David Stern's cunning plan?

[Rastapopoulos]

All this talk of NBA players going overseas is supposed to scare the owners into caving. But I have a sneaking suspicion it's all part of Stern's Big Plan. He's always been big on international expansion, and on his watch the NBA's global footprint has grown hugely. If actually good NBA players go overseas in any numbers, it can only increase global interest in basketball, which will work in the NBA's interest in the future, when, inevitably, it goes back to being the richest league in the world. (It'll be like MLS getting Beckham and Thierry Henry.) And, of course, Stern knows that if the players DO go overseas, they're going to miss the NBA like crazy, because they're used to a level of comfort (including actually getting the wages they're promised) that foreign leagues just won't provide.

So... I have a feeling Stern is cackling and rubbing his hands and saying "EXcellent!" and missing the season is more inevitable than ever.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I doubt it's part of Stern's "plan", but I do think it's a positive for the league and Stern is smart enough to take good advantage of it.

As to this making owners "cave", I doubt it. All but one or two of the owners have revenue streams aside from their franchise and will probably lose less money without league play than with. If the lockout continues past one season (which is very possible) they will have to get real concerned about the value of the franchise and at that time the players will have more leverage.

 

[jlprk]

I think the opposite. Stern doesn't care. This angle--that players going overseas will put pressure on owners to settle--is being overhyped by both posters and media.

I don't think playing in Europe is as bad as writers are claiming. I think players who go are motivated less by money (or demotivated less by lack of comfy NBA conditions) than by an inner need to stay busy and work.

So the two motives of money, and of pressuring owners, are far less important than a professional athlete compulsively wanting to stay busy. That inner drive, that compulsion to have daily workout rituals, is what propelled him into the NBA and the player can't change.

 

[HailBlazers]

David Stern's Plan

 

[HailBlazers]

stern's coming pawn is more like it