Stu Jackson Player Quotations

His conduct in the stands, I thought, was very reasonable. He was calm, and the result was a good one, in that he got back down onto the floor without an incident erupting. But it brings to light really the danger that you have when a player enters the spectators' stands, in that at that point, we lose control of the situation and anything could have happened. Fortunately, in this situation, it didn't.

The teams are responsible for holding the players to compliance. Our teams placed the orders with Reebok. Our teams are responsible for putting the players out on the court with a uniform that is in compliance. To say that Reebok is the issue, I think, is a bit misguided.

I don't know concretely if it's due to superstition, but any time a new rule is implemented into the NBA or a new piece of equipment or a new technology, there is always a transition and adjustment period by players and coaches and anyone involved with the game.

There is a standard, as to how a player is to wear his uniform. There is a standard in all sports as to how a uniform is to be worn and our standard is that the shorts, in particular, are to be worn above the knee.

My sense was players resonated with the idea after their initial skepticism.

For the players, it will allow them to get an opportunity for playing time that didn't exist under the older system. For the teams, it provides them additional flexibility. It allows them to monitor and evaluate players in a competitive situation, whereas before those players were relegated to a practice situation.

It brings to light the danger when a player enters the spectator stands. At that point, we lose control of the situation and anything could have happened.

We felt since neither team played (Thursday), we had some extra time to review the situation. There is no black mark for Ray. It is one incident and you move on and hope it doesn't happen again. We had not received anything on our desk from either player before, so we wanted to make sure we talked to everybody.

We have made it plain to our players and our fans that players may not enter the spectator stands, no matter the provocation, and that violations of this policy will be treated with the utmost seriousness.

There's a situation that could arise where multiple teams affiliated with the same D-League team have players at the same position, ... It may not make sense from a playing-time standpoint to have them on the same D-League team. In those cases, we will make a determination as to where those players go.

We're looking at the severity of the conduct, whether a player wound up and followed through. It was a hard foul, but I did not feel it was flagrant -- and I've reviewed hundreds of these.

These affiliations and the assignment system are really going to benefit both the players and the teams,

The process relies heavily on general managers and player personnel directors whose daily responsibility is to handicap the draft and evaluate players. As we get closer to the draft, they have a pretty accurate idea as to team needs. And certainly they're pretty accurate in most cases.

This is really going to benefit the players and teams in our league,

Certainly the message was very clear after the Nov. 19 incident in that it was clear to our players that they were not to enter the stands under any circumstances. Certainly this suspension is evident to the fact that we're very serious about that declaration. We realize there were some mitigating circumstances and we did in fact take that into account.

Year in and year out, Dick is always one of our top-rated officials. A big factor in his ratings is his accuracy, his overall experience, his ability to manage a game and communicate with players and coaches, all of which have made him one of the top-rated officials.

They're really going to benefit both players and teams, ... For players, it will allow them to get playing time that they might not have gotten under the old system. For teams, it gives them another option and flexibility in player development.

This has been received very positively by the clubs. As our league is continuing to get younger and younger, and our draft is one of drafting potential, this gives them an avenue to develop the player quicker and under game conditions.

It was straightforward. Our rule says the players can't leave the vicinity of the bench area. In this case Ron clearly came onto the floor.