Here's the rest of the transcript from NBA commissioner David Stern's Thursday press conference at Staples Center, preceding Game 1 of the 2009 NBA FInals:

Q. Do any of those issues now in the economic environment we're in impact teams where a worst case scenario, decisions might be made about relocation?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Well, I think teams will have decisions to make. In some cases, I think quite appropriately, they've decided when revenues fall from attendance or sponsorships, they should make some payroll related decisions. I don't think that's a dereliction of duty, I think that's a sensible statement of intelligent business operations so the team can stay where it is.
But I have no doubt that in times like this, issues of relocation will surface, but there's nothing hot right this minute, but I think that's a possibility. But that's too easy an answer. I mean, the question is how does the team do, how does it relate to the community, groups, day of game, season tickets, sponsorships, things like that, and our teams are working at it harder than they have ever worked before. I mean, there are meetings that we have, best case practices, shared web, where we have a site that as soon as a promotion goes up, how it does, it gets shared with 30 teams. So I think it's making us leaner, but it's also making us better.
And the good news for our teams is that our great partners, and they've been great this year, at Disney and at Turner, are just finishing up the first year of an eight year deal, with seven years to run, with three percent built in raises for the next seven years, and the average length of time of our regional sports network deals is probably about ten years and probably averages $17 million.
Our teams are going to be faced with the necessity to get out and sell tickets and sponsorships, and some, quite frankly, do it better than others, and some are hobbled by their record and by a particular economy in their state. But everything is different. But our owners are mindful of those differences and they're happy and willing to talk about that with their partners, and that's why we'll be scheduling an executive session this summer. But I don't expect any immediate actions, and I don't see any needs.

Q. There was a lot of conversation in the past years about bringing some NBA franchises to Europe, to add some franchises in Europe. Did you put it on hold a little bit or is there still some progress?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I think there's nothing that let me say this: Everything seems to be on hold these days waiting to see how the economy does. When Angela Merkel was criticizing the Central Bank and the Spanish real estate market is going down and the English banking system is in trouble, prudence says let's wait and watch and do things slowly. For us those things include an exhibition game in October at the O2 Arena, which is owned and operated by the same people who operate this building, AEG our partners in China for building arenas. And we'll be playing the Jazz against the Bulls in London, and then the Jazz will be playing Real Madrid in Madrid. We very much want to keep testing the European markets and we've opened up offices now in Milan and Madrid and Istanbul to go with our Paris and London offices, but we're not going to be making any bold projections or predictions about the location of franchises in Europe at this time.

Q. It's been some time since the Donaghy scandal has elapsed and the league has been moving towards transparency. We've had a lot of flagrant fouls and technical and overruled and a play in Dallas where a play called was determined to be incorrect. Can you tell us both positively how it's progressed and then how the transparency needs to go a bit faster and hasn't progressed enough?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I'm not sure it needs to go faster. I think the transparency has some negatives because as it relates to flagrants and technicals, in any game on average we get about 92 percent or thereabouts right. With the benefit of slow motion replay and eight additional cameras, you can do a lot after the fact. But all that we do is focus. We do a lot, we do every play for purposes of our own development system. But with respect to technicals and flagrants, which have an impact beyond the game because of the accretion of points and the like and the disqualification of players, we review those and then you get comments like, it's all very nebulous or ambiguous, and I'd like to invite everyone here to referee training camp next season and tell me and I hear it's always a judgment issue. Yes. Did he make it to the spot ahead of the offensive player? Is it a block? Is it a charge? Indeed it is a judgment based upon as many years and as much development as we can get.
But as we open that up and discuss it, it has its downside where it engenders more debate, but we've steeled ourselves for that and we're moving. I don't see any great necessary moves forward, but on each occasion, life is made up of 100 different actions, and when we see an activity that we think we should go public with because it seems like a good idea at the time, we do it. That's our pledge of our transparency. That's why we have invited the media to referee training camp. That's why in many cases we invited media to the sessions that go on with our referees visiting with teams when they're in market.
We hope to soon actually be putting on line soon is a relative term a video rule book that we are developing first for the teams and as we vet it for the public and the media, so that we can at least attend to continue to demystify what ideal our referees are striving for, knowing that it's an ideal that can never fully be reached.

