David Stern Forces Larry Bird to Play Dumb

One of the most awkward moments of last night's draft not involving Brook Lopez being mic'd up and Darrell Arthur stuck in the green room was Larry Bird being interviewed. He was stiff as a board and absolutely refused to comment on the "Jermaine O'Neal for T.J. Ford" deal, writing it off as pure "speculation."

As I watched it, I couldn't figure out why Bird would continue to play things so close to the vest. I mean, everyone knows it's going to go down, right? What's the harm in confirming what everyone already knows? In hindsight, he wasn't allowed to comment, and was under strict orders from David Stern to keep quiet. Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star (via TrueHoop) explains:

The craziest thing, though, was that team president Larry Bird couldn't even talk about his moves because both the Toronto and Portland trades involved "base year compensation'' players, which means the deals can't be completed until July 9. The Pacers lobbied the league to tell its fans about the new players, but the NBA shot them down, threatening any mention of players in proposed deals with a fine.

Dumb, really dumb.

After telling the local media he couldn't talk about the moves, Bird shrugged and said, "I don't know what the hell you're gonna ask me.''

I'm sure there's a legitimate reason written in the fine print of the league's CBA with the players association that explains why Bird couldn't talk, but c'mon, this is ridiculous. Forcing Bird to play dumb insults everyone's intelligence, including his, and preventing him from providing a good sound bite to explain his moves and build goodwill among fans is just bad business.