David Stern still remembers NBA lockout criticism from 'idiot' Bryant Gumbel

Former NBA commissioner David Stern took a lot of flak during the 2011 NBA lockout as players and owners sparred over revenue and labor disagreements. Perhaps Stern’s harshest critic back then was HBO’s Bryant Gumbel, who said the commissioner’s efforts were indicative of “some kind of modern-day plantation overseer, treating NBA men as if they were his boys.”

Stern remembers the labeling and was quick to bash Gumbel on a recent podcast with journalist Nunyo Demasio, who asked Stern about his reaction to Gumbel’s long-ago comments.

“My reaction was that Bryant Gumbel is an idiot and that I considered it a badge of honor,” Stern told Demasio. “He was repeating something that the players’ representatives had said in the middle of the lockout. He was just regurgitating something ... I have no respect for him, so that didn’t upset me at all.

“My response was, 'I’ve done more for people of color than Bryant Gumbel has.'”

Stern noted that after his involvement in a “harsh couple of collective bargaining agreements and negotiations and lockouts, you’re going to get the race card played against you.”

In the interview, Stern also recalled defeating President Trump in a tennis match, and he was supportive of commissioner Adam Silver’s stance on players attending the White House. He also was critical of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign shortcomings.

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