NBA: David Stern Shows Us All Why He Is One of the Most Hated Figures in Sports

"Was the fix in for the lottery?"

"Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"

As some would say, that escalated quickly.

The above quotations are not from some viral YouTube video of two guys throwing around insults, nor are they from two comedians in a sketch on SNL. These are from an exchange between Jim Rome and NBA Commissioner David Stern.

In case you're a bit lost, the first quote is from Jim Rome. The following is David Stern's reaction.

To give you some background, Rome set up the question by saying that a lot of people thought the lottery was rigged, and he expected Stern to answer, "No."

What he got was something very unprofessional.

Just so you know, I don't like Jim Rome either. I think he's a blowhard, and perhaps he might have been a little out of line asking the question to Stern, but the response he got was worse than the actual question.

The questioning is meant to trip somebody up. Answering yes or no will still lead to the realization that they are being incriminated either way.

If Stern had just answered the question, which he did eventually, it would have been fine. I actually would have enjoyed watching Rome get shut down on his own radio show.

But he didn't. Intermixed with the reasonable answer, Stern provided insults that hinted at Rome not being a respectable journalist. At the end, Stern even says that he has to "go call somebody important."

Stern is disliked for making questionable calls for the league and being a jerk, the Rome interview being another example of such. This just fuels the fire for the people who dislike him. Stern showed the unprofessional side of him, which is even more hated than his professional side.

The only thing I would have liked more is for Rome to ask this:

"Are you still the worst commissioner is professional sports?"