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David Stern makes people like Jim Rome

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by TheSportsPredictor, Jun 13, 2012.

  1. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    I'm no lottery expert, but I'd love an explanation of why there's a 10-minute interval between balls.
     
  2. Stoney

    Stoney Well-Known Member

    Valid thoughts worth considering.

    Who thinks it's just coincidence this happens right after Rome leaves ESPN? How many times was Stern on Rome's show during his ESPN years? He didn't ask questions like this then.

    And I remember after the Donaghy thing broke the general consensus around here was that this story would become HUUUUUUGE. But that really didn't happen so much. Whether ESPN is responsible or not, the story plainly did not get the kind of lasting traction everyone was predicting.
     
  3. That 1 Guy

    That 1 Guy Member

    Before yesterday, I had no feeling whatsoever on the NBA lottery. I'm not really an NBA fan, so I could care less. After reading about Stern's reply to Rome's question, I believed the lottery is rigged.

    But after writing those three sentences I realized I had not actually listened to the clip. So, I did.

    I respect Jim Rome after listening to that interview. Stern was way out of line. Rome asked a legitimate question. And after saying no in answer to the query and listening to Rome explain why he asked the question, he basically took a personal cheap shot at Rome. I also think Rome was righteous in taking offense when Stern said he had made a career out of cheap thrills. Whether you like him or not. (I was previously neutral on the subject. Never listened to him on the radio.)

    Stern's response did change my mind on the conspiracy theory, though. Every once in a while the worst team doesn't win the lottery. It happens. Same with Powerball, Mega Millions, etc.
     
  4. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    I don't know about your balls, but at my age, 10 minutes is a sufficient recovery time.
     
  5. J Staley

    J Staley Member

    How is Rome's question legitimate? No bombshell proof of the NBA rigging its draft lottery had emerged. Rome certainly didn't have any. The worst team may have the best chance, but it has only won the lottery four times. The third-worst team has won it six times. It happens. The two most hyped prospects of my life as an NBA fan were Shaq and LeBron. If it's rigged, why have these stars go to small market teams with zero national appeal.

    Stern may have lost control and professionalism, but his attack wasn't personal. He responded with a obviously loaded question to a subtly loaded question. Rome asked, "was the fix in for the lottery."

    Anybody that has covered high school sports long enough probably has fielded calls from parents claiming a coach is verbally abusive. When I was a reporter it happened twice. Both times the parent offered no evidence and did not want to go on the record. They wanted me to write something based on that call I'm not going to question the coach, then write an article scrutinizing his ethics without more evidence and/or willingness from the parent to take accountability.

    To me, that's what Rome did.

    And yes, for cheap thrills.
     
  6. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    For what it was, the Donaghy story was buried. Yes, they talked about it, but it was pretty clear from Day 1 that ESPN was going to treat the story with kid gloves and then push it away.

    I don't remember what SI did with it. I just remember consensus being, "This may be the biggest sports scandal of the last few decades and it's being treated like a story that is no big deal at all."

    Stern basically said Donaghy has no credibility and people drank the kool-aid and walked away.

    It tells you the kind of power ESPN has these days. If ESPN doesn't act like it's a big deal it stops being a big deal.
     
  7. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    Well, of course. ESPN is the reason why Sportscenter is basically a commercial for the NBA.

    After all, can't have the primary rights-holder denigrating the product, after all. ESPN can dog the NFL, NHL and MLB all it wants because, while it has contracts with two of the three leagues, it isn't the primary rights-holder.
     
  8. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    There were a lot of factors in play. It was a 9 p.m. start and I was working at a paper on the East Coast, so I'd be curious if I even got quotes in the paper. I'm curious to go back and see how long the game was, it seemed really long with the all the fouls in the fourth quarter.

    Every writer there was in shock. As I've told a hundred times, I remember a longtime NBA writer coming in and saying "I have no idea what to write, I have no idea what I just saw."

    Most of us felt like that.

    The column I wrote for the off day basically said that after Game 6 you should question anything that you see from the NBA. The column got a ton of feedback, some telling me to join Mulder and Scully and the Cigarette smoking man...

    Then you have a travel day and a Game 7. The questions were asked. There's only so much you can do when you have no proof, but you know what you saw. I want to find Wilbon's story from that night and the next day because I remember him being one of the ones who was beating the "It was fixed" and "It was the worst officiated game I've ever seen."

    Where the story took a turn was years later when the Donaghy scandal broke.

    In 2002, anyone saying the game was fixed was a conspiracy theorist.
    In 2008, when the Donaghy story broke, and he said the game was fixed, well, that added a bit of credibility to those theories.

    But the combination of Stern saying Donaghy had no credibility, the time that had passed and ESPN doing everything it could to limit the story's impact, it just went away... Way too quickly...
     
  9. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    The "when did you stop beating your wife?" is hardly a personal attack as it has been labeled. It's a popular and even cliche demonstration of what a loaded question can do.

    Now, when Eric Wynalda said Rome could suck his dick, THAT was a personal attack.
     
  10. exmediahack

    exmediahack Well-Known Member

    Sacramento SHOULD have won both Games 6 and 7 and were done in by getting the yips in the 4th quarter and some of those calls. They were ridiculous.
     
  11. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Game 6 was rigged. Sac choked in Game 7.
     
  12. Spartan Squad

    Spartan Squad Well-Known Member

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