Stern what a guy -NBA lays off 80 people

[Alice]

i realize this is not a bucks topic and lock it away if you will(and you will) but i a hate stern, i cant think of one nice thing to say about the guy. he is a pompous jerk sitting on throne looking down at everyone else. lays off 80 people? all small salary guys i am thinking. but i bet stern and his high priced cronies don't take a pay cut. no proof but i am guessing he is the head of the ref fixing games scandal too.

[MickeyDavis]

I agree 100%

[drew881]

Its easy to attack him here, but I also think its easy to overlook that the NBA, just like any organization, has to deal with economic issues as well. Its easy to look past the NBA and look at the owners and their expenses and losses, bu the NBA has its own deal as well.

I disagree with a lot Stern has done at times, and I don't like his arrogance, but if they are losing money, they have to tighten up their expenses somehow. We don't know how much money he is saving by laying off 80 people, and it may not seem like a lot. I am more curious to see how many people the NBA employs to see how large of a layoff this is.

[emunney]

It's 9% of the employees according to the article.

[BuckHole]

Stern is going to run this league into the ground!
He needs to slowly reduce the # of teams, appeal to new fans, and cut loose the WNBA. What do you think the optimal # of teams are. I'd prefer no more than 20 teams.

[EastSideBucksFan]

Why don't the players take a pay cut?


Why doesn't he make it so small market teams aren't forced to pay a guy like Michael Redd $90M just to stay "competitive"?

Why doesn't the CBA adjust so teams aren't strapped paying a guy like Brian Cardinal $25M too much and 5 years too long?

The NBA needs to go the way of the NFL and eliminate guaranteed contracts. It would make teams, players and the league much more competitive and enjoyable.


Yep, we can't even fill stadiums at home and pay the small NBA employees yet Stern keeps spouting his rhetoric of expanding to Europe. What a fool.

On the topic of refs fixing games, Stern did absolutely nothing to convince hardcore and casual fans that the NBA only had one ref fixing games. I can honestly say that about 20 of my friends don't care about the NBA at all and wouldn't even go to a game with free courtside tickets. Thats how bad it's gotten.

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

Stern's job is to make money for the owners. If you aren't the kind of guy who can make realistic choices that are profitable, then the owners will fire you and get someone else in there to do the job.

The idea that he could turn the NBA into a charity and that the owners would stand for it doesn't make any sense. They already barely turn a profit as it is.

This 80 person layoff seems like a petty problem to complain about in light of everything else that's going on in the economy. GM is laying off 2.5k in Janesville two days before Christmas. Tens of thousands are getting laid off in the financial sector. We're facing a tough economy like we've never seen in our lifetimes guys.

[paulpressey25]

I was watching CNBC tonight and they had on Mark Cuban and Bob Johnson owner of the Bobcats to talk about the NBA and the economy.

They really couldn't talk about anything. Bob Johnson started off on a tangent about how he's now hired Larry Brown to combine with Michael Jordan. He feels that is the smartest and most powerful GM/coach tandem in the league and should get accolades as owner for putting those two together. Then he talked about how great it will be to get Adam Morrison and "Scott May" back from injury.

The CNBC hosts were just befuddled since the question was about hedge funds.

Anyways, I'll get back on topic myself here. This must mean the NBA is seeing very slow season ticket sales right now and advertising revenue will be down. And the players better brace themselves as well, because their revenues get reduced of the revenue numbers don't hit certain targets.

I'd love it if out of this whole economic mess, we decided we didn't need to pay these guys so much money or they had to lose their guaranteed contracts.

[aaprigs311]

I absolutely hate Stern as well. I think he is a condescending, passive aggressive prick.

[worthlessBucks]

I was watching CNBC tonight and they had on Mark Cuban and Bob Johnson owner of the Bobcats to talk about the NBA and the economy.

They really couldn't talk about anything. Bob Johnson started off on a tangent about how he's now hired Larry Brown to combine with Michael Jordan. He feels that is the smartest and most powerful GM/coach tandem in the league and should get accolades as owner for putting those two together. Then he talked about how great it will be to get Adam Morrison and "Scott May" back from injury.

The CNBC hosts were just befuddled since the question was about hedge funds.

Anyways, I'll get back on topic myself here. This must mean the NBA is seeing very slow season ticket sales right now and advertising revenue will be down. And the players better brace themselves as well, because their revenues get reduced of the revenue numbers don't hit certain targets.

I'd love it if out of this whole economic mess, we decided we didn't need to pay these guys so much money or they had to lose their guaranteed contracts.

