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NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 6, 2010

David Stern

THE MODERATOR: Opening statement now by Commissioner Stern.
COMMISSIONER STERN: Good evening. It's great to be in Paris, and I want to thank everyone for coming here this evening. It's a great time to be a fan of the NBA. We have come off a terrific season with our NBA finals, our NBA summer league, our roster changes in a few of our teams during our free agency period, the NBA draft, which brings great excitement to our teams, and then the World Championships. We've had a terrific summer, and here we are at the beginning of our new season.
As most people here know, we started this NBA Europe live in Milan, where the Knicks beat -- you know, beat Armani Jeans Milano. Last night we were in London where the Timberwolves -- not last night. If it's Wednesday, it must be Paris. Monday night we saw the Timberwolves surprise the Lakers. Tonight we're here. Tomorrow we'll be in Barcelona, where the Lakers will be playing Pau Gasol's old team.
Next week we'll have games in Mexico City, where the Spurs and the Clippers will be playing, and in Guangzhou and in Beijing, where the Rockets will be playing the New Jersey Nets. So we're really very, very excited.
For us to be here in Paris, I want to thank, of course, EA Sports, which is sponsoring this event for its fifth year. I very much want to thank our good friends at Adidas who have -- if you haven't been out to the Adidas store on the Champs-Elysees, I recommend it to you. You might be able to buy some NBA merchandise if it isn't all gone. And thanking them for the various decorations around the city.
And I also want to thank Foot Locker, Handspring, and Sprite, who supported this as well.
They're telling me, consecutive translation, Mr. Stern. Shut up. I'm sorry, Mr. Interpreter.
Some ancillary events, we had a Special Olympics clinic here at Bercy by the New York Knicks that was terrific and well-received. We have a fan zone going on outside. It's been well-received by the fans, but not as much by the weather. But in both cases, the turnout was great.
I would be remiss if I didn't, because I'm in France, to extend general congratulations again to Yvan Mainini, the new president of FIBA. We had a wonderful meeting earlier this afternoon with both Mr. Mainini and executives of the French Basketball Federation to talk about ways in which we could cooperate with FIBA around the world, both on the NBA -- men's basketball and women's basketball, because FIBA is in charge of all of it, and we're going to be charting out a course for collaboration there and with the French federation as well.
I'm sorry. I'm tired. It's a good thing I have a front row here.
I have to say I've done consecutive translation at least 100 times. I can't imagine how I've gotten it so wrong tonight.
And the very same people who are telling me I should do this for the translation are telling me to mention that, once again, we'll be back in March with the first regular season NBA games in Europe between the Toronto Raptors and the New Jersey Nets, and we're very much looking forward to that in the next step of our development in Europe, which is going very well.
We're looking forward to a very exciting game, and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
THE MODERATOR: Please raise your hands with any questions. We have microphones around the room. And please state your name and affiliation prior to asking your question.
First question in the back.

Q. Hello. I wanted to ask you if you could tell us more details about the collaborations that you considered -- the NBA is considering with French basketball and French Federation.
COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, we talked about -- we talked about the -- some kind of potential basketball week celebration, which might not simply be in the United Kingdom, but we could find ways to talk about doing it throughout Europe to focus on the sport of basketball.
We very much focused on the possibility of an early WNBA game here because this happens to be a really very good market for women's basketball, perhaps one of the best, and so we talked about that.
And then we talked about how we could work together to grow the sport of basketball, and we got an update on new arena developments that are going up, I want to say, Lyon-Villeurbanne and other places.

Q. Can you tell me about the importance of the regular season games in Europe. How exciting is this for fans both in the U.S. and in Europe? And you also say you've been doing lots of activities over here while you're in France with the teams. You're obviously not concerned about security issues in Europe at the moment then.
COMMISSIONER STERN: The regular season games are, for us, a response to lots of questions about whether we would, in fact, ever stage regular season games in Europe, but for us, particularly in London, as a run-up to the 2012 Olympics, which I should say parenthetically, since there are still more competitions to come, perhaps the French team will be included as a participant in the Olympics, and it has 11 -- there are presently 11 French players in the NBA. So we're very appreciative of the connection.
The second part of your statement -- because it really wasn't a question, it was a statement -- suggesting that we weren't very concerned about security, I would say to you that we're very concerned about security, and we have taken all steps that we think are necessary and prudent to assure the safety of the traveling parties that we have here in Europe, which there are four, NBA staff, Timberwolves, Lakers, and Knicks.
But we did not go into lockdown mode. In other words, we let them enjoy the cities under our watchful eyes.
THE MODERATOR: Any other questions?

Q. I'm a journalist from Brazil. Being from Brazil, Mr. Stern, you listed several countries that are going to receive NBA games during the preseason and season, and considering that we have many players from Brazil, Argentina in the league, I don't know, what's the --
COMMISSIONER STERN: The question is will we be adding Brazil to the list?

Q. Yeah.
COMMISSIONER STERN: And the answer is yes.

Q. When?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Prior to -- likely prior to the World Cup.

Q. In 2014 we will have a game?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Yes. And, of course, or my backup position is prior to the Olympics, but we are -- we will be opening shortly an office in Brazil, and so we're well aware of the World Cup and Olympic expectations, and we expect to be following up on that opportunity relatively shortly.
COMMISSIONER STERN: There being no other questions, good luck to both teams. Thank you for coming.

End of FastScripts

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