-Stern claims the NBA had no idea a referee has a security problem. Kind of conflicts with the reports from yesterday.
-Stern claims he is surprised by the NBA being caught like this, but he sure doesn't sound like it. My suspicions that he was replaced with SternBot 3000 are growing stronger. Or maybe, he said it with a wink and nod, "Yeah, I'm surprised *wink*". I don't know, I'm not watching, just listening.
-WOOT! Time to get my Rachel Nichols on. Oh, she told him. She was all like, "your life's work is ruined bitch, whatcha gon do now?". Or something like that.
-Now we're debating whether to call soccer being played in Germany being discussed by Americans should be called football.
-The NBA Family Picnic is today. I'll see all of my NBA office readers there.
-I really think Steven A. Smith needs to be involved in this. Just imagine him sitting in the corner of the room yelling, "Tim Donaghy! Tim Donaghy! He's no MEHMET OKUR!".
-New York Times is asking a question now. I'm going to sleep.
-Stern keeps saying the words, "Rogue, isolated official" and "wait for the investigation to be completed"
-Man, now Stern is saying the referees of the NBA do not carry themselves with proper modesty. Are they flashing the arena off camera?
-Mark Cuban should sneak in as a reporter and start asking Stern questions. Now that'd be fun press conference.
-Stern feels betrayed by the referee. "It's nothing other than an act of betrayal." The penalty of betraying Stern is worth than death and cannot be described in words.
-The media needs to get off the escalation train. Stern just had to rebuke someone for saying this thing will continue to grow bigger because the Mob is involved. It's not like all the sudden the Mob, with all this attention being paid, is going to start trying to fix more games.
-"When did I stop beating my wife? That's what you just asked". That's what Stern said he was just asked when someone said, "How sure are you that there aren't any more corrupt referees?". That's a great comeback once you figure it out. The NBA needs to employ people yell, "No He Didn't" and "BUST!" whenever Stern does stuff like this.
-Stern just spent 20 seconds stumbling over his words so that he could say exactly what Tim Donaghy is being investigated for. He wanted to avoid the words, "Fixed Games".
-Stern say Donaghy did not gamble through Vegas. Was it online then?
-It's nice hearing all the voices from people you normally only read. Everyone from CBS, SI, and ESPN sounds pretty normal. Most actually sound younger than they look in their pics. Kudos to them.
-Tim Donaghy resigned before the NBA ever got the chance to fire him according to Stern as the NBA decided firing him would hurt the investigation.
-I swear, you cannot anger David Stern. You could punch him in the face, and he would take a deep breath and then convince you to punch yourself in the face as retribution. He has power's from Satan.
-New York Times=Sleep Time for Tim.
-Apparently Stern said 5 months ago that he was not concerned about NBA game fixing and gambling during an All-Star weekend according to NYT (OK, I wasn't really sleeping. Sue me.). He asked for the transcript and then said he didn't say it. I still say he got busted on bad.
-3 More Questions!
-Stern is running out of patience. It's about to get all Dan Patrick Show in here.
-I swear, today Stern could have answered every question with Yes and No if he wanted.
-There discussing my basketball squad now. The UK Basketball team. Unfortunately its concerning the massive gambling scandal that some of their players were involved in. No one really discusses those things around these parts too much....
-Stern says he does bet on college basketball. He does not participate in NCAA Tourney Pools. Shocking that he would say that.
-Stern states, "It is my understanding the he bet on games in which he officiated and games that he was not officiating and that he gave information to others for the purpose of allowing them to bet on games he was officiating and not officiating."
-More NYT. How many reporters do they have? They always had a copy of their paper in one of my classes last semester of school and apparently they normally don't even have a front page sports section as far as I could notice. How did NYT get more questions than ESPN?
-ESPN 3 NYT 3. Chris Sheridan just got a question.
-Stern says once a long long time ago that there was some sort of NBA gambling thing we was informed of a problem where an NBA game was taking off the Vegas gambling line for some reason.
-Apparently, its not 3 more questions. Stupid Press Conference running guy.
-"If you bet on a game, you lose the benefit of the doubt." That's tough talk considering Stern in a good old "Guilty until proven innocent" lawyer type.
-According to Stern, NBA employees are completely banned from gambling activities. Except for going to the race track in summer. That's excused.
-Stern was informed something was going on with Donaghy involving this gambling investigation about 20 days before Donaghy resigned and a month before the story broke.
-How does this effect an NBA team in Vegas? Stern doesn't know. He was suppose to have a meeting with some Vegas people recently, but he did not feel it was the proper time to be doing so now. He did not want to juxtapose them.
-He does not want to legalize gambling.
-Stern always wants to find where the question asker is. I think that's so he can burn their soul with his piercing gaze.
-The NBA decided two years ago to investigate all their employees deeply ever year 2 years ago. The decision was not motivated by anything to do with Donaghy.
-"I'm not able to answer that question openly at this time." Stern's response to what motivated Donaghy.
-Apparently the race track gambling exception was collectively bargained.
-Yahoo Sports gets a question. It's a boring question. No wonder they don't get very many.
-Same guy asks about tainted playoff games. Stern just says if there was a problem in the past that they will simply work to regain trust in the future.
-"I won't distinguish between regular and post-season."
-It seems the media has spent all their good questions. There now talking about NBA pay referee pay scale. Donaghy made $260,000 last year. Those guys get paid way to much for the job they do and how much they do it. Of course, so does everyone in the NBA.
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Wow, look what The Big Lead just posted. I'm obviously very bored of this now.-Apparently Donaghy is contemplating a plea agreement now according to Stern. The Source, Donaghy's lawyer.
-ESPN.com's feed of the press conference is over. It was all winding down though. Nothing interesting is left to happen as far as I can think of. I'm out. Enjoy the rest of your day.