Scott May better watch his weight too, might end up like Sean. I'd love to have seen that interview, maybe they'll put it up on the web somewhere. Did Cuban have anything to say?

[MajorDad]

I think pro sports are going to start seeing a lot of cutbacks from industries. Paying for naming rights of stadiums/arenas is going to stop. luxury suites will not be renewed. luxury season ticket sales will drop.

I know a lot of people who work at that Janesville GM plant. A lot of them were my classmates and friends for the last 30 years. A company like GM can't give so many people the pink slip and still wastefully spend money on tickets for pro sports teams. The UAW will take a hard look at where GM is spending its money. When the Janesville plant shuts its doors, you can bet other departments/divisons of GM will start closing as well.

I have to believe other major corporations will also look at what they currently spend on pro sports and cut back as well. and people like me, whose retirement fund took a huge hit last week will also be looking at ways to save money. My son still wants to go to an out of state college named U of Michigan. You can bet i'm going to have to cut back on my bucks games attendance for the next decade and this 2000 Dell is going to have to last another year.

[fam3381]

Apparently the layoffs started weeks ago. Lots of younger people who weren't making much money got the axe while (surprise!) more senior people making bigger dollars weren't touched.

[MajorDad]

fam- that's similar to evey major company. people with seniority stay. people who were the last hired are always the first fired / layed off. That's why so many teachers want to get tenure. once they get tenure, they consider themselves safe from being fired or laid off.

on the other hand, at places like the janesville GM plant, Gm will try to get as many people as they can to retire early. or take a settlement.

and when you're 50 years old and all you've done for the last 30 years is build a car, the only places that will hire you are McDonalds and WalMart. and unfortunately, at age 50, you still need a job, so you take it.

[Alice]

Stern's job is to make money for the owners. If you aren't the kind of guy who can make realistic choices that are profitable, then the owners will fire you and get someone else in there to do the job.

The idea that he could turn the NBA into a charity and that the owners would stand for it doesn't make any sense. They already barely turn a profit as it is.

This 80 person layoff seems like a petty problem to complain about in light of everything else that's going on in the economy. GM is laying off 2.5k in Janesville two days before Christmas. Tens of thousands are getting laid off in the financial sector. We're facing a tough economy like we've never seen in our lifetimes guys.

petty this buddy. i felt bad enough straying from the bucks on the bucks forum but at least it was basketball related. i hate people getting screwed no matter what the case is. while the fat cats get rich or even bailed out of trouble. nobody bails out joe average they just take his home and or savings. what i am saying is you make good points but dont demean me by calling it petty. fair enough?

also the point was on stern and what a arrogant ass he is, not a post on Americas economic crisis. i am willing to bet the 80 laid off all together dont make as much as stern. for me better to fire one stern than 80 others.

[Alice]

I agree 100%

coo,l great minds think alike, in the future i will try to stay on bucks subjects.

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

also the point was on stern and what a arrogant ass he is, not a post on Americas economic crisis. i am willing to bet the 80 laid off all together dont make as much as stern. for me better to fire one stern than 80 others.

Do you have a replacement in mind for Stern who is willing to work for free, or are you suggesting the NBA opperate without a commissioner?

[jerrod]

c'mon

80 lower level people or the president of company, who do you think is more expendable?

that's business, it just is.



on a basketball note i disagree with quite a few things stern has done lately but he was also the commissioner while the league was at it's absolute peak.

[MickeyDavis]

The same year Stern became commish Jordan, Barkley, Olajuwon and Stockton entered the league. He also had Bird and Magic. The "peak" years were because of them, not because of anything Stern did.

[jerrod]

The same year Stern became commish Jordan, Barkley, Olajuwon and Stockton entered the league. He also had Bird and Magic. The "peak" years were because of them, not because of anything Stern did.

well yeah,

but he did a good job of using the assets he had to grow the league. no league is going to be succesful if they don't have players people want to watch

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

The same year Stern became commish Jordan, Barkley, Olajuwon and Stockton entered the league. He also had Bird and Magic. The "peak" years were because of them, not because of anything Stern did.

Those players are indeed the main reason for the NBA's success, but that doesn't mean we can go so far as to say that Stern's done a bad job. If we can't use the league's success as a criteria to judge its commissioner, what can we use?

All the complaints about Stern seem unimportant to me.

-Dress code controversy
-Synthetic ball
-No handchecking (this one I don't like, but even so it hasn't at all altered my enjoyment of the game)

Then there's the ref controversy, which I simply can't pin on Stern. The incentives for a rogue ref to cheat are very clear, and really the only way to remove them is to pay the refs more than the gamblers can.