David Stern would never openly admit it to us. Nope, no commissioner would ever even publicly hint at a sense of displeasure, anger or absolute frustration regarding which franchise just received the number one pick in the upcoming draft – especially when that pick is projected to be an absolute can’t-miss superstar the way Kentucky’s Anthony Davis is.

But let’s be real about this; the New Orleans Hornets winning the NBA Draft Lottery on Wednesday night was Stern’s worst nightmare come to life.

If you compound the never before seen sequence of events that took place involving the Hornets and their elite point guard Chris Paul just before this abbreviated 66 game season got underway with the all-time historically atrocious struggles of the Charlotte Bobcats during 2012, nothing could make Stern look shadier to the league’s ever so skeptical fan base, which is now crying out conspiracy.

It all began way back in early December when Stern – thinking not as the impartial commissioner, but rather as the Hornets owner due to the league having control over the franchise at the time – shockingly pulled the plug on a blockbuster three team deal between New Orleans, the L.A. Lakers, and the Houston Rockets for what he justified as “basketball reasons.”

The trade would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers, seven foot forward Pau Gasol to the Rockets, and forward Lamar Odom, guards Goran Dragic and Kevin Martin, forward Luis Scola and the Rockets’ 2012 first round draft pick to the Hornets.

Stern expressed that the transaction was “not in the best interest of the Hornets,” but given that the pieces offered included an immediate first round pick and four players that have proven that they possess very solid NBA talent over the years, no one cared to buy that explanation.

The Lakers said they would work to sweeten the deal in order to completely appease New Orleans; however, Los Angeles’ other basketball team, the Clippers, began to show interest in acquiring Paul.

And from that very moment Stern’s level of trust amongst viewers has inevitably taken the mother of all nosedives.

At this point fans everywhere knew that if the Clippers – the most insignificant team in the Los Angeles sports scene since moving to the city only a handful of decades ago – went on to win this battle, it would be for a reason. What would it be exactly? To finally make them relevant and actually add some spice to a Lakers-Clippers ‘rivalry’ that has always been conquered by the Kobe Bryant-led purple and gold.

So when the Clippers did get Paul for guard Eric Gordon, center Chris Kaman, forward Al-Farouq Aminu and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 2012 first round draft pick, that only added fuel to their argument. How does that trade sound any better than the one the Lakers and Rockets put together? Oh, that’s right, it doesn’t. Not to mention the fact that the Hornets had to ship off two future second round picks of their own in this deal.

All that did was give the appearance that Stern was attempting to rig the power balance in the West for years to come. The Clippers had their best season in franchise history, finishing fifth in the conference at 40-26. Meanwhile, the Hornets closed out the season with a record of 21-45 – tied for third-worst in the entire league.

Gordon did only participate in nine games all year long with a bone bruise in his knee, so it’s unsure how the team would have performed with him out there consistently. However, he can leave the team this offseason as a free agent, something that should have kept the Hornets from desiring him in the first place.

Farouq Aminu only averaged an inadequate six points and 22 minutes per game this season, and Kaman’s struggles got to a point where the team discussed sending him home or releasing him.

There’s a great likelihood that the team would not have had such turmoil had they just gone through with the initial Paul trade. Odom did have the worst season of his career in 2012, as a result of personal issues stemming from both being a trade piece and a rough offseason, but other than that, Martin, Dragic, and Scola averaged 17.1, 11.7 and 15.5 points per game, respectively.

The Rockets also missed the playoffs by a mere two games, as they posted a 34-32 record.

On top of all this, the team with the worst winning percentage of all-time, the Bobcats at .106, didn’t win the draft lottery? You’re kidding, right?

Too bad Stern can’t force the Hornets to give the pick to the Bobcats. He definitely wanted to after the process made him look like a complete sham.

The article Hornets Landing #1 Pick is Terrible for Stern’s Image and He Knows It appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

NFL owners have voted to expand their international agenda up until 2016. In their annual fall meeting in Houston, the owners approved a resolution to continue playing regular season games in the United Kingdom. The resolution would allow a team to voluntarily play in the UK and that game would count as a home game.

This would be subject to changes depending on the continual popularity of the sport and the amount of teams volunteering for the opportunity. The Resolution was approved initially in 2006, and the first game was played on October 28^th 2007, a game played between the New York giants and Miami Dolphins.

Since then there has been 3 more games played outside of the U.S. The next game on the agenda is set to be played between the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers on October 23^rd this year.

According to the NFL, this approach towards expanding interest in the UK has paid off thus far, increasing the fan base by up to 32% over the past 2 years and bringing the overall fan base of the league close to 11 million. Also, Sunday viewership of games has grown tremendously according to the league office and the Super Bowl audience every year has increased 74% since the program began in 2006.

Chris Parsons, NFL Vice President of International affairs states that it would be better for the league to send the same team every year in order to raise the fan base of that particular team — as their fan base increase so would the fan base of the league. The NFL is attempting to make American Football popular overseas, mainly the UK.

It is the same blueprint laid out by the NBA and commissioner David Stern in their attempt to expand worldwide in markets like China and everywhere else possible. The NBA markets its players while the NFL is marketing the product itself, in hopes that the game will catch on and their love of the players will follow.

An NFL franchise in the United Kingdom is unlikely but the popularity continues to grow. The problem with this expansion plan though is the actual teams that will have to play these games — most teams will not want to travel to the UK twice in one season diminishing their chances of winning a Super Bowl in order to appeal to UK fans.

Commissioner Goodell made it clear that although the game is growing well, don’t look for a team to move to the UK; there will be no UK-base NFL team anytime soon.

Ken Durden / Shutterstock.com

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