Will David Stern be fired?

July 24th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

Heard some talk-radio folks speculating about this yesterday, and sort of brushed it off. David Stern, fired? He is the NBA at this point. Firing Stern would amount to a professional mutiny perhaps never seen in professional sports, and certainly the most incredible in my (all things considered, short) lifetime.

But the more Stern stood before the reporters today and answered so many similarly worded questions — How did he get away with this? When did you know? Was he betting on games he personally reffed? How did you feel? — it was pretty obvious Stern’s position is shaken like he’s never been before. He went so far as to call the mess, without prompting, the “worst situation I have ever experienced.” And he’s been in the NBA since the mid-60’s!

So a firing of Stern, while unprecedented and overly reactionary, might be just what the owners think this lead needs.

Still, that said, Stern’s press conference couldn’t have gone any better than it did. In my humble, non-PR-practicing experience, he was conciliatory and polite, rather than abrasive and condescending; he conveyed the seriousness of the situation well without playing Chicken Little; and he did well to make the casual fan realize that he was every bit as upset by Donaghy’s “rogue” actions as they are. Stern and his NBA might have crapped the bed on Tim Donaghy — and the owners may still hold him accountable for that — but at least the bleeding is beginning to stop. That’s an accomplishment in itself.