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View Full Version : D. Stern: In China You'll Invest?



greybeard
10-12-2008, 02:47 PM
Just when I thought I'd seen everything in this era of greed, Davy Stern, Emperor of the NBA, does something that takes the cake. See, Sir David thought it oh so inappropriate for the league or one of its owners to actually pay for a new arena in a longtime NBA city, because, well, they didn't have too, and screw American cities, they don't pay, let them eat cake, or watch soccer, whichever comes first. Me, I thought then that Stern had gone way too far, declaring not only that the franchise could move, but that Seattle would have to wait forever before the league would ever consider giving it another shot at a franchise. I thought that in the then financial pressures that cities were under, blackmailing a city's populace by a threat of the sort Davy made was, not too put too fine a line on it, freakin unAmerican.

But, just when I thought it couldn't get any worser, what with China owning just about everything in the good old USA and whatever it doesn't own going in the tank, Davy boy announcing that he and da league are going to help folks in China build arenas so they can play basketball. Davy thinks China needs our help in developing arenas, needs our cash, the cash that we pay the NBA through cable fees and corporate seats at our own USA arenas (I don't know about the rest of you, but I have always had a fixed rate mortgage and would not pay the current freight to go to an NBA arena if I could and probably could not if I would, assuming I was interested in getting a seat that permitted me to actually see the players on the court).

You know what I think about this latest move by Davy and the NBA? Yeah, I suppose you do. Boycotts do work.

BryanCenterBlues
10-12-2008, 06:25 PM
I like the fact that the game is expanding abroad.

In fact, I hope NBA players start playing in Europe so the NBA is forced to become more international.

greybeard
10-13-2008, 12:10 AM
I like the fact that the game is expanding abroad.

In fact, I hope NBA players start playing in Europe so the NBA is forced to become more international.

i like it that the international style of play is becoming more and more integrated into the pro game here, ie, the Suns and the Lakers, the Knicks soon. I think K is leading the way in the college game in bringing international play to the fore in that venue. I think that this is a throw back to old style basketball that I grew up with.

I don't like Stern investing US dollars to build arenas in China to grow the NBA's profits there, while insisting that cities here pay the entire freight for new arenas or loss their right to a franchise forever. I see no value in any of this for the average fan, or the sport. Sheer greed, and an egomaniac who sees growth for growth sake as a measure of his worth as a Commissioner.

Living in a city where the schools are in desparate need of major repair and where the owner of the Zards, who once built an arena with his own nickle 20years ago and is now asking a 50 million handout from my city to build new amendities for the rich, the NBA's lack of even a modicum of concern for the country that gave it birth, the great cities of this country that grew the NBA, sickens me.

Investing in China; hey it worked for Nike and made JT II a spokesman for what passes as good old US capitalism in its modern form. Some capitalism. Government sanctioned monopolies engaged in predatory practices that make the robber barrens of the original era of monopolies look like choir boys. Join the party David. Who's gonna win the NBA title. Ask em in Bejing, that's where all the money is.

77devil
10-13-2008, 06:58 AM
There is nothing wrong with the NBA investing it's capital abroad, emphasis on the word it's. International investment is an obvious source of growth for the NBA. Shame on the U.S.city leaders that succumb to owners who blackmail them for new stadiums. Whether capitulation ultimately is economically beneficial for the cities or just a matter of prestige is debatiblle. But no one is forcing city fathers to pay.

greybeard
10-13-2008, 11:29 AM
There is nothing wrong with the NBA investing it's capital abroad, emphasis on the word it's. International investment is an obvious source of growth for the NBA. Shame on the U.S.city leaders that succumb to owners who blackmail them for new stadiums. Whether capitulation ultimately is economically beneficial for the cities or just a matter of prestige is debatiblle. But no one is forcing city fathers to pay.

If you equate capitalism with greed, and that would comport with Mssers Hobbs, Locke, and Rosseau, then you are correct, there is nothing wrong with it. I just think it stinks. By the way, the NBA is a monopoly engaging in practices, extortionary practices, which by any other monopoly would be criminally actionable. The reason that they are not no doubt has something to do with the body politic permitting politicians with a larger hold than those mayors in cities held hostage giving them antitrust exemptions.

Be that as it may, Stern's actions might not be wrong, but, by me, they are shameful. He invests in arenas in China. You should come to my city which used to produce some of the most storied players in this sport. Go to the high schools where they played. Take a look at the gyms in those high schools. Then tell me who should be ashamed that Stern holds those cities, my city, hostage by the threats of the sort carried out in Seattle. The next time Stern and his capitalists do something for helping to build the infrastructure that could actually do something for the young men on whose back this league is built, I mean aside from insisting that they forgo going immediately to the pros to protect NBA owners from themselves, will be the first.

You tell me, why did Stern permit the owners of the Seattle franchise to leave that city, and please don't try to say that he did not have the power to stop them. Then we'll talk about the difference between legally wrong and shameful.