NBA.COM
`Steve Aschburner
`April 27, 2017
`
`(David Stern has kept himself busy in retirement with several different
`ventures.)
`
`TECH-SAVVY DAVID STERN FINDING
`WAYS TO STAY IN FOREFRONT, EVEN
`IN RETIREMENT
`
`It’s early still, but late enough somewhere that David Stern could
`be into his second or third umbrella drink by now.
`
`And since it’s been more than three years since Stern stepped
`down as NBA commissioner, he truly could be anywhere. A
`Hawaiian shirt, a cabana chair, some sun, some surf, all would
`seem proper rewards for a job well done.
`
`Nope. Stern, 74, was in the Manhattan office he keeps these
`days, not far from the Manhattan office he kept at Olympic
`Tower for so many years. Neckties are optional now, but he still
`pulls from a vast closet full of Stern Collection suits, remnants
`from his commish days.
`
`He was at work, not all that different from some of his previous
`work, wrangling the telephone, bantering with media folks,
`making sure his message was clear if maybe a little less loud.
`
`One of Stern’s many new ventures is the tech start-up
`SportsCastr.Live, a streaming video platform that allowed users
`to call live games themselves or hear announcers of their
`choosing.
`
`Or as Stern put it, “Fans want what they want, on whatever
`
`IPR2024-01305
`SportsCastr Inc. EX-2006
`
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`NBA.COM
`Steve Aschburner
`April 27, 2017
`
`device they want it, whenever they want it.”
`
`A founding investor, Stern spoke of the “second-screen
`experience” the SportsCastr.Live developers had in mind.
`
`“It’s a combination of people wanting to be in the action and
`also, you see so much ‘personalization,’” he said. “Whether it’s
`the blogger you choose to read, the podcast you choose to listen
`to, the Facebook feed you choose to follow, the Twitter account
`you line up with, Instagram, there seems to something for
`everyone in the social media space. And this is one more
`possibility, which happens to feed off video and broadcast.”
`
`Underlying the project is the premise that watching sports is a
`social experience, even for someone alone at home. Eventually,
`the whole “second screen” could merge with the first screen so
`SportsCastr.Live could work as a picture-in-picture component
`of a game broadcast.
`
`So one could summon Marv Albert from his quiet dinner in North
`Beach to call a game that the network has assigned to Mike
`Breen? Uh, not quite.
`
`“It’s more about ‘young Marv’ in a basement some place calling
`the game so he can sharpen his skills so he can be a great
`announcer,” Stern said. SportsCastr.Live will allow a budding
`sportscaster to overlay streams carrying enhancements that
`update in real time and lend a professional look to the
`presentation.
`
`'He really sees the big picture'
`
`A viewer could pluck his choice of play-by-play calls from a
`crowd-sourced list of announcers. Or fans of a given national
`team limited to an English-speaking broadcast, for example,
`could seek out and hear instead someone calling the event from
`their native land. And all of this could link up with Facebook or
`Twitter or some other social-media account to involve friends.
`
`Stern is just one of SportsCastr.Live’s high-profile partners.
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`NBA.COM
`Steve Aschburner
`April 27, 2017
`
`Other include Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim
`and NFL tight end Vernon Davis.
`
`“He really sees the big picture and has helped with positioning
`and the overall vision,” SportsCastr.Live CEO Kevin April said of
`Stern. “I know what David likes about this too is, any technology
`that connects people and drives people to watching the live
`games -- when it’s so easy just to get the highlights on Snapchat
`or YouTube now -- anything that facilitates that social experience
`that we know sports are, he’s all about.”
`
`Stern has been a curious consumer of and investor in
`technology for much of his working life. “We used to call the
`NBA a learning organization,” he said. “We were always pushing
`and learning. We did it when cable came in, making our first
`cable deal in, I think, 1979. We did it with satellite. We did it with
`digital cable. Frankly, we did it when this thing called the Internet
`came in with NBA.com. And we did it when social media was
`upon us.
`
`“Now there’s another generation of evolution, I would call it, in
`the way fans want to absorb their sports.”
`
`Stern has absorbed much about streaming, virtual reality,
`interactive viewing and artificial intelligence. But that doesn’t
`necessarily mean he’s a “true believer.” Relative to analytics, he
`still sees the value in eye tests, “hot hands,” teammate
`relationships and body language. He wonders about the
`potential for data overload, with so much coming so fast. He
`also suspects the role of the coach could be usurped, or at least
`significantly changed, the deeper this goes.
`
`One ironic aspect of this endeavor is Stern becoming a
`colleague now of Donald Schupak, a name that might resonate
`with some longtime NBA fans. Schupak, also 74 and a founding
`investor, represented Ozzie and Daniel Silna back in 1976. Those
`two brothers, who owned owned the Spirits of St. Louis ABA
`team, negotiated what long has been billed as the greatest deal
`in sports history.
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`NBA.COM
`Steve Aschburner
`April 27, 2017
`
`When the NBA was merging with the ABA that year -- and
`dissolving all but four franchises (San Antonio Spurs, Denver
`Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New Jersey Nets) -- Schupak advised
`the Silnas that they could do better than the $3 million buyout
`the established league was offering. Instead, on top of a $2.2
`million payment, he negotiated a slice of future TV revenue paid
`out of the surviving ABA teams’ shares “in perpetuity.” Those last
`two words proved fortuitous, to the tune of annual payments
`estimated at more than $300 million over time. In 2014, the NBA,
`after repeated attempts through the years, got the Silnas to
`accept a reported settlement of $500 million on top of the earlier
`payouts.
`
`“I’ve been friendly with Donald since 1976, even though he was
`on the other side of the transaction,” Stern said. “I had contact
`with him usually in an adversarial position, but we remained
`cordial and professional throughout it all. I ran into him and he
`said he had something we should talk about.
`
`“So I said, ‘What d’ya got?’ He told he had invested a fair amount
`in this and what it could do. I had no idea what he was talking
`about, but we had a second meeting with this young man, Kevin
`April, who has babied this thing. Gradually, I came to understand
`it -- my deficiency, not theirs -- and they and it convinced me that
`this is something that could become a tremendous adjunct
`sports deal in social-media way.”
`
`Stern not lacking for responsibilities
`
`Every so often, when talking about the NBA, a “we” slips into
`Stern’s conversation. He still represents the league
`internationally on occasion. But as he told the Associated Press
`the other day, “Nobody calls [at night], nobody goes into the
`stands, nobody goes after their coach, nobody bumps an
`official. My life has been purified."
`
`In addition to his interest in SportsCastr.Live and LiveLikeVR, a
`virtual reality company, Stern stays busy with multiple gigs. He is
`a senior advisor to Greycroft Partners, a venture capital fund that
`invests in “early-stage Internet and mobile companies.” He
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`serves in the same capacity with PJT Partners, a global
`investment bank, and advises the technology, media and
`telecommunications group of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
`
`A few years ago, there had been some talk about Stern
`becoming an ambassador to a foreign nation. But he seems to
`prefer his public profile in the private sector.
`
`“That’s not me,” he said. “I support in the political sphere. But I’m
`having too much fun now.
`
`“I’m as busy as I’ve ever been, day to day. Actually, it’s great fun
`to be able to evolve with media developments. And it keeps you
`learning.”
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`Steve Aschburner
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