David Stern is a genius

[litex]

Last season was a disaster in a lot of ways. In addition to the everpresent modern refrain of "Stern has pussified the league!" and "stop flopping!", there were a number of extremely high profile controversies, including one of the worst officiated playoff series ever (Suns-Spurs), a Referee with a freaking gambling problem, the revelation that like every other ref gambles against the rules too, and one of the worst-rated finals of all time.

And yet...

Nobody mentions that stuff anymore. Donaghy isn't just las year's news, he's last offseason's news. For all the negative coverage it got at the time, he's been all but entirely swept under the rug. The idea that the corruption that got to Donaghy might be more widespread is never, ever brought up, not even after Stern failed to punish all the other refs who have gambled.
The Shaq trade alone got more press than the idea that something may have gone awry in this Spurs-Suns series. A classic example of a controversy that really wasn't. And the finals have been largely forgotten except when they remind people that King James took the Cavs there last year- somehow the Detroit series still gets talked about more than the finals that followed. It doesn't sound all that impressive until you consider that had David Stern not been such a master of the media, the ref scandal could have easily been as big or bigger than the baseball steroids scandal.

Meanwhile between the Ray and KG, Pau, Shaq and maybe Kidd trades, the league hasn't been this exciting in years- the West is absurdly stacked with high-profile multi-star teams, the East has the league's biggest star (James) and its best team (Boston). Boston is back, so is L.A. Even the horrible teams have shifted into rebuilding mode, so that even if the fans don't have much to cheer about now they at least have a future to care about. Lebron is statistically the league's best player, validating Stern's decision to make him the centerpiece of the new NBA. Kobe might win again, so might Shaq, but there's a good chance they have to go through each other to do it. KG might finally win one. The storylines are abdundant, the regular season has been great, and the stage is set for the most exciting playoffs in nearly a decade.

I realize some of this is luck/stuff Stern has no control over, but you have to give him credit. To go from one of the league's worst years in a lot of respects to one of its best is damn hard. I really, really doubt Goodell or Selig could have done the same.

[jourdy]

I was actually wondering what happened to the other referees..
Didn't Donaghy say he will give testimony to 20 other refs that gambled?