Originally published in Bloomberg View.

The owners insisted they had no plans to move the team. That's what the Maloofs swore, raising their right hand as their left hand worked deals with buyers first from Anaheim, then Virginia Beach, then Seattle. And that's what the owners of the Kansas City Kings maintained 30 years ago, even as they did everything in…

Oh, good: Bruce Jenkins took some space in his recent column about the NBA to suggest that David Stern ruined Christmas with basketball because he's Jewish:

The state of New Jersey plans to legalize sports wagering as early as January by defying the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. Governor Chris Christie and other New Jersey lawmakers support this on the theory that it would cut into the profits of the many illegal and offshore sports betting…

When Gregg Popovich decided to rest four of the Spurs' best players last night—a decision made well in advance of their game against the Heat, if Pop is to be believed—he took all the air out of a hotly anticipated, nationally televised contest. In the kindest light, it was a savvy move by Popovich designed to keep his …

David Stern joined the Utah Jazz broadcast team during last night's Jazz-Grizzlies game to talk about the state of the NBA or something else equally boring. The interview wasn't a complete waste of time, though, because it gave Stern the opportunity to test his announcing chops and call some of the game action.

From BuzzFeed comes this wonderful story about the night the San Antonio Spurs received their 2004-2005 championship rings. It is the story of how Tim Duncan got Brent Barry to kiss David Stern, as told by Brent Barry:

Here's your NBA commissioner: "Before we begin, I know that everyone here and around America watching has in their thoughts and their abiding concerns those who are affected by the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath." Oy.

The NBA released a video yesterday of all the flops that they officially consider flops now that the NBA is officially considering flops. It has a weird narrator who uses unnecessarily colorful language, which is great. We get a "grossly embellished fall to the floor" from Reggie Evans, an "over-embellished reaction…

It's been a big story over the past few seasons: NBA players—in increasingly large numbers, rather than in isolated instances of Divacs and Lambieers and Reggie Millers—had outsmarted the league and taken advantage of the difficulty on officiating NBA games by just falling on the floor all the time and acting hurt.…