David Stern misplays the NBA lockout

Shelley DuBois

Fortune

“No one looks pretty” in the NBA lockout fight, said Shelley DuBois. The standoff between team owners and the players’ association amounts to a bunch of millionaires complaining about needing more money. But if there is one man who comes off looking particularly bad, it’s NBA Commissioner David Stern. He has “made classic negotiation mistakes” in speaking for league owners, not so much in the terms he’s presenting “but in the way he’s presenting them.”

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When Stern said last week that the players’ “rhetoric is almost humorous” and that they appear “hell-bent on self-destruction,” he came across as condescending. Messages like that ratchet up emotions, leaving players and owners alike “embarrassed if they back down.” The brinkmanship won’t end simply because players just started missing paychecks; you’d be surprised at how many people prefer “financial suicide over public humiliation.” Fans may be forgiving after the bickering ends, but this lockout has been one of the uglier we’ve seen. And “despite all he has done for the league, that’s ultimately on the commissioner.”