I believe they ought to receive a stipend of some kind, and more realistic living expenses. Kids in all other areas of college life earn money through work study awards; athletes are certainly working for the college, producing revenue and raising the college's visibility. I also believe their scholarships ought to be guaranteed for four years instead of the college having the option to renew each year. Right now there are too many abuses. The kid doesn’t get paid, but his parents or his coach negotiate for him and they wind up with a job. Who are we kidding? Also, why should a coach or an athletic director be permitted to bind the team to a shoe contract? The players are bringing success to the program but they do not participate in the revenue, and they’re told what kind of shoes they have to wear.

23. Should professional athletes be allowed to compete in the Olympics?

They already do. What is unfair is that the same standards are not upheld country by country and sport by sport. Our professional basketball players now compete; why not boxers? Why not baseball players?

24. What are the best sources of foreign basketball talent? How do other countries compare?

We’ve seen some mid-level players, such as Toni Kukoc or Vlade Divac, come from Europe. I think the NBA encourages this because they want to open up more marketing opportunities around the world. So we’ve had some players from Yugoslavia, Russia, Germany - why not anyone from South America? Or Asia? If the NBA is going to recruit overseas, I think they need to expand their horizons. I think they would be pleasantly surprised. I couldn’t tell you country by country what the level of talent is like; I did take a team of retired NBA players, most of them in their ’40s and ’50s, to China in 1998 to play the Chinese National Team. We won one game of four and were competitive in the others until we got tired. The Chinese National Team is on a level with the top American college teams; they would have probably made the Final Four this past year. On any given night they might beat some of the weaker teams in the NBA but I don’t think they could do it consistently, night after night.