Bully Ball

摘要

David Stern, the slick pack-ager and shrewd dealmaker who remade the National Basketball Association into one of the best-run professional sports leagues in the world, sat for an interview on Nov. 19 to discuss the future of the NBA and the notion that it might be losing the family-friendly image that helped make it a $3 billion-a-year business. Basketball has "become a reflection of the culture," Stern said that afternoon. The NBA of the last two decades had a rather wholesome image and nice-guy stars like Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. Today's NBA is populated by players filled with the hip-hop, gangsta-rap swagger of their generation. Cut from the same cultural cloth, hoops stars long to be rappers; rappers want to chill with the NBA. Rappers Jay-Z and Nelly recently bought separate stakes in two NBA clubs. Basketball greats Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant made embarrassing attempts at recording rap music; when star guard Allen Iverson recorded a rap disc packed with crude and violent lyrics a few years ago, Stern helped persuade him to forgo releasing it.