Bryant Gumbel: HBO Star Rightfully Rants Against David Stern and NBA Lockout

Bryant Gumbel was not shy of letting his feelings be heard on last night’s edition of HBO’s Real Sports.

As you can see in the video below, Gumbel spent the last 1:20 of his show giving an eviscerating speech against NBA commissioner David Stern.

The sad thing is that Gumbel’s intelligent and poignant addressing of the NBA lockout is going to go unrecognized, while the focus and public discourse is going to be on his use of slavery terms to get his point across.

Gumbel drew parallels to one of the darkest times in our country’s history to show that the white commissioner does not have his players’ best interests at heart whatsoever.

Of course the majority of NBA players are African American.

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida studied the NBA this season and found 78 percent of the league's players were African America as well as 33 percent of head coaches and 45 percent of assistants.

There is absolutely no denying that the vast majority of those effected by the lockout are young, African American men.

I believe that when Gumbel says something as biting and toxic as this, one must objectively look at it and draw your own conclusion.

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Stern's version of what has been going on behind closed doors has of course been disputed, but his efforts were typical of a commissioner who has always seemed eager to be viewed as some kind of modern plantation overseer, treating NBA men as if they were his boys. It's part of Stern's M.O., like his past self-serving edicts on dress code and the questioning of officials. His moves were intended to do little more than show how he's the one keeping the hired hands in their place. 

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Is Gumbel right to say these things? I don’t know. But I must say I agree with him and his opinion on Stern being the driving force for the lockout among other things.

It's quite obvious that Stern enjoys the stranglehold he has on his players and when they challenge his authority, like they are during this lockout, he will not back down.

I think this is bad for the league as a whole and owners and players are both losing out because of commissioner Stern.

We are on the heels of one of the greatest regular NBA seasons in history and epic months of playoff basketball that drew countless new followers to the league.

Now, Stern is willing to let that momentum die so he can exert his power over the players and prove that he will get his way.

As Gumbel best said,

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“Yes, the NBA's business model is broken. But to fix it, maybe the league's commissioner should concern himself most with the solution and stop being part of the problem."

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It seems that Stern would rather have power over a now unemployed group of young men than fairly run a healthy NBA.

What do you think?