I'm not sure I would call that a "good" commissioner. Just because he's powerful doesn't make him good.
Steroids and PEDs have been a huge part of the NFL, but the media doesn't really care, and neither do fans.
Football and Baseball are King. Nobody can dispute that. I really didn't mean to say "baseball is ruined" in a perpetual sense. I don't think Selig ruined baseball forever. I don't think Selig attempted to ruin baseball. I just think he has proved to be a less than adequate Commissioner over the course of his leadership. As for the NBA and NHL, I think we know the arguments there. The NBA is not accepted by white America the way baseball and football are. That is a shame. It is a wonderful sport. I hear a lot of people talk about "thug image". Players with tattoos, rap music, in a predominantly black sport there is bound to be an urban culture that goes along with it that turns a lot of people off. I don't understand why people can't look past these things and watch basketball being played at its highest level. I think white males who make decent money feel somehow threatened or jealous by a young black guy who makes 5 million, has a shoe contract, etc just because he has a jump shot. I don't understand why some people feel the need to "relate" to their athletes. There is also the interesting argument about why the NFL doesn't seem to have the same "image" issues as the NBA, despite also being predominantly black. Some have suggested it is because of the helmets and uniforms that cover up the tattoos and hide the faces, or because White men seem to still be in positions of leadership on the teams (Coaches, Quarterbacks, etc) The NHL is still considered a niche sport by Americans. There isn't a big market for Hockey in the south. I think hockey is fun to watch, but it is an acquired taste for sure. With time it could continue to become more popular. Guys like Ovechkin and Crosby can help by being the faces of the sport. It still has a long way to go to be considered among the top leagues.
I voted for Goodell simply because he has the most popular league in the country without even a close second, there have exactly zero scandals to rock the NFL landscape unlike basketball and baseball, and he's the most consistent when dealing with player behavioral issues. Business-wise, I would say Stern is by far the best, but given the way he's handled the reffing issues in the NBA, along with his smug attitude and propensity to change things just for the sake of change, I'm still more inclined to think that Goodell has the best chance of securing an untainted legacy. Bud Selig is by far the absolute worst Commissioner in all of sports, and the man has held his position for far too long without doing a bit of good for the game itself. His gross mishandling of the steroid scandal may have set the game back 10 years if not more, and has led to the single biggest black-eye any sport has had to deal with since probably boxing.
I dont agree with a lot of his moves, but he has changed the image of the NBA, and you can see his vision of it. I think David Stern has the most power out of everyone in American Sports. Goodell is no joke, but he really hasn't done anything controversial like Stern. Maybe he has more influence during negotiations with the NFL players union because that union is weak. Most popular league in American Sports yet no guaranteed contracts
I don't think it's as prevalent as a lot of people would think. I'd be surprised if more than 15% of the current players have used steroids. It's not good for your long-term ability to stay healthy, and the possibility of missing a quarter of a season's pay for a guy under contract is enough to scare a lot of guys. You also have to remember that these guys are required to follow a vigorous workout routine during the season, and an "optional-even-though-its-mandatory" workout routine during OTA's and mini-camp. Many of the guys stay and workout during the rest of the offseason as well with the S&C coaches. And the reason nobody cares is because they aren't breaking records left and right like baseball. Records that stood for 40 or 50 years...
The NFL has had the best commissioners because it doesn't let it's stars take over the league. I think the turning point was the strike season where the league stood firm and made money with the scabs. The union couldn't do anything after that. The NBA would be better served if they created more parity in the NBA. Change the rules where guys can't dominate anymore and let the teams other than Boston and LA have a chance.
I care, but then again I hate Shawne Merriman. Roidney Harrison was the worst for me. The guy was caught for doing HGH, and he got his 4 gamer and nobody ever said anything about the guy. He was dirty as hell. He wasn't trying to punish receivers with hard hits, he was trying to end their careers. Cheap shot artist. He was voted dirtiest player in the league a few times by his peers, now if this is the 1970s or maybe even 1980s NFL... you just accept it. But for that guy to play the way he did in the modern era of the league and never get called out by any of the so-called experts or any of the talking heads on the network shows, especially after being caught with HGH just baffled me.
I think most of the appeal of the NBA is the star power. It has almost always been that way. The NBA consistently tried to advertise players not the game. Bird vs Magic, Jordan vs everybody, Kobe vs Lebron I think basketball is just a more individual sport since less people are on the court. Great players can make a greater impact on the game.
That's because of how they have marketed it. Think of college basketball. The stars don't dominate as much except for the year with Carmelo Anthony, and it is much more exciting for the fans. I find most basketball fans enjoy March Madness more than the NBA playoffs. To be honest, if it weren't for the Rockets, I probably wouldn't even watch the NBA.
Great players do somewhat dominate college basketball. Rose, Beasely and Durant. The problem is most top prospects leave after thier freshman, so the game is watered down. Great NBA players develope over time and the gap between a solid role player in the NBA and a superstar is just so much larger than college.
I think the NFL is the ultimate team sport. In the NBA you know your starting 5 by position, in the MLB you know your batting order by position and your best pitchers. The star is glorified in the NBA, what other league can an 18 year old kid come in and actually have an impact? College Basketball seems more popular because of the team game. The NFL has 53 players on active roster. How many NFL fans can name their entire starting offensive line? Even the rabid ones have to think for a minute. The skill positions are where the individual achievements happen, but even a great WR needs a QB who can get him the ball, and even a great RB needs somebody to open up a gap he can hit. If you're talking about team sports, I think the NFL is clearly at the top.
I guess the talking heads all thought to themselves, "Don't **** where you eat" But he's one of the talking heads now, so I'm really looking forward to the uncomfortable silences and awkward moments that'll occur if PEDs ever get brought up in the discussion.
Yes, great players dominate the game to a degree but how many of those guys won championships. Carmelo was the only guy I can think of that pretty much won the NCAA championship without anybody else. Shaq, DRob, Duncan didn't didn't win championships in college. Dream went to the final four, 3 years in a row but his teams were just stacked with NBA talent and they even lost to NC state. You can't eliminate star power in the game, but you can make it more competitive with some tweaks of the rules. Parity would make the NBA much more exciting as a whole.
Carmelo wasn't exactly all alone. Hakim Warrick was a great college player and Gerry McNamara was lights out from distance.
True but the just furthers supports my argument. The NBA rules increases the importance of stars at the detriment of the league as a whole. If they created more parity, people would care more about the outcome of games, season in and season out. What other sports league can you narrow down the contenders to about 4 teams before the season even starts? Its great for those four teams and their fans but sucks for everyone else.
David Stern...simply because he seems to get more stuff done than the other commissioners...hell, I barely even know what the other commissioners have to do...they have such a firmly entrenched fanbase, they don't really need to do anything. Stern, as someone already mentioned, has been fighting an uphill battle with the thug perception of the NBA for years. Somehow this unfair perception turns more people off from the NBA than factual information about steroid use turns people off from baseball, or the fact that there's been more extracurricular "thug activity" in the NFL than there has in the NBA over the past couple of years. I also like the NBA's CBA, Salary Cap, and Free Agency systems better than any other sports. I feel like it produces a healthy middle ground between the NFL parity and MLB elitism, while still being somewhat fair to the players.
