Friday, April 23, 2010

Stern Warns Coaches to Quit Griping

The league handed out fines of $35,000 apiece on Thursday to Boston Celtics forward Rasheed Wallace, Orlando Magic Stan Van Gundy and Orlando forward Matt Barnes for publicly criticizing officials.

Speaking before the Thunder hosted the Lakers, Stern said such comments were ''corrosive'' to the product that the league is putting on the floor. He said he understands why coaches try to work the officials through the media, but that the result is such comments undermine consumer confidence in the league's product.

''But when you hear a Chicago coach say that this game was lost because NBC wants an extra game and you hear a New York coach say, 'What are you going to do? Jordan gets all the calls,' it sounds like a lot of fun,'' Stern said.

''If I had it to do again ... I would stop it and the price wouldn't be a modest $35,000 fine. It would be whatever a day's pay is and then two days' pay and then a week's pay.

Stern said he crossed paths with Jackson on Thursday night at the Ford Center and said there were no hard feelings, at least from the commissioner.

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