The Godfather of the NBA, Commissioner David Stern, went at it verbally with Jim Rome on the CBS Sports Network when Rome asked Stern whether or not the NBA lottery was fixed.

“I have two answers for that,” Stern said. “The simple easy one, no; the second, a statement, shame on you for asking.”

Stern believed that the question itself was ridiculous.  The Commissioner then responded, “Do you stop beating your wife yet?”

The point of that statement by Stern was his attempt to show that his question to Rome was just as ridiculous since Rome has no history of beating his wife.

Stern then accused Rome of doing things like this for “cheap thrills”. 

Whether Stern was right or not, the response he gave, in an attempt to show how ridiculous he felt the initial question was in his opinion, was insensitive and classless.

Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that Stern was denying any “fixing” by officials in the NBA only to find out that indeed Tom Donaghy existed and was taking money to determine the outcome of NBA games. 

Stern not only needs to admit that his sport has an image problem but also publicly apologize for the idiocy and sensitivity with which he spoke.