Sports Lawyer Michael McCann looks at various pieces of recent evidence and is convinced that David Stern's authority is due to be tested. The examples include:
- the players' union going behind the league's back to make a deal with Abbott pharmaceuticals
- the controversy over the new ball making plain how much power the league has to force change against the wishes of players
- the muzzling of Mark Cuban over the protests of at least one other owner
You could probably also add to the list a likely squabble among owners over
revenue-sharing. McCann writes:
Will Stern be ousted? There is no tangible evidence, but his recent behavior suggests that his dictatorial powers might have gone too far. Embarrassing Bob Johnson in front of his fellow owners was probably not a good idea and will seemingly have some consequences down-the-line.
Allow me to quote the abstract of Michael McCann's new paper
"The Reckless Pursuit of Dominion" (with my italics):
This Article examines required genetic testing of NBA players from a situational vantage point, integrating socio-psychological, legal, and ethical analyses. The core argument may be expressed as follows: required genetic testing of NBA players appears consistent with a broader and largely deleterious agenda by the NBA to control players. Since implementation of the rookie wage scale in 1995 through the recent imposition of a paternalistic player dress code, the NBA has increasingly usurped player autonomy. The NBA's capacity to do so largely rests in its adroit manipulation of the situational influences that influence fans and media. For instance, because of unappreciated cognitive biases, fans and media often embrace distorted views of player's maturity, arrest propensity, and collegiate experiences. As a result, NBA players tend to be wrongly identified as immature, out-of-control, and hopelessly uneducated. In turn, the NBA has designed policies that ostensibly remedy these feigned problems while less-detectably transferring autonomy from player to league. In short, the league sees that others often fail to see, and that enables it to surreptitiously control players.
Holy cow. I think I'm going to have to do a podcast with Michael McCann.
