Of course, I'm not suggesting anybody should actually do this, but the Sonics move is a complete disgrace, and I can't think of a more suitable punishment for big Dave for not stopping it.

But lets be clear here.. the balance of power in the NBA has always been between owners and everybody else.  Remember, the other owners approved this move too.  While David Stern might behave like a low-budget power-mad pocket Napoleon, his actions, while often self-serving, have mostly been to satisfy the whims of the owners, and he leaves no stone unturned in service of that imperative.

The Sonics move to Oklahoma City, is at the end of the day, a result of the city of Seattle failing to sufficiently kiss Stern's ass, while at the same time showing that they in fact love the Mariners and Seahawks more than the Sonics.

Any scrap of respect I had for Stern is gone after this move and the heavy handed way he's handling the referee scandal, which by the way is complete theatrical bs. Why would you hire an ex-general (and one who has been more involved in r&d and logistics than combat, btw), unless you wanted a person in charge who would be, to all intents and purposes, and by virtue of his status, immune to any questions of integrity? It's a sham.

The irony of it all is that if David Stern had decided to be completely open wrt the refs, worked sincerely with the union and players on issues such as the non-leather ball and rules changes, had given Oklahoma an expansion slot (imho, a 32 team NBA ( 4 eight team divisions ) would offer an improved and more competitive product.), rather than allowing a relocation, and had actually tried to work with the city of Seattle to help make the Sonics a more profitable franchise, the NBA would be in a really good position for stable future growth.

The Celtics and Lakers, this year, have given him an opportunity which imho he should not squander, and that is to reorient the marketing of the NBA as a whole towards teams, rather than towards individual stars. It's what the MLB and NFL orgs do, as well as every single soccer team in Europe, and protects those teams from fluctuations in revenue cause by players retiring, getting arrested or other boneheaded behavior.   Stern needs to forget about expansion into Europe or Asia, where basketball is at best a second rate draw, and focus on optimizing his opportunities here.