It Sucks To Be a Commissioner Right Now

Gary Bettman's never had it so good. Sure, nobody really seems to care all that much about the sport he presides over, but at least he doesn't have to deal with any of the headaches of his colleagues.

Just look at the lives of the other commissioners around the sports world right now.

Bud Selig is going to have to deal with the Barry Bonds situation sooner rather than later, and then there is still that whole steroids business. Roger Goodell has had to tell Mike Vick to not attend Falcons minicamp until the league investigates the current case against him, and they decide what to do with him. Then there's David Stern who has to deal with this whole Tim Donaghy situation.

Seriously, all of their lives suck right now.

But the one who probably has it the worst is Stern. No matter what Selig or Goodell decide to do with their problem, neither is in danger of losing their job. That's not the case for Stern.

There's word out now that the NBA might have been aware of Donaghy's gambling problem, but failed to do anything about it.

There's also the very real possibility that Donaghy isn't the only current NBA official involved in this type of thing. Though this is something that Stern denied in his press conference earlier today.

"We think we have here a rogue, isolated criminal here," Stern said at a news conference. "I feel betrayed by what happened on behalf of the sport."

"I also understand [Donaghy] is the only referee alleged to have bet on NBA games and disclosed confidential information to others," Stern said, adding "Let me make it clear that's my current understanding."

"If that understanding changes tomorrow, I will so inform everybody," he added later.

If it does turn out that this isn't an isolated incident, somebody is going to have to take the fall for it.

And I don't mean Tim Donaghy. I mean David Stern.

The NBA doesn't have the same kind of autonomy amongst sports fans that the NFL and MLB do. Have any of the steroids scandals in baseball kept fans from going to the games or watching on television? How many people do you know are going to stop watching football because of guys like Pacman Jones and Tank Johnson?

The NBA on the other hand has long had to deal with the whole "thug" perception of it's players, and the fact that fans have long felt as though some of the games were fixed. Especially come playoff time.

While I used to think that the last theory was idiotic, now I can't be sure. Much like I used to think David Stern would be the commissioner of the NBA for as long as he wanted to be. Now?

I'm not so sure.