Chat transcript from Stern's press conference in London

Opening Statement: I'm delighted to be here and I thank you all for coming. This is our third year at O2 Arena/ It's a beautiful structure that AEG manages so well, I'm joined here, seeing in the audience Peter Moore of EA Sports the presenting sponsor of this event, and, Peter, I want to thank you and EA for all that you do for us, for basketball and for this event, and I just want to say that we're very excited. I've learned a lot about a lot of things in the past few days and one of the things that makes me happiest is that this game will be carried live on ESPN which has recently agreed to an almost 100-game schedule of NBA games. Not quite the same fanfare as the Premiership contract, but it means that there will be viewers and sign-ups and people will be focusing on the NBA on a regular carriage straight through The Finals. We have also visited with our friends at BBC and I've learned what's behind the red button, and tonight it's this game, live, behind the red button; and this game will also be carried live on Radio 5 live as well as being streamed on BBC.com and back in the states, NBA TV will be showing this and it will be carried in somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 countries, so we're pretty excited about that.

This is part of our working with the EuroLeague to have a series of games and to work together to grow the sport. We are not only playing here tonight, but the Jazz move on to Madrid to play Real Madrid on Thursday. Actually, three EuroLeague teams are playing or have played in the United States during exhibition season, because of our collaboration with the EuroLeague. Partizan, Olympiacos, and Maccabi Tel Aviv -- each of them is playing two games against NBA teams during the exhibition season, and generally, we are also playing -- I leave tomorrow for Taiwan where we have the Denver Nuggets playing the Indiana Pacers, and then on to Beijing where they are playing on Sunday and we have another game in Monterrey between the 76ers and the Suns. So, we're growing the sport -- and the sport comes from not just games, but from the presence, particularly in the UK and Europe, that we have here. We have 30 people working in our headquarters, I tell Sophie Goldschmidt that it's too many and the headquarters are too opulent, but, be that as it may, their there and we've conducted probably 30-some odd, no, 50-some odd ... 60 almost, 60 basketball grassroots events throughout Europe, that is in edition to the individual player appearances. The media have been treating us very well, talking about our sport, and this is terrific for us because the run-up to 2012 is exciting for the growth of basketball. Team GB qualified for EuroBasket; we hope that FIBA sees it in its wisdom that they will receive a wildcard to the World Championships in Turkey in 2010, and interested to see that they may have as many as four NBA players on Team GB come the Olympics and that's pretty exciting. And we see the interest in the game and the growth of the game and, obviously, to see Luol Deng out there tonight will be I think exciting for us as the NBA, but also exciting for fans of Team GB. So, we see this as a huge opportunity for us to grow the game, continue to grow the game, with particular relevance in this very important market where we will have television, where we have been meeting with our marketing partners, where we have been meeting with our consumer products and business partners, where we have been meting with all manner of people who are combined with us, like the EuroLeague, who we had lunch with today to continue to grow the game.

We have also had the opportunity to visit with our friends at the Premiership just to share stories. I usually say that every time I can meet with someone we always do the same thing -- we complain about our owners. But that's a joke, for anyone's who's watching this. What we do talk about is that we love to learn from other leagues. We have met with many of the franchises here and we also have been doing a lot of community services with the Premiership and a couple of its teams because we think that sports and social responsibility is something that is us, and is all sports, and I know that is a philosophy that is increasingly shared around the world and I think that the Premiership is a leader in that regard.

We are looking forward to a great game tonight and I'd be happy to take any questions you might have.

Q: Can you talk about Luol Deng's impact and how he is hoping to bring basketball into the living rooms in Great Britain.

Stern: I don't want to put too much pressure on him, but suffice it to say that we see a huge up tick in terms of increase about talking to him from the media, about following him, about the disappointment that he couldn't play in the exhibition game at O2 in August and really about his story of how he is so anxious and proud to play for Great Britain. And, the influence that we think he's going to have on (Kelenna) Azubuike, on Pops Mensah-Bonsu and on Ben Gordon, who signed his contract and is talking about playing for Team GB. But, the symbol has become Luol, and he is from central casting -- his athleticism, his expertise, but particularly his caring for the community that nurtured him, he's really quite extraordinary, so people love to focus on him and we love to have people focus on any NBA players but in his case its particularly rewarding and it's a wonderful iconic symbol for us and for the game. Now, if they don't win a few games, see me later, because our fans are unforgiving, but I think that what's going to happen, in focusing on our players, people are going to come to understand that basketball is a sport of multiculturalism, inclusion, diversity; in addition to being relatively easy to play and, therefore, for fitness, health and exercise it has a huge impact on the community as well. So, we think, and Luol Deng is very much the symbol on how we go forward on that point.

