There is something totally wrong with the development system for young basketball players," Stern said Friday at his annual NBA Finals news conference. "It historically has not been the place for professional leagues to do [something about] it, but on the basis of the consistent failures of everyone else to do it, we are at least thinking about it, and we'll be getting some dialogue with some interested parties to see if there's something that can be done here." The subject came up at a Finals in which the Dallas Mavericks have become the first NBA team since the Houston Rockets a decade ago to be led into the championship round by a foreign-born player


http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2006/news/story?id=2477110

Notes: I have not seen the TV ratings for the finals yet. Is this what's been putting Stern in a foul mood? This series was supposed to be the renasaunce of the "new NBA". The 1st one to 100 wins, where the Superstars play like Superstars. So far the only Superstar is that guy from Germany.

I did catch one source that reported a 6% uptick from last years game 1. Hardly the increase I would have expected given all the hoopla. We will see how it goes and how much it falls if Dallas dominance continues.