What are you doing now?

You seem like you're not retired.

I'm not.

I never retired.

I stepped down.

And I am now a senior adviser to an investment bank of venture capital firm.

The N B A.

Being a senior adviser of the n B A.

Means if something happened that no one remembers, they called me up.

Oh, yes, I was there in 19 because I actually my involvement with the N B A goes back to 19 goes back 50 years.

Let's just say that, uh, in addition, I'm involved with many sports technology startups, which is a great deal of fun.

And they, you know about the game, about televising the game and about player health.

That's a very important issue for me.

Imagine if we could extend the career of every player by a year.

That would be great for the players, priceless for the league.

And I think that, technologically speaking, n b A games are going to stream.

They're gonna use virtual reality that use artificial intelligence.

They're gonna use wearable technology.

It's gonna be really interesting.

And so that's the way I stay involved, focusing on start ups and new technology providers.

What do you think about the state of league now?

I think it couldn't be in better shape.

I think that the the summer league is electrifying.

The free agent movement gives the n ba ownership of a huge chunk of calendar real estate.

I think that the international endeavors with the academies and the announcement of the best Well, Africa League, I think that Adam Silver is doing a great job of growing the sport on a global basis.

What do you remember about implementing dress code?

I don't think they pay attention to what I don't.

I have no recollection of it.

All I know is that the union said it was a good thing to do.

I did it and then they attacked me on it and then our players.

You see, I'm not gonna embarrass you by asking you what the dress code is because you wouldn't remember that the dress code was you could wear jeans, just wear a pair of shoes and a shirt with a collar.

But our players, when over the top, they started dressing and and frankly, they got these great bodies and they just began to be on Gentlemen's Quarterly and vote again, all kinds of fancy places.

And then they took it to the next level.

They saw designing their own fashion lines.

I think it's great.

I think it's so when you watch players walking now for games and man, do you think like you guys gave me the worst time about this?

Yes, I think you know, you guys killed me on this.

I was being made fun of in every night time talk show in America.

They drink me in gold trains and all kinds of stuff on tattoos, but it's great.

I mean, it was an opportunity for our players to shine.

Did you?

I find it offensive that some people thought it was racist.

Well, no, because race is always an issue, and that's just the way it is on the n.

B.

A has always been on the edge of discussions of race.

You know, I and every collective bargaining negotiation.

I was accused of having a plantation mentality.

Uh, you know, it depends who wanted to use it, but it didn't surprise me and didn't offend me anymore.

It just is what it is.

People use what's in their Arsenal.

But but the thing I take pride in is the number of millionaires that the N BA has made that developed not just the owners getting wealthier because of the asset appreciation, but the players getting contracts that are off the charts without regard to their race.

That's pretty exciting.

Did you?

What do you think about the voice now, what a player seems like there speak out more than perhaps 10 15 20 years ago.

We always encourage them.

We and we gave them instructions on how to use social media, and they just ran with it.

You know, LeBron has, I think, 50 million plus Instagram followers or Twitter followers.

It's great, and our players and Adam is a leading voice in player entitlement and empowerment, and they should talk it.

They should speak out because they have the power to influence on social issues.

It's great.

It's really terrific.

I'm very pleased to see those developments about especially LeBron, and what do you think about how he uses his platform and a player he became.

I think that I take enormous pride in watching LeBron on his school activities, his, uh, charitable activities and his leadership activities on social issues.

It's a great thing you, um when you step down, must lay.

Just months later, the sterling thing took place.

Is the five year anniversary of Starling.

How involved were you in helping out To make that decision.

And I wasn't involved.

It'll he made the decision all on his own.

And he made the only decision that I think would have been the right one was the one he made.

What do you think you would have done?

Oh, I have no answer.

Hypotheticals.

I'm getting to be too old for that.

No hypothetical questions.

But did he consult?

What?

You wouldn't know?

No.

Did you feel like you need to be consulted on ill?

Okay, um, I stepped away, and I believe that when you're gone, you're gone.

Whether you the chairman of a board, whether you're the commissioner, whether you're anything, you the king is dead long with the king.

And that's the way it works.

Going back even further.

What did you remember about my moods situation at that time?

