This is from Marc Stein's BSPN column:
Updated: April 8, 2005, 11:49 AM ET
FAQ check: You've got questions; we've got answers
By
Marc Stein,
ESPN.com
Marc Stein Archive
The league's marketing efforts get easier when guys such as Carmelo Anthony first become stars in college.
Fears of unsafe driving conditions in the Northeast at the time forced us to postpone Stern's visit to ESPN's Bristol campus until today, so your humble correspondent combed through the 1,400-plus original chat questions sent in for Le Commish and picked out the Elite Eight.
The eight topics, that is, which ESPN.com users wanted to ask Stern about most ... with the answers coming instead from Stein based on interviews with various league and team insiders.
Those answers:
Q: Can we avoid a lockout for next season, or is the basketball world ignoring what has happened in hockey?
A: The latest buzz from both sides is remarkably upbeat.
Turns out it's a misconception to think that it's unlikely we'd see an agreement hammered out before the season ends because folks are too consumed by the season for serious bargaining. To the contrary, the sides have meeting regularly for talks since the All-Star break.
Which can only be a good thing with less than three months to go before the current deal expires. It's clear that neither party wants a lockout for even one day in July, knowing how negatively fans react to the mere mention of the word. The NBA's owners and players are thus drawing strong motivation to agree from the NHL's fate, but the biggest source of optimism is that neither side is seeking major alterations to the current system. Unlike the summer 1998, when the sides were so far apart philosophically that the lockout eventually stretched into January, no one is proposing a total redo.
As a result, as long as the talks continue, there's a real chance another half-decade of labor peace can be secured by the NBA Finals tip-off. Mercifully.
Q: Are the rumors true about an age limit coming in soon?
A: Contrary to popular belief, the union hasn't agreed to this yet.
The feeling remains, though, that the players will eventually give in here because it's the most palatable concession they can make in negotiations -- since it wouldn't affect anyone currently playing in the league and likely would create a few extra jobs for veterans.
Stern, for example, wants a more stringent luxury tax than the one currently in effect, penalizing owners who exceed a certain payroll threshold by at least $2 for every dollar over the threshold. The owners, meanwhile, want the maximum length of guaranteed contracts to be shortened from the current six or seven years to three or four. Those are changes the union resists with considerably more conviction than age restrictions.
And let's be honest. For all the amazing preps-to-pros success stories the NBA has reveled in –
Kevin Garnett,
Kobe Bryant,
Jermaine O'Neal,
Tracy McGrady and
LeBron James for starters – an age restriction would obviously be a massive boost to the sagging-in-quality college game. Which would thereby result in more prepared prospects matriculating to the big leagues, while also providing the two years of pre-NBA player marketing Stern's business used to benefit from.
Q: How long do we have to wait before we see the NBA adopt a baseball-style, affiliated minor-league system?
A: This is another subject where some long-standing premonitions are being dispelled. Because there has never been a baseball-style minor league affiliated with the NBA, and because the threat of being sent down to the minors would be such a blow to the egos of basketball players who've never had to face that prospect, it was natural to presume the union would never agree to the minor-league concept.
Take a kid like
Darko Milicic, who has already suffered plenty under Larry Brown, having been banished to a very public residency on the Pistons' bench while James and
Dwyane Wade and
Carmelo Anthony play lead roles for their teams. Do we really want to see Darko dispatched to Roanoke or Huntsville now? What would that do to his confidence?
Sources on both sides, however, indicate that this is another concession the owners are likely to secure from the union, thanks to a couple of key provisions. The NBA wants to expand the NBDL to 15 teams, with two NBA clubs sharing each minor-league club -- but with the crucial caveat that no player with more than three seasons of service time could be sent down. Veterans, in other words, would be protected from minor-league assignments.
The other key? First-round draftees such as Darko, if sent down, would still earn their NBA salaries. Combined with the age restrictions, it all sounds promising. Youngsters would have a place to earn minutes and learn the game instead of relying solely on practice time that never comes close to replicating game conditions.
Q: What does the NBA think of baseball's steroid controversy?
A: Stern is said to want a more stringent substance-abuse policy than the program in place, but not because of a steroid threat. Steroid use is already banned by the NBA, and the consensus view is that it's not an issue in hoop circles. Of far greater concern to Stern is marijuana use, and reaching terms with the union on tougher (and more frequent) testing figures to be one of the stickier subjects in collective bargaining.
Q: Why can't the league make All-Star Saturday as exciting as it used to be?
A: Our news here is not encouraging. By all accounts, the league was thrilled with All-Star Saturday, even though the only thrilling stuff (in our view) came from
Josh Smith (and the one
Amare Stoudemire dunk set up by that header from
Steve Nash). So don't expect any significant changes to the format.
Q: Will we ever see an NBA franchise in Las Vegas?
A: The collapse of the latest arena proposal in Sacramento -- combined with the
Chris Webber trade and Joe and Gavin Maloof's business interests on the Strip -- have made this a timely topic again. Panicky subjects of Kings Nation undoubtedly fear that the Maloof Brothers are planning to move the franchise to Vegas if Stern allows it.
There is no evidence to suggest the Maloofs are planning a Vegas move, but you can count on this: The NBA will have a Vegas franchise someday. Stern remains staunchly against putting NBA basketball in a state that allows gambling on NBA games, and he's not going to budge from that position. He allows the WNBA's Connecticut Sun to play at the Mohegan Sun casino only because betting on NBA or WNBA games is not permitted in Connecticut.
A growing majority of owners, however, want to see a Vegas franchise because the market has so much potential. We've already seen Stern relent and allow summer-league play in Sin City. Stern has no interest in further U.S. expansion, but eventually the owners will persuade him to let an ailing franchise relocate there.
