Stern a Brewing

First let me say, David Stern you are a pompous ass.  Man that feels better.

So the NBA has now filed court papers in an attempt to interject themselves into former Sonics owner Howard Shultz’s lawsuit against Clay Bennett’s PBC group.  Understandable considering what is at risk for the NBA could be a precedent setting decision, essentially putting one of their franchises up for auction without their approval.  Having a rogue franchise is a dangerous idea especially when considering the structure and the ruling power the Commissioner and the NBA board exercise over their product.

Of course this was a predictable step.  A man such as David Stern couldn’t sit idly by while a friend of his stews in legal hot waters, I wonder if he would act in the same fashion for Mark Cuban, probably because he’s an owner but it’s fun to speculate.

The gist of the filing is that the NBA brokered the sale of the team to Bennett and maintains a vested interest in the franchise thus they should be a party to any legal action that would transfer ownership, both are very prudent and understandable points.  I can understand that the league has an interest in the proceedings and I can appreciate that they were involved in the original sale but they have taken the side of a man who is charged with fraud, plain and simple.  If it were a player charged with fraud I can guarantee that the league would have no comment, I guess the difference between free agent players and free agent teams is that David Stern will back a team and let players hang in the wind.  With all the other bad press in the NBA – superstars preferring international competition (Carmelo specifically) and rampant speculation concerning the honest of their referees – I would think they would want as much distance as possible from these proceedings.  Maybe Clay is just that close of a friend or maybe the NBA feels that too much is at risk.  What I do know is that we are seeing the league turn it’s back on 41 years of history and fans to placate an overbearing and dishonest owner who has had the team for two years, not looking so good on loyalty guys.

It wouldn’t be a David Stern filing without him and his lawyers trying to twist the knife a little.  The filing points to and provides a copy of a Howard Shultz signed agreement not to pursue legal action against any NBA body in the event of relocation.  This does not excuse fraud however.  His purpose is to say that you agreed not to sue so it doesn’t matter if you were defrauded; as if David Stern is trying to say that the NBA’s law is above the United States law.  It gets better.  He is now also saying that if Shultz were to win and the team were to be transferred to a competent intermediary to broker a sale it would violate the league’s constitution.  So his constitution is better than that of the United States?

The filing states that if Shultz wins his suit the league has the right, upon approval of the owners, to transfer temporary ownership of the team to the Commissioner while seeking a new owner.  So the group that brokered the original fraudulent sale would be the group that would be bequeathed ownership and undertake the responsibility for finding an apt owner, the irony is scalding.

I’m about done with these guys.  I love the idea that if Shultz wins Seattle may host the one rogue team in the NBA.  We have the chance to be the one city and the one team that gave Stern the finger and got away with it.  As much as I do not care for the man that victory would be sweet enough for me to put up with him.  We’ve got a ways to go yet but Richard Yarmuth’s quiet workman like approach to the case has Clay and his buddy Stern out in the public eye shouting the invalidity of the suit and to me they seem