Q. Do you anticipate perhaps additional instant replay in the rules? And would you ever entertain, or would the league benefit with a fourth official? Would that be a positive?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: You know, it's funny, that's a question were you here when we had two officials? I don't think so, okay, and that was a question. We went to three, and it was a big fight between me and the owners.
And then when we had a lock out one year and we went to two officials, wait, we'll keep it at two, but no, we like three. I don't think at this point an extra the third official we felt that an extra pair of eyes on the beat actually would cut down on some action off and away from the ball that wasn't being picked up. But in the proper rotation with the proper training and development, we think our three officials can cover the court well.
We're going to increase instant replay, but at least as we do it incrementally it's going to be on the agenda for October to deal with the 24 second clock because there have been a couple of occasions where it affected the outcome of a game at that moment, and the Competition Committee voted unanimously to recommend it to the Board, and we appointed a committee to say at the last Competition Committee to report back to say what else can we do short of making our games into four hour games that would enable us to assure our fans that we're trying to get it right on an ongoing basis.
I don't think we've seen the end of increased instant replay, but we're looking at it. I don't know, electronically you can have a control center with everything going and you can probably referee the game remotely someday, but I'm not pushing for that and I don't think that would be a particularly good idea.

Q. In some parts of the media and some parts of popular culture there's a belief that the outcome of playoff games are predetermined. How do you respond to that?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Do you believe that?

Q. Absolutely not.
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I don't believe it, and it doesn't happen that way. I don't know what else to say. It's easy to write about it because it's actually more fun, but we take our integrity and our compliance with the law, because the activity that you're suggesting would not be in compliance, very seriously.
And it actually takes away from the opportunity to say how great our players are, and what a terrific job they do competing with each other to get where they get to. And the idea that somehow the outcome is other than on the merits by these great players is not something that I think thinking people should subscribe to.

Q. You've had like 11 or 12 teams that had a need to tap into your line of credit that you extend league wide. I wanted to know would you give any consideration of just abolishing the luxury tax until the economy
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: No, they chose to. There's a difference between choosing to and having a need to. New Orleans is profitable, and they tapped in. I can understand, you tap in sometimes some teams do it to cover operating losses so owners don't dip into their own pockets. Some do it because it's a good idea. The money is inexpensive and the credit line is good and hard to get, so you take some money out the way landlords and buildings do. Other teams replace debt with less expensive debt and use it to renegotiate with lenders. No, there's no contemplation of eliminating or reducing luxury tax.

Q. I just wanted to ask you how you see Asia, and in particular India as a market, because from what we've seen earlier there have been players who visited Asia and India, so how are you looking at the growth of the NBA in India in particular?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: We are looking at it as a very important growth opportunity for the NBA. We know that our players have visited there. I have a particular in my mind a visit by Kevin Garnett where it was oversubscribed and crowds developed. We just made a new transaction to have an NBA website in India, both in English and in Hindi, and we're actually studying some very important initiatives. We had the Bollywood representatives at a Laker game. And what India tells us is that when you have a nation that is that large, that some small population percentage like 20 percent, which would be 200 million people, or maybe even 30 percent, 300 million, the same size as the U.S., offers an enormous opportunity, geographically diverse for us to do it. So we're very intent on development in India.
And thus far we're involved in grass roots. We had NBA programs, we had Robert Parish there, and we will continue to do it in both ways, television, grass roots, websites, retail sales and sponsorship opportunities.

