Where I come from we call someone a ‘hump’ when we wish to convey that we have no respect for that person. Said person has done something that causes us to either lose any respect we had for the person, or never respect them at all. David Stern, commissioner of the NBA, is hump, and in my eyes has always been a hump.

Stern is credited with turning the NBA into the money machine it is today. It was under his watch that the NBA moved from being a red-headed step child of the sports world to a US game with the most international appeal. The NBA
Finals weren’t even shown live on TV in the early ‘80s. Then came Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Dr. J, and eventually Michael Jordan. Now the NBA players are having prime-time specials to announce the team for which they are going to play. If people want to credit Stern with the NBA’s rise in popularity, then also blame him for turning a team sport into an individual sport.

But that is not what has my ire raised today. What has me calling out Stern today is the NBA’s ridiculous fine of $50,000 levied against Minnesota Timberwolves’ president David Kahn for speaking of Michael Beasley’s past marijuana use. The team was fined an additional $50,000 for the same ‘infraction’. The NBA deemed the comments inappropriate. I understand that $50,000 is not a lot of money relative to the amount that Kahn and the T-Wolves are worth. But the fines are also proof positive that David Stern is a complete hump!

Kahn commented that he believed the newly acquired new two overall pick from last year had matured a lot in the past year. Kahn pointed to Beasley past known use of marijuana as a sign of his immaturity and made the comparison that Beasley is now more mature because he doesn’t do that anymore. Whether he does or doesn’t isn’t the point. Beasley posted a picture of himself on Twitter showing off a new tattoo and in the background of the picture was a bag o’ weed in June of 2009. It was public knowledge, it was world wide web knowledge, that Beasley smoked weed, but when Kahn talks about it he is being inappropriate?! How does that make any sense?! It only makes sense in David Stern’s hump world that people should be punished for speaking openly about such a topic. The NBA that exists today is dominated by young men that have grown up in a weed culture, they smoke weed, weed is part of their lives and they make no bones about it. But David Stern, being a self-loathing hump, hates the very thing he created and he will cut the head off of anyone that is honest about the league.