David Stern says he's 'done more for people of color' than Bryant Gumbel
Former NBA commissioner David Stern took issue with a six-year-old attack from Bryant Gumbel, calling the longtime broadcaster "an idiot."
In October 2011, Gumbel closed his HBO TV show "Real Sports" with a breakdown of the NBA lockout in which he called Stern a "kind of modern plantation overseer treating NBA men as if they were his boys."
Stern, appearing this week on writer Nunyo Demasio's podcast, had a candid response.
"My reaction was that Bryant Gumbel is an idiot and that I considered it a badge of honor," Stern said. "He was repeating something that the players representatives had said in the middle of a lockout. He was just regurgitating something.
"He's the same guy that did a feature on our players and tried to sensationalize their nightlife. And, you know, even though he happens to be black, he was talking about our guys and the women they hang out with, et cetera. I have no respect for him, so that didn’t upset me at all."
When pushed further on the topic by Demasio, Stern added: "My response was 'I have done more for people of color than (Gumbel) has.'"
Gumbel, who has been a sports and news TV personality since the 1970s, has never been a stranger to provocative opinions. In 2006, when Roger Goodell took over the NFL commissioner's job from Paul Tagliabue, he suggested Tagliabue show Goodell "where he keeps Gene Upshaw's leash," in reference to the then-head of the NFL Players' Association.
Part of Gumbel's diatribe on Stern included criticism over his implementation of the NBA dress code in 2005 - something decried as racist given its crackdown on various attire that was considered fashionable at the time.
Stern replied that it had full consent of the players' union.
"Bryant Gumbel is sufficiently ignorant that he probably couldn't tell you what the dress code is," Stern said. "With the dress code that I put into place, with the full knowledge and consent of the union even though they ran away from it as soon as I did it, was if you come into the arena, come in wearing shoes, jeans and a shirt with a collar, let's show our respect for the game."
The dress code has clearly drifted in recent years however, if you consider some of the things Russell Westbrook now wears to games. For that reason alone, the rule does appear to have been reactionary to something specific from that era.
-With h/t to AA