NBA commissioner David Stern has no sympathy for Dwight Howard and Magic

ORLANDO, Fla. ? NBA Commissioner David Stern lavished praise on the city of Orlando for throwing its arms around All-Star Weekend.

"We look forward to coming back," Stern said.

Stern also saluted Magic owner Rich DeVos and the rest of management.

For all the love Stern shows of the Magic and the city, he isn?t very sympathetic about their Dwight plight.

I?m disappointed in his answer to my question: For teams caught in a Dwight Howard situation and forced to make trades, would the league consider offering more compensation, such as a top-five pick?

"No." Stern said.

Me: "How come?

Stern: "Why should we?"

The thing I?ve learned about Stern through the years is that you can?t allow him to go unchallenged when he?s on the bully pulpit.

I explained that the teams are losing a marquee star and they seldom, if ever, receive anything close to fair compensation.

Basketball is different from the other pro sports. You can subtract a player in football from a 44-man roster ? except a star quarterback, perhaps ? and it won?t devastate the club.

Subtract Dwight from the Magic, and the team and town might as well be declared a national disaster.

Imagine the backlash if Tom Brady [stats] wanted to wander if to another market. Imagine if four or five quarterbacks followed suit. There?s your NBA.

The NFL virtually makes sure quarterbacks don?t run off to bigger markets. It has a mechanism called a franchise tag. The NBA whiffed on trying to acquire one.

"We have a system that has a draft that basically tells a player where he?s going to play in this league when he?s drafted, and a further system that has a huge advantage to the team that has him, so that our players could play for seven years in the team they didn?t choose.

"And we think that?s a system but not a prison," Stern said.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bostonherald/sports/basketball/other_nba/~3/SEkEIndsCT0/view.bg

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