Q: Both teams have made vast improvements over the last couple of years. How far do you think they could go?

Stern: I think that the Bulls played one of the great series against the Celtics and they would have told you last year that they were ready to go, but they continue to improve, they continue to draft well, they continue to get stronger and older and more experienced and I think that they think that its nice to make the playoffs but anything less than the second round would not be good.

I'm fascinated by Utah, which now has four international payers, and what can I say, they always make the playoffs with rare exception; and they keep getting stronger and Coach Sloan -- I was there when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. And I think you are going to see a disciplined team with a lot of bulk up front, most of it having been contributed by Europe. You always expect Utah to do well and Deron Williams is one of the point guards of our future and a U.S. National Team player. We've got a couple of good teams here. But, of course, there are no bad teams in the NBA; there are just teams in transition. But I think they are both expecting to well this season.

Q: Has the credit crunch affected the NBA market?

Stern: Actually, we've been remarkably unaffected by it. Our attendance will be strong, again, this year. Our television ratings have been up for two years and likely will go up. Our revenues will decline slightly because our teams have responded to our fans by either freezing ticket prices or lowering them somewhere between 2 ½ and 5 percent. Other than that, the credit crunch itself ... the banks have recently renewed a facility we have for over $2 billion, so, we feel pretty good about our place in this difficult time.

Q: What are your expectations for your upcoming trip to Beijing?

Stern: Just a sold-out Wukesong Arena with enthusiastic fans and global teenagers. That is to say, they are going to have their headsets on, they are going to be wearing their pants too low, their hair is going to be colored; they are going to be looking like everybody else. And they are going to say: Basketball, this is for me. So, we are pretty excited about that as well.

Q: Can you update us on the status of the labor talks with the officials?

Stern: As far as I know, there have been no further conversations with the union. It is our expectation and hope that there will be, but the last conversation was a meeting at which we sat down, made several concessions, had their negotiators say, OK, let's shake hands, we've got a deal. And they went back to get approval from their union, and we said that we'd get approval from our owners, and they advised us that the union had not given that approval, so that despite our best efforts to reach a deal, we couldn't reach it. We know, we hope, but I think we now, that we will eventually make a deal. That is indeed our hope, but right now we are not discussing anything with the union, but they know how to reach us. They haven't even told us exactly why they rejected it, and left us with little choice but to go ahead and start the exhibition season with replacement referees.

Q: Can you get your reaction to Michael Jordan's speech?

Stern: I think we got a very interesting insight into all of the Hall-Of-Famers -- Vivian Stringer, David Robinson and Jerry Sloan, John Stockton each revealed something of themselves in a deeper way and what I took from Michael was that he needs to feed off of perceived disrespecting. He looks for the motivation -- not uncommon in our league. And I think that is what drove him to probably be the greatest competitor in the history of our game and he put some of that on display for us, and he knowingly did it. He said I want to tell you what motivates me and then he shared it with us. I think its interesting for those of us who seek to be great, it was an interesting insight into how one great athlete in this history of the world probably uses perceived slights, real or imagined, and likely if those weren't the slights he would have invented a few more because he motivates himself, so that's my take on it.

Q: You've spoken about the possibility of a regular season game here before 2012 ...

Stern: We hope to do it and we still hope to do it and we are running out of runway, but we will likely do it. You know, the friendlies have been very effective for us, sold out games -- you could look at see the Chicago Bulls uniforms that are dotting the concourse. I went expecting to hear some Americanization, but I didn't -- I heard only, you know, GB -- Team GB was well represented among the Chicago Bulls faithful. But there seems to be some notionality that a regular season game would add in some way to the commitment that we have. It won't -- but we're going to do it anyway. The commitment that we have is from the 30-plus people that come into the office, arrange for the grass-roots events, arrange for the interviews with the media, arrange for the player visits and do all of the things that help connect us to this community.

Q: Is there a possibility of one in 2010?

Stern: Actually, as adidas says, impossible is nothing -- so, who knows? When I say no, we have not set the schedule yet for 2010. But, you know, we'll see. It is going to be either 2010 or 2011. Again, I preface it by saying hope because there are economic arrangements and team arrangements, but that's our intention.

Q: Why does the NBA want to be a worldwide brand like Coke?

