NBA Technical Foul

For the past two decades, David Stern has run his league with an iron fist. He has protected the image of the league, its players and officials to a degree unheard of by any commissioner. But in the wake of the news of one of the more shocking, and ongoing, scandals in recent sports history, the Commish seems at a loss. But, true to his nature, he is sticking to his guns, refusing to acknowledge a widespread problem or apologize to the fans
Indeed, Stern was humble and almost perplexed, by the news, but instead of seeming contrite on behalf of the league, he seemed angry and more willing to cast the scandal in a light relative to other sports scandals than be apologetic.
"This is a subject that we discuss at the NBA, the statistical the institution of the statistical development database was at my direction and the institution of the two of the more recent annual review of all that's legal were at my direction," he said at his press conference on Tuesday. "And so I'm aware and have been aware of the threats in place to all sports. We followed with particular interest the recent referee scandal in the German soccer league, the Bundesliga League ..."
Here, amidst the biggest scandal to ever rock his sport's world, he turns to pointing at the relative calamity that befell a German soccer league? Oh, commissioner.
Stern should have approached the podium, said the league was doing its best to cooperate with government officials and then promise his millions of fans around the world that the league would do absolutely everything in its power to protect the integrity of the game and earn back the trust of fans. Instead, he blamed the whole scenario on one rogue agent. Methinks thou doth protest too much, Mr. Stern.
He should have said the league was at fault, after all, it is the body which hires, and protects to a serious fault, all referees from public scrutiny. People have been skeptical for years about the integrity of the league, dating back decades. Now, when the public finally has substantial evidence to which it can point as an example of referee misconduct, Stern refuses to budge in his defense of the officials.
Instead of being outraged that his league has been infiltrated by crooks and cheaters, if only one, Stern went into full PR spin mode and spent 20 minutes praising his officials and the job they all do on behalf of the sport. Here, in a time where Stern should be attempting to act as forthright as ever, he simply could not take off his lawyer's hat.
But Stern is not in a courtroom right now; he is in the much more difficult and capricious court of public opinion. After years of skirting criticism of his league, he had finally been called out by the federal government, but instead of doing his best to win the trust of his fans, who have found yet another and much more concrete reason to stop watching, he defended his baby.
TV ratings have plummeted for years. The regular season is too long and not compelling enough to remain relevant for seven months. The playoff format is a joke. Officiating is the worst in all of sports, and now it appears that at least one of those horrible officials is a joke. And, yet, Stern stands on stage defending a league that is quickly losing all credibility.
The NBA's emperor has no clothes, but he refuses to acknowledge it.