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Big Day for Hornets and Conspiracy Theorists
By HARVEY ARATON
The standard suspicions surfaced only seconds after the New Orleans Hornets won the N.B.A. draft lottery Wednesday night. They came not from a skeptical reporter or bitter fan but from a member of a losing delegation as Tom Benson rose from his seat to exult on camera in the Disney/ABC Times Square studio.
“And the new owner just happens to be here,” said the cynic, reflecting those who so easily and recklessly mutter the forbidden word — fix — after the annual game show that determines who gets the No. 1 pick of the college draft.
Benson does not own the Hornets just yet. The Louisiana State Legislature has to sign off on expenditures to improve the team’s arena, which is expected to happen soon. The good lottery fortune obviously will not hurt.
Benson, 85, flew up with his wife, Gayle, and granddaughter Rita Benson LeBlanc. For luck he handed the Super Bowl XLIV ring he won two years ago with his N.F.L. Saints to Monty Williams, the Hornets’ coach, and settled in to watch the Hornets cash in on a 13.7 percent chance and win a clear path to Anthony Davis, Kentucky’s terrifically athletic big man.
In New Orleans, where the N.B.A. has been an endangered species and the Hornets have subsisted as a ward of the league, consider the game officially changed and Commissioner David Stern — whose fingerprints were all over this story — ceremoniously sainted.
“It’s about as exciting as it’s been since we decided to go forward with this,” Benson said, with the ring back on his right hand, where it will stay unless Roger Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner, confiscates it as continued retribution for the Saints’ nauseating bounty indulgences. “Like we built the championship with the Saints, that’s what we’re going to do with this team.”
However optimistic Benson’s outlook, his joy was tempting to gauge in the longtime tradition of the lottery, going back to its 1985 origin, when Patrick Ewing just happened to land with the Knicks. The result seemed too good to be true and sappy enough to be scripted.
In 2010, it was Irene Pollin — the widow of the longtime Washington owner, Abe — in the role of gleeful contestant. A year ago, the statistical gods smiled on a Cleveland franchise that had had its heart ripped out by LeBron James.
Now here was New Orleans, which began this contracted season by trading Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers only to have Stern veto the deal, ending up with what could be the most impactful big man drafted since Dwight Howard in 2004.
“I was asked to approve it as the owner’s rep, and I said no,” Stern said. “And if there is any owner who doesn’t weigh in on the trade of a certain superstar, a probable Hall of Famer, show him to me.”
That was Stern’s retrospective about an hour before the results of the drawing were announced on live television. In a quiet conversation, he correctly assessed that he had done right by the Hornets, even as he infuriated the Lakers and the Houston Rockets, who had agreed to a three-team deal.
“I never wanted to be in the position of identifying players that someone didn’t want,” Stern said. “That’s not what I do for a living. But in this situation, that’s what our job was.”
The Hornets’ ultimate acquisition of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ No. 1 pick via the Los Angeles Clippers — thought to be a prize — turned out to be no better than the 10th pick. But by refusing the selection of veterans the Hornets would have received in the original deal, Stern’s assertion that they had more to gain as a stripped-down team made him look downright prescient.
The appearance of playing god, not general manager, is the more vexing issue. In doing right by the Hornets, Stern’s decision also drastically affected others, particularly Houston and both Los Angeles franchises.
Did he engineer an opportunity to pump life into the long moribund Clippers and ignite a Los Angeles rivalry that he admittedly hopes can be replicated in New York with the Knicks and the migrating Nets?
His point, exactly.
Recounting a conversation with Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Stern said: “I said, ‘Can’t we close this deal before the lottery, just against the possibility that this team will win it?’ But we ultimately decided that it didn’t matter because, you know, if New Orleans comes up first it’ll be because we own it and we made a deal. If the Nets come up first it’s because of Brooklyn, and if it’s Charlotte it’s because of Michael Jordan.”
Speaking of Jordan, who fronts the woebegone Bobcats franchise that had the best statistical chance of winning the lottery, he was a no-show. Hmm.
“Go ahead and say it — conspiracy theory,” Stern said with a plaintive shrug.
The notion that a man in Stern’s position would risk the fate of his beloved league, his legacy and possible criminal prosecution on the positioning of a player — or the outcome of a playoff series — has always been far-fetched. Yet in the age of the Internet and the birthers, and for people in the business of selling credibility, perception must at least be addressed.
“It’s crazy, ridiculous,” Stern said before heading for the studio to watch Benson and family take the victory walk after winning the Davis sweepstakes.
“Hard to believe,” Benson would say, after stepping away from the camera. It was a figure of speech — no more. But for some, unfortunately, it’s become an unofficial N.B.A. mantra.
=> LOL même le futur proprio a du mal à y croire.... 
Stern et sa fouine Silver => Vous sortez !  |
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