Q. Does this also mean more infrastructure in terms of arenas?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Yes. And when I said we've had some preliminary discussions, very preliminary, but they involve actually long term considerations of what arena infrastructure would look like in India and what kind possibly of a professional basketball league might look, because we're mindful of the IPL development and the great success of that. But we do recognize that the first sport in India is cricket, as is the second sport and the third sport and the fourth sport, a little bit like football or soccer in Europe. But there's enough room down the road for many other sports.
You know, just one other thing I wanted to mention because I don't want any of the media to miss an important game, Sunday's game starts at 8:00 o'clock Eastern, as we previously announced many months ago to no fanfare.

Q. The WNBA game?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: No, the WNBA is at 2:30 Eastern on ABC, but I know you'll be there so you don't really care about the television aspect of it.
Thank you very much.

That's it, shameless WNBA plugs and all.
Back Friday with coverage from Lakers and Magic practices at Staples Center.

OK, as promised earlier, David Stern's press conference.
The short version is this: Everything's wonderful, the league is the greatest organization in the history of mankind, and LeBron James is fined $25,000 for blowing off the media after losing in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Beyond that, since I thought there might be some people who find it interesting to see exactly how the Stern spin cycle works -- and because it's late and I'm tired, and this shortcut is available -- I'm actually going to post the entire transcript of the Stern press conference, as provided by the ASAP service, in two parts. Part 1 follows:

COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Welcome to the 2009 NBA Finals. We've had a great year. We've had an extraordinary playoffs, including I would just say an electrifying, electrifying Conference Finals, and this is just an exclamation point to a season for the ages, in my view.
Everything came together for us. The development of our young players as members of extraordinary teams, their Olympic experience, the mix that the international players have contributed to this league and the richness that we have received from them, it was apparent throughout the season and apparent throughout the playoffs, and indeed it's apparent in these very Finals.
Interestingly enough, even our NBA Development League has contributed to these playoffs; I guess there are eight roster players with D League experience in these Finals, and that was put into place to develop conditioning, the confidence, the coaching, the community of our players. So we're feeling pretty good about a number of decisions that have been made and have gotten us here, including our support for international basketball, our participation in the World Championships and the Olympics, and our development around the world, which has led to the growth of the game and the development of players that have made our league so much better. And indeed, there are going to be 215 countries receiving our games in 42 languages, and I think that the record audiences that we've had demonstrate that NBA fans, and some new NBA fans, agree with us.
Before I take your questions, I just want to say that as a matter of some interest, yesterday I spoke with LeBron James, who as you know is recovering from surgery, a five hour surgery, and he expressed to me that when he left the building and did not meet the media or did not congratulate the Magic, he was wrong. He'll be talking to you I assume directly as he gets better and stronger, but he asked that I express to the media, the Magic and the fans his apology, and particularly the young fans, because he knows he has a responsibility to all of our fans, and that sportsmanship is appropriate whether you win or whether you lose. He understands why it was necessary for me to fine him $25,000 for missing the media availability.
But I know you'll all join me in wishing him a speedy recovery. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have, after I say one more time, congratulations to the Magic and the Lakers for the run to this Finals, and aren't we lucky to have these two very successful teams here.

Q. The NBA has become involved in bankruptcy proceedings of the Phoenix Coyotes to block their potential move. I just wonder why.
STERN: We haven't quite become involved. We have submitted a document of support with respect to league procedures. We think that there's a principle that's at risk there, which is when you buy a franchise, what do you get. And when you take it out of the sports context, if you buy a fast food franchise in a city, you own that, you don't own the right to have that fast food franchise in any other city. That's why sports leagues have historically voted on where their franchise should be located, and there's an effort underway there to bypass that, and we think that's a principle that we would like to be heard on. I know Major League Baseball and the NFL will support us, as well.

