a social responsibility to contribute to the health, welfare and advancement of the communities in which they operate, but professional sports leagues carry a special obligation, |
All options are on the table. I think he worked hard to improve the team in Portland. He built the Rose Garden. At some point, he's entitled to say he's not going to subsidize it any further. |
Allen proves as well as anyone else has ever proven that if you've got game and you leave it all out there, you pick up the admiration of people around the world. And we love to see that happening. Because that's what shows our game at its best, sort of the teamwork, what it takes to play at the level and what he's willing to put up with in terms of injuries to continue to excel at this level. |
Although networks will continue to garner important groupings of fans, ... the inexorable march to cable is underway. |
Always with respect to who plays where, [intentionally losing] was always an issue. It's something we're going to live with. |
As good a job as [CNN's] Anderson Cooper does, you have to see the devastation to understand its scope and its impact. |