kind of, i am not going to respond to the critic, i am not going to move at their pace, i am moving at my pace. >> rose: from politics to social issues in our culture and the dramatic announcement today by jason collins, an active nba player that he was gay, joining me david stern, commissioner of the nba and his successor, adam silver. >> david has a particular style, i mean, you know, we have played sort of off each other, not long since i was an assistant but i would say in the last decade maybe when we negotiate, so we do have different styles, but i have learned to be thorough, i mean, i think david began as a lawyer, i began as a lawyer, and i think david's mantra has been detail and execution and that is certainly something i have learned from him. >> rose: and one of the things that has been best for me is that adam is not timid in expressing those rare occasions where i might not be right. >> rose: i encourage, i assume

you encourage him to do it. >> i do and he warms to it well and it is very important because there is a lot going on and sometimes you have a quick reaction that needs to be pulled in. >> the president has a press conference in washington and an nba player an nouns he is gay when we continue. funding for charlie rose was provided by the following. >> rose: additional funding provided by these funders.

and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. >> from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: we begin this evening in washington, today marks the 100th day of president obama's second term in office, this morning he held a conference at the white house and explained his stance on the use of chemicals weapons in syria. >> what we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of syria, but we don't know how they were used, when they were used, who used them, we don't have a chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened, and when i am making decisions about america's national security and the potential for taking additional

action in response to chemical weapon use, i have got to make sure i have got the facts. >> rose: and he condemned congress for stalling efforts to close guantanamo bay. >> i have asked my team to review everything that is currently being done in guantanamo, everything that we can do administratively and i am going to reengage in congress to try and make the case that this is not something that is in the best interests of the american people. the idea that we would still maintain forever a group of individuals who have not been tried, that is contrary to who we are, it is contrary to our interests and it needs to stop. >> rose: finally the president expressed his willingness to compromise on the house and senate immigration proposals. >> we should make it a legal immigration system work more effectively so that the waits are not as burden some, the bureau situate is not as

complicated, so that we can continue to attract the best and the brightest from around the world to our shores in a legal fashion, and we want to make sure that we have got a pathway to citizenship that is tough, but allows people to earn overtime their legal status here in this country. and, you know, the senate bill meets that -- those criteria in some cases not in the way that i would, but it meets those basic criteria. >> rose: joining me now from washington, al hunt of bloomberg view, chuck todd, chief white house correspondent for nbc news, john can karl, jessica yellin, chief white house correspondent for cnn i am pleased to have all of them here we take note first of the president's press conference today and the although first terms and second terms, marking the 100th day of the second term of the obama administration and

where we think he is in that. first the press conference, al, what impressions of this press defense where it was wide ranging from syria to guantanamo, from immigration to other domestic issues lie sequester. >> well, i think for a guy who is a little rusty he doesn't believe in press