Q. Just wondering, the WNBA has got sponsorship on their jersey. Are we going to see that in the NBA anytime soon?
STERN: You mean the WNBA whose season kicks off on Saturday at 2:30 on ABC, that WNBA? I don't think we're going to see it any time soon, but I am delighted that the WNBA was able to do that because the combination of that, one, that we think will be announced relatively soon for another team, and the fact that they'll have probably 30 games on ESPN, ESPN 2 and ABC this year that will be paid for is really a threshold that's very important for them to have overcome, and it's a very good financial league.
We'll study it. I just saw that an insurance company replaced AIG on Manchester United's uniform for a price. If you have an offer you'd like to make for the owners, I'm prepared to receive it, but right now it's not for sale in the NBA.

Q. I actually have two questions, but since now you've brought up LeBron, the League initially said he would not be fined. What made you go back retroactively and change your mind there?
STERN: I said initially that I was not planning to fine him, but I thought about it more and I went back and did a little work. It's always good to do a little work before you talk. It was a throw away line at the press conference in the WNBA press announcement of the aforementioned jersey sale, and the more I thought about it I thought there were two things we had to deal with, which was the media and the failure to congratulate. LeBron and I discussed it, and I'll leave the rest for him to talk about, but I think it was important. Certainly as it related to the media, we have a rule, you guys know that we've had some interesting issues over the years with some of our coaches and the like, and it was inappropriate for me to give someone a pass here.

Q. Bob Johnson said he's lost millions of dollars and he's looking to sell the Bobcats. I'm wondering what you think the situation is in Charlotte. Is Michael Jordan a viable owner? Is it a viable market for them to stay there? Any of those things?
STERN: I don't know what Michael's plans are, but I do know that Charlotte is an extraordinary market. It led our league in attendance for many, many years. It's got a terrific new building, and I'm sure that whoever the next owner is will fully realize the potential of the market based upon a very good start that Bob has made in bringing basketball back to Charlotte.

Q. As I'm sure you're aware, there was a congressman who made a statement yesterday regarding your over 19 rule, and there are obviously a few guys in the series being straight from high school guys. Curious what you thought of his remarks, especially the one where he referred to slavery?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: I'm going to count to ten on that remark, but I will say that I was more taken by his remark that he's thought about this for a while but he thought he would make this statement, issue a press release and then send a letter at this time so he would get more exposure during The Finals, and I agree with him completely that that's what he did.
But as to slavery, that would be like you saying that the talented people of the NBA, college graduates some, and talented graduates of many universities are not eligible to be congressmen because they have an age limitation of 25. So I don't know what he's talking about.

Q. As a follow up to the age limit itself, collectively bargaining obviously coming up fairly soon, you guys have talked about moving it to 20 and the union would love to repeal the limit in the first place. Do you see this being on the table?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Only to the extent that everything is always on the table, but it's not a deal breaker for us. We're very happy. What the congressman didn't understand, and we'll be happy to share our view with him, this is not about the NCAA, this is not an enforcement of some social program, this is a business decision by the NBA, which is we like to see our players in competition after high school. I don't know why our founders decided that age 25 was good for Congress, but I guess they thought that was about maturity, and for us it's different, it's a kind of basketball maturity, and there is the ability of players to develop one more year personally, but this is not about whether they should go to college or not.
I would add quickly that players have three routes: They can go to college Division 1A, Division II, whatever, junior college they can go to the NBA Development League, whose entry age is 18, or they can go to Europe. So this is not a mandatory direction by anyone that players should go to college.

Q. This is your 26th NBA Finals as commissioner and your 12th involving Jerry Buss, who's owned the team for the past 30 years. Can you talk about Jerry's impact on the league, especially with respect to making entertainment an awesome factor for all NBA fans and everybody who's interested in the league?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Jerry, quite simply, was a pioneer in understanding what the value of entertainment was in a community. That went to how people could consume it, what they would feel about it, and indeed, what they would be willing to pay for it, and what the players' value was. I remember when he gave Magic a $25 million contract. We had owners who wanted to have him committed, and indeed he recognized what the value was going to be, and it seemed like a low price very shortly thereafter. So Jerry understood everything, and I wouldn't be fair if I didn't add that he is a League first person on every issue as a member of the Board of Governors that we have talked about, negotiated about. In every context he's always put the League first, and often to another position would have been better for the Lakers financially.