How do you kind of look at it now?

Uh, you're referring to my would money when he month would Abdul, right Yes, a former Denver Nuggets player over the flag.

Santa State University.

We had a rule of that time that you had to stand for the national anthem.

There was a rule that I inherited, and he announced one day that he was not going to stand and we said, Please stand.

You can stay in the locker room if you'd like, you can stay in the vomit.

Torrey, Um, you know, to come in the corporate if you come on the court sitting on a bench with your team, you have to stand on.

He decided that he wanted to make a statement and I was commissioner and I suspended him for one game.

And then he stood.

And when he stood, he looked in the wrong direction.

He muttered, You know, he did other things.

That's okay.

Are a rule, just says Stan.

And that's all we were enforcing.

Yeah.

Um, Toronto Raptors win a championship.

Wouldn't that be?

Do you Very exciting.

Larry Town, about their owner, who's the chairman of the board, is a great owner.

A good friend did a great job, and Toronto is a big city, and maybe what?

Maybe one of the best cities in the league, and everyone says, Well, it's on a good city.

It's on American City Bologna.

It's a great North American city and I was very pleased to see you finally get a championship.

Uh, when you see Paul, George and quite letter, make their decision and get together than you see LeBron and Anthony Davis.

Is that good for the league?

Uh, what do you think about the power that some of those I think I would characterize it as LeBron and Anthony Davis?

I think that Anthony Davis decided that he had been assigned to New Orleans for a given number of years, and in that period of time, there was not a team put around him that was capable of regularly getting into the playoffs.

And he said, I'm out of here and he notified them.

I think it could have been done.

An acquired away.

I don't agree with his agents public announcement.

I think you but But he notified the team in one way or another, and the team did very well in trading him to the Lakers.

That's all.

And that's been something that's happened for years.

I was a fan when Kareem Abdul Jabbar wanted out of Milwaukee and wanted to go to the Lakers, and there was some equally robust trade that was made to accommodate him.

It's something that's happened in our sport for years and years.

What?

What is your biggest satisfaction and biggest regret from your tenure?

I have no regrets.

I know that sounds crazy.

Other than the Greek Graetz of lockouts, I would love to have had clear sailing and unanimous agreement on collective bargaining, but I didn't and that's a failure.

I would say, Uh, I am so happy because when I took over the n b a r players reputations where I would say in the basement of the Pyramid of Celebrity.

And now they're at the tippy tip of the celebrity pyramid that the most listened to the most beloved in some ways and the most important athletes in the world of sports and last two questions.

What do you think about the diversity of the league now on EMI has kind of been on the forefront of that.

Well, first, I don't know, You know when you say diversity, we've always had an extraordinary number of African American players, but we, but I think that the sense of openness that exists in the league enables the league to now have female coaches because of the W N B.

A female referees that are now moving over into the men's game.

And the N B A is really allowed to demonstrate its complete openness on the commissioner silver, which is terrific.

And I think, and lastly, mouse in the palace and and some of things at that time guessing behind the scenes You you had to do some fighting.

Probably deal with some racism, something racist thoughts, stuff like that.

But what did you deal with back then?

Anything.

Somebody said it really bothered you that, you know, I must say that when I suspended Latrell Spree well, there was the usual stuff that said when he attempted to strangle PJ Carlesimo, there was stuff on talk shows about.

This is just another case of the man telling the boy what he couldn't dio.

And I thought that was a little bit over the line, but I understood it.

And during collective bargaining, people would accuse me as part of the rhetoric of being having a plantation mentality.

I never was bothered by that because I knew what I was doing was the right thing for the owners and the players, Uh, the malice in the palace.

It just needed a strong reaction.

We couldn't allow the barrier between players and fans to be breached, because that would have deprived office having the most available game in the world where you can, literally sitting courtside and practically touched the players as they ran by eso.

I meted out very strong punishment, but at the same time I was visiting with Ron our test.

I was helping him find the right medical attention for his family members.

You do what you have to do, and it's always behind the scenes, a little bit different than it appears in in front of the cameras.

But, uh, you know, no regrets.

There we were, and we did what we had to do to make sure the sport was going to grow.

Thanks for watching ESPN or YouTube.