everyone probably thought that eventually the lakers would come good. As time has gone on, more and more people have realised, they really are ****.
I think that's a well-educated guess. I work for a corporation, like Stern does. Our CEO at this company (and others I've worked at before), would not trouble himself with standard marketing materials. Some manager in marketing would be putting it together, and it'd be approved by a director or maybe a VP in marketing. The CEO might see it if it was part of his presentation deck in meetings with stakeholders. Since he's spending his time conspiring to put the inept Lakers in the playoffs, I suppose he could have instructed the VP of Marketing to make sure the promos featured the Lakers and not the Jazz, but I don't really know why he'd want to signal the intentions of his conspiracy. If it were me, I'd put the Jazz in as cover, and let the Lakers come storming back out of the blue to make a beautiful story arc of the grizzled vets, left for dead, making one last glorious run to the championship just in the nick of time!
