You are never going to get a full apology from David Stern.
To be frank I am surprised he even said this much. In my opinion he was totally out of line with Jim Rome. Rome asked a valid question that many fans wanted an answer to.
Stern took it too far and at least on some level he understands that now.
“You know, I would do it again differently if I were asked the question,” Stern said on Mike Wise’s radio show in Washignton. “What can I tell you? I’m like LeBron. You get a day older, and you hope you get wiser rather than just older.”
“The problem is, given the members of the media — and this is not anti-media, this is just reality — if Brooklyn had won it they’d say you see, David’s taking care of whatever. If the [Bobcats] had won it, people would say ah, he promised Michael Jordan when he became an owner they’d do this.
“I understand what’s happening. My only objection at the time was, your question phrases it in a certain way. But if you said to me directly is the lottery fixed, you would be implying that you believed it was fixed. Because you don’t need to make it part of the question. And so I sort of reacted, maybe overreacted. So I understand that. But a guy’s allowed to have some fun.”
I am sure Jim Rome’s wife thought it was real funny.
Stay classy Commish, stay classy.