Stern: Well, it's good for business (laughter). Coca Cola gets most of its profit from outside the US and if I could tell my owners that we'd get most of our profit from outside the US as well as doing as well as we can in the U.S. that would make me very popular. And, we find ourselves with a brand and we are managing it. It is sort of self-effectuating. Kids around the world are watching our games, and yesterdays kids are today's Tony Parker or Michael Pietrus, or Dirk Nowitski, or Yao Ming. They watched the great players and they say I want to be like them and they take up the game. And as they take up the game, they want to buy our merchandise, watch our games on television, go online to find out what's going on, and it turns out now that in many months we get more business to nba.com from outside the United States than from within. And, that leads us to attempt to monetize what is here. And from playing games, from sponsorships, from merchandise, from television and form online activities and other events and all of a sudden we couldn't spell global brand but now we is one. And, that's pretty good and we're enjoying it. We have those 30-some odd people here, and we have offices in Paris, London, Istanbul, Milan, Madrid, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, -- help me out guys -- Mexico City, Taipei, Brazil. I don't know where anymore. They don't even tell me, they hide them sometimes until I look at the budget. And our fans continue to ask for more and that's very good for our business. But at its root is the game -- at its root is a love affair with the game. People like our game and they like our players and everything comes from that. No game, no business, and we never forget that.

Q: Will there be more personnel cuts at the league?

Stern: No -- actually we have been hiring, stealth hiring, so don't tell anybody, particularly with respect with our international business. Suffice it to say that we've made a number of hires with respect to international, probably more than 10 and less than 50 in the course of the last year and that is ongoing, daily. We'll be interviewing, actually, people in Beijing for openings in our China office. We are interviewing for additional people in an office we hope to open in India, and we are looking for support staff in the office we are planning to open in the Middle East, and we are very intently focused in Africa, based upon the response and the 900 million people that Africa represents. In addition to the extraordinary richness of the talent pool coming from Africa, the business opportunities are going to be very important to us. All countries in Africa -- likely starting following the World Cup in South Africa and working our way up the continent and I'd be surprised if by the time of the Olympics we didn't have three offices in Africa.

Q: do you see a day where we'll have sponsored jerseys?

Stern: You mean like Aion on Manchester United for $125 million? Well, absolutely won't do it unless they pay us enough (Laughter). It hasn't been our -- we keep the door ajar, but the reality is that we are currently -- I dare say the only sport in the world that doesn't have a manufacturer's or a sponsor's logo on its uniform because we have been intent on building brand NBA. We have on practice jerseys, on warm-ups, we have used the salami approach to slice things away, but nothing so far, but I would not say never. The Phoenix Mercury sold it for a very substantial amount to LifeLock as did the L.A. Sparks, and in speaking about the Mercury and the Sparks I want to say that we promote all basketball and the WNBA Finals are on and they're up 50 percent over last year's ratings as the Fever and the Mercury have at it; and we also have, you know, two more teams coming into our NBA Development League, which will bring it to 16 and that's good for us because it gives us another pool of players to travel internationally and, you know, so the game of basketball is pretty good across the board.

Q:Here in the London Office you've spoken with people at British Basketball and the British League about how to build their brand and league -- what specific advice have you given them to create their own identity and how are you guarding against the NBA brand sort of hindering them?

Stern: Well, historically, we have worked very carefully with the federations and the leagues, the ACB, the BundesLiga, and the BBL, we have been in consultations with for probably 15 years. The only advice -- and we meet with anybody who would like to meet with us. Most recently something called the BBA said they'd like to come in and give us a report and we said come on in and tell us what you're doing.

We meet regularly with the BBL and the BBP -- I've got my acronyms just perfectly aligned, and I know I'm supposed to call it Team GB and not Team UK and I do that now too. And, its the same thing that goes on when we talk about the Premiership. You have to sell tickets and sell sponsorships and have a good product on the court both as a game and for entertainment purposes; so that when people come they want to come back. The sponsorship is important not just because it puts money in your pocket but because you get other companies bigger than you to spend money promoting their brand and yours. We couldn't afford to advertise or buy time that comes from Coca Cola doing one promotion, or from adidas doing adifive or you name the other apparel companies that put their players in our uniforms on billboards. You know, when we were in China -- Yao Ming in his Reebok uniform was all over. And sponsors and partners are huge promoters of our growth. So, we tell anyone who wants to listen we are an open book. We'd love to share whatever we have learned, we'd love to entertain you at our offices if we can be helpful and answer all of your questions, but it's hard. With our own NBA Development League we made probably every mistake you could make and we have all new teams they are all doing quite well, with our WNBA it was not an easy thing but we're not in our 13th year, so we have the bruises to demonstrate both that it can be done and that we don't know everything and we have to learn from the harsh experiences and we're happy to share it with anybody who talks to us in the world of basketball -- we do that regularly and we love to partner with them. Enjoy the Game.