New York, Olympia Building, NBA Headquarters, President's Office.

David Stern summoned a couple of VPs over for a small private meeting.

Stern looked at the group of cadres under his command, all of whom were elites who had been with him for many years, and accompanied him to develop the NBA into a giant little by little.

Joe Bozia, who is in charge of refereeing affairs, in fact, influences the rules and scripts of the league, which is equivalent to the book of the Ministry of Rites.

Stu Jackson, president of basketball, has the right to decide on trades, signings, and drafts for each team.

You Robles, in charge of international market cooperation and development, opened up territory for the NBA's globalization strategy, and conquered the Eastern General.

Adam Silva, President of Basketball Operations, responsible for commercial operations and development for the entire NBA, is a Chief Cabinet Fellow.

He also served as Stern's chief special assistant, the equivalent of the chief eunuch, a duly qualified future heir.

These people have been in many positions, have rich experience and outstanding ability, and can become Stern's right-hand man.

Now, Stern has brought them together, apparently with some of the more difficult issues that cannot be discussed openly.

For example, in the case of Tim Donathy, Stern has to convene a small meeting to discuss how to deal with it, after all, the referee issue is not suitable for public discussion.

In Stern's nearly 30-year history as president, it is not known how many secrets have been decided at such small meetings and then hidden.

Stern, who was usually smiling and welcoming, sat behind his large desk, his face serious and gloomy.

In private, Stern has always been iron-faced and iron-fisted, a lawyer-turned, diminutive Jew with an absolutely cool head and a ruthless strategy, and will not tolerate or compromise in order to achieve his goals.

But in the same way, in order to achieve other purposes, he was able to grovel and lay down his dignity.

In the history of the NBA, Stern has been a decisive figure, and he has done three main jobs.

One is to establish the NBA draft system, and the second is to promote the NBA to internationalization and include it in the strategic development goals. The third is the salary cap.

If there is one more achievement, it is that the team is not allowed to bet, which has a lot to do with the fate of the team.

It's a shame that only a little bit of work has been done, but it doesn't hinder his groundbreaking and importance.

Such a deep-rooted figure is now being given a bit of a headache by a new general manager of the league.

With a gloomy face, he picked up a courier package from the table, put it in front of Joe Bozia, and said, "The email from Los Angeles has a videotape in it, guess what?" ”

Bozia thinks it can't be your peachy image?

Of course, he didn't dare to talk nonsense, he said: "From Los Angeles? Don't... Was it sent by a clipper? ”

Stern nodded and said, "It's sent by the Clippers, or the whistle from LeBron's last walk." Smart actually collected a bunch of highlights of LeBron James' walks and sent them to my office, as well as a referee report about the game against the Cavaliers! ”

Bozia swallowed his saliva and said, "It's been more than two weeks since this game, why is Smart still pestering?" Could it be that he is not satisfied with the $100,000 fine? ”

Stern shook his head and said, "I talked to him about the conditions and said that the fine could be reduced, but he didn't agree. Give me a whole moth again, send a video like this, if it is circulated to the media, it will be another damn referee topic! Then Donassie had just recently been released from prison, and it was inevitable that some people would band together to hype. ”

The attacks and controversy over NBA referees have never stopped, and Min Congda, who sent the tape to Stern, is not the first.

It's just that it's a special period, Donasee has just been released from prison, and he is clamoring to write an autobiography to break the news, if he and Min Congda form a joint force, it will be very troublesome to cause a storm of public opinion.

Although it will not cause fatal damage to the NBA for the time being, this kind of biting from time to time makes Stern very irritable, and he does not want to dwell on this kind of issue.

The so-called embankment of a thousand miles is destroyed in an anthill, and there is no room for negligence on the issue of the credibility of the adjudication, otherwise the negative impact will be devastating.

"Smart, this guy doesn't eat oil and salt, soft and hard, what do you think he wants? Give his team more whistle bias, like Cuban? ”

"I think it's possible, but... Some of his emails are not focused on Clippers games, and he is also in charge of other teams. I always felt ......"

"What do you always think, don't be staggered, talk."

Stern urged Bozia impatiently.

Bozia said: "I always felt that he was not for the Clippers to win, and he was not afraid of fines, what he did, I think, was for fame. ”

Listening to Bozia's words, Stern nodded, people in the world are not seeking wealth or fame, and there is no exception at home and abroad.

Min Congda has been doing all kinds of tricks since he took office, obviously to seek fame, and now he is indeed famous.

But he wasn't satisfied, Stern thought, it's a big deal to satisfy him and let him be in the limelight and have a good time.

Stern said: "In that case, why don't you give him the best general manager of the season?" ”

The award of the best general manager is relatively insignificant, and the fans pay much less attention to the general manager than the player.

However, it is definitely a huge honor for a new manager to be the best general manager in the first year of the NBA.

Adam Silva stood up against it, saying: "The Clippers are still not good enough this year, and besides, they gave him the best general manager so quickly, what if he wants to go further in the future?" ”

Stern felt that Silva's words also made sense, and asked, "What do you think?" ”

Adam Silva said: "The All-Star Game is coming up, and recently the Clippers made a short documentary where they invited a young Cameroonian fan to Los Angeles to watch the game. The young fan's father wrote letters to all 30 teams, and only the Clippers responded to him and invited him to watch the game. It's a good story, it's very public, and Cameroon is poor, and we're going to set up a new basketball fund, and Smart will take the lead in fundraising when the time comes. Then we can award him this year's Walt Kennedy Award for Best Citizen. ”

Hearing Silva's opinion, Stern's eyes lit up, worthy of being a former eunuch.

The Best Citizen Award, combined with the fundraiser, is simply the best combination of American society to gain fame.

"However, the Best Citizen Award is given to a player or coach, to the general manager...... There's no precedent yet, right? ”

"It's the norm, but it's not an exception, and the general manager is also a member of the league. ”

"I think it's a good suggestion, he needs fame, so I'll give him the Best Citizen Award. Then raise donations, let him donate some too, anyway, he is not bad for money, he needs fame. ”

"That's right, he doesn't care about fining him 100,000 yuan, just let him donate some and give him a good name."

"By the way, there's another question I want to mention to you, a recent account on the Internet, NBA-Batman."

(End of chapter)