David Stern Wishes To Hear No More Of This Las Vegas Nonsense
Flipped to the Dallas-Golden State game on ESPN just in time to catch Jim Gray interviewing David Stern. Most of the stuff they talked about was pretty conventional (wow, Joey Crawford is done for the playoffs? Who knew?), but Gray got a shot in at the end when he mentioned a report that the new owner in Seattle, Clay Bennett, said that if the team moves, it will likely be to Las Vegas. Stern's reaction?
"I don't think he said that."
Gray started to explain that it was a published report (Wikipedia says Bennett said this to the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau, but no link is provided; in fairness, it also says that he included Kansas City as an alternative, which Gray failed to mention) when Stern cut him off.
"I think he'll withdraw that."
Now, that second quote is heavily paraphrased, but the word that jumped out at me was "withdraw". Sounds like Clay Bennett might be making a trip to New York in the next couple days to speak with the commissioner. It will be interesting to see if he stands up to Stern and maintains that Vegas is a viable destination for the Supersonics or if we end up seeing a "clarification" on the earlier comments.
The best part of all this was Stern's emotional state throughout. He went from reasonably happy (good game, unobtrusive interview) to mildly annoyed (Bennett wouldn't go behind my back, would he?) to outright angry (he did, he went behind my back!) to nearly-homicidal (I'm gonna kill Jim Gray if he says another word. Seriously. Start talking, Walton). Great stuff.
"I don't think he said that."
Gray started to explain that it was a published report (Wikipedia says Bennett said this to the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau, but no link is provided; in fairness, it also says that he included Kansas City as an alternative, which Gray failed to mention) when Stern cut him off.
"I think he'll withdraw that."
Now, that second quote is heavily paraphrased, but the word that jumped out at me was "withdraw". Sounds like Clay Bennett might be making a trip to New York in the next couple days to speak with the commissioner. It will be interesting to see if he stands up to Stern and maintains that Vegas is a viable destination for the Supersonics or if we end up seeing a "clarification" on the earlier comments.
The best part of all this was Stern's emotional state throughout. He went from reasonably happy (good game, unobtrusive interview) to mildly annoyed (Bennett wouldn't go behind my back, would he?) to outright angry (he did, he went behind my back!) to nearly-homicidal (I'm gonna kill Jim Gray if he says another word. Seriously. Start talking, Walton). Great stuff.
