Stern Wants to See More Global Warming in NBA

David Stern was talking about Mark Cuban on Tuesday, which happens on many days, and he was talking about soccer, which doesn’t happen quite so often.

For the record, the term red card was never mentioned. Neither was club versus country, the age-old tug of war that is a perennial dilemma for the soccer-mad nations of Europe and South America, but not much of an NBA issue, considering that the biggest international basketball competitions -- the Olympics, the World Championships -- are held during the NBA’s off-season.

That didn’t stop Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, from whining loudly about NBA players -- in particular, his NBA players -- needlessly risking injury by participating in international competitions when there are dozens of college kids who could serve just fine as tournament fodder.

“Frankly, on a global perspective, I always try to learn something from something in a related industry,” Stern said during lunch with writers and editors at The Times. “And I watch football, soccer. You know, Ronaldo goes back and plays [for his national team]. Pele goes back and plays. It’s sitting there. But we Americans don’t even understand that. The national-team competition is a huge deal every place but in the United States.

“And even in the U.S., it’s a big deal in non-basketball [sports] and apparently, with everyone except Mark Cuban, in my view. Because [other countries have said to us], ‘Please, play in our tournament, grace us with your presence. Don’t patronize us by sending your less-than-best players.’ And we responded to that. And the world really loved it.”

Maybe Cuban has “Miracle” on the brain. The images from that movie -- a bunch of overmatched college kids upsetting the mighty Soviet hockey team in the 1980 Olympics -- can be tough to shake. But flash ahead eight years, to 1988, and our college kids in the Seoul Olympics basketball tournament didn’t fare so well.

Flash ahead to 2004 and you will see Cuban’s Maverick squad crowded with European stars and Stern’s league populated with 73 international players, a direct byproduct of the first NBA Dream Team at the 1992 Olympics.

“I come to it with a little different perspective,” the NBA commissioner said. “I won’t say broader, but different. This league started out as an eight-team Eastern league. And as a fan and as an employee, I was excited to see it grow to a national league and to an international presence, to being seen in 212 countries and being received in 43 languages.

“We now have 73 international players -- and not people who sit on the end of the bench. These are real elite players. So I think that we’ve had a pretty successful run at both [international] talent and at the expansion of those fans that would access us. An important part of that is playing games internationally.”

Although he acknowledged “there is a risk of injury” in international tournaments, Stern grinned and added, “Our players, if they’re not playing in the Olympics, they’re at UCLA playing, they’re at the Houston Center, they’re playing exhibition games all over the country for each other in charity games -- that are not quite as well supervised, without the best medical attention, without the most training....

“In the not-too-distant future, there’s going to be as many elite basketball players on other continents as there are in the United States. Once that was unthinkable. If I’d suggested to you that there’d be 75 international [NBA] players a decade ago, you would’ve laughed at me.

“I’m telling you, does anyone think that Yao Ming is the last great player to come out of China? With all those hundreds of millions of people there watching him? Or that Tony Parker isn’t going to inspire a generation of French kids to bounce the ball rather than kick it?

“To me, it’s happening. We could decide that we’re going to forget about it. But from running a business on behalf of the owners, my view is that our games are on TV all over in the United States, our arenas are approaching a 90% sellout, and business is good.

“The question is whether we want to grow the business in a serious way, and international is a huge opportunity for us -- that maybe we alone have. And if the owners tell me we shouldn’t pursue it, or shouldn’t pursue it in quite the same way we are, it’s their call. They’re the league.”

Stern believes the future is global, even if the present is an NBA All-Star game on cable. He bristles at the suggestion that his league stalled or settled for less when it signed off on its current TV package, which moved most of the NBA’s nationally televised games to ESPN and TNT. For the second consecutive year, the league’s All-Star game will be televised by TNT.

“The All-Star game on cable -- somebody has to, you know, get over that,” Stern said. “The average kid who starts watching television doesn’t say, ‘I’m going to watch a cable network’ as opposed to ‘I am going to watch an over-the-air network.’ They just know they turn it on and they see it.”

TNT drew a 9.8 rating for the 2003 All-Star game, billed as Michael Jordan’s final (this time, we swear) All-Star appearance, which equaled NBC’s rating for the 2002 game

“Frankly, we were amazed by the rating that we got last year on cable,” Stern said. “And we would be shocked if we got the same rating this year. It’s almost certainly going to be less, because of [no] Michael Jordan. I mean, he has retired on several occasions, but now it’s over. That was [a case of] things coming together.”

NBA cable ratings are up this season, with an 8% increase on ESPN and a 35% jump on TNT. Stern said he expected that kind of improvement on ESPN “because ... we had a good schedule coming, there was interest in the product -- yes, coaching changes, influx of international players, good rookie class, LeBron [James], Carmelo [Anthony] and others. And also the regularity of, ‘OK, now it’s on ESPN -- better look for it.’ ”

On ABC, ratings are down 13%. Stern attributes that to the network’s sporadic NBA schedule and marketing.

“I think the addition of Al Michaels and Doc Rivers is a ‘big voice’ contribution,” he said, hoping the NBA can draft a bit off the “Miracle” and the virtual soundtrack Michaels’ play-by-play provides in the film.

“The ‘Miracle’ movie reminds people about the prominence of Michaels in the American sports scene,” Stern said. “That’s a big deal, and we’re expecting a significant bump in ratings for the finals.”

Hockey helping basketball get better ratings on television? Again, Stern would point to the movie. Stranger things have happened.