Q. If economic conditions in the US don't improve significantly in the next 6 to 12 months, what are the ramifications for the teams that are struggling the most from a financial standpoint? And have you discussed remedies going forward?
COMMISSIONER DAVID STERN: Well, I think that we always have teams that do better than others. We expect next season to really have another record year, we hope, with respect to attendance. The reality is that we don't expect, we hope. The reality is there will be discounts and price cuts because we're trying to respond to what our fans are telling us, so our revenues will likely be down some percentage I can say, maybe as much as 10 percent. But that's a small amount in the landscape here.
We're continually discussing issues of revenue sharing, but we do have an increased revenue sharing program in, and we had a very good and robust discussion with the owners and executives session in our Board of Governors meeting, and I'm getting ready to schedule another executive session in the summer so we can come together and talk about all issues that are front and center.
But we've always had owners who do less well, and they have issues about how they're going to fund their teams. But we're doing pretty well.

OK, that's Part 1. Part 2 coming momentarily.

It's official: You'll see Jameer Nelson tonight.
The Magic point guard, who last played on Feb. 2, has been activitated for the first game of the NBA Finals and will "probably" play, according to Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy.
"In the end, we just think he's ready to go, think he can put some pressure on their defense, and we think he'll get better as the series goes on," said Van Gundy.
That bumps Anthony Johnson down in the guard rotation, and pushes former Lakers guard Ty Lue off the active list altogether.
"It was really, really tough," said Van Gundy, "to take two great veteran guys and tell Ty Lue that he was going to be on the inactive list ... and to tell Anthony Johnson, at least in the beginning here, that I was going to play Jameer ahead of him, when we've made it all the way to the finals without Jameer."
Lakers coach Phil Jackson said his team had not discussed Nelson "by name. We've discussed positions. ...
"Jameer obviously was playing at a high level," said Jackson, "but I think Rafer (Alston) filled in and almost in many ways was identical to what they wanted to have done."
Jackson was in something of a similar situation last year, bringing Trevor Ariza into the finals after he'd been sidelined for some time with an injury.
"It's a matter of how comfortable a player feels on the floor," said Jackson, "and you get a sense of that when they're out there, how they move through traffic, and they're playing unimpeded. They'll get a sense of that almost immediately, I would think?"
And how, Jackson was asked, did that work out with Ariza?
"I didn't think he felt comfortable," he said, "otherwise we probably would have played him more."
The boss speaks: Pregame activities for Game 1 also included commissioner David Stern's annual state of the game press conference -- it's still going on as I write -- and I know you'll be shocked to hear that everything is great in the NBA, that Stern considers this a game for the ages. Everything is always fine as Stern spins his way through this session, with the possible exception of the one here last year when he was dealing with Tim Donaghy fallout.
I'll pass along a few more of Stern's thoughts after the game, when there are no pregame time constraints, but Lakers fans might find particularly interesting his answer about Lakers owner Jerry Buss and his impact in the league, particularly in terms of incorporating entertainment into the NBA experience:
"Jerry, quite simply, was a pioneer in understanding what the value of entertainment was in a community. That went to how people would consume it, what they feel about it and indeed what they would be willing to pay for it. And what the players' value was.
"I remember when he gave Magic (Johnson) a $25 million contract, we had owners who wanted to have him committed. And indeed he recognized what the value was going to be, and it seemed like a low price very shortly thereafter.
"So Jerry understood everything, and I wouldn't be fair if I didn't add that he is a league-first person, on every issue, as a member of the board of governors, that we have talked about, negotiated about, in every context, he's always put the league first. And often another position would have been better for the Lakers financially."