I think the Commissioner is taking the steps necessary to give the game back to the players and the fans and hopefully take the league to the next level.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Rather than saying that the commissioner is hired by the owners and therefore is subservient to them, you have to look at whether or not the players are getting a fair shake.
We can take action with a player without the league taking any action. But all that we can do is, we can deactivate him. But we're limited under the collective bargaining agreement to four games.
I don't know if 1300 players could really participate in the selection of a commissioner, and I've never given it a great deal of thought. I think it's a logical point they could make, but it's only an academic one.
The one thing I didn't understand was the Minor Leagues, how that part of the business works. I'd see Todd Hollandsworth out there one game, and the next game he wouldn't be there, and I didn't understand.
I'm a huge fan of the game. It's beyond a fringe benefit of obviously getting to work at the league office. I watch a ton of games in person, on television, on all forms of new media I follow the league. And so it's just beyond my wildest imaginations to me to now be the commissioner of the NBA.
One thing that we've invested a lot of in, that we all live by, is the power of the commissioner.
All an agent is going to do is buy things for a player, damage his eligibility, and make the player dependent on them.
Today, free agency takes away a lot of your heroes, they go somewhere else. Some of them don't but a lot of them do-take the higher offer to go somewhere else. And, it turns the fans off because they get attached to the players.
The contracts are structured different than athletes in America, but for me, it was good to move on and go back to playing in the premiere league, which is the best league. It was disappointing, as far as the team goes, but for me, there wasn't much I could do.
I think the NBA players have to be held accountable in a reasonable way, just like any other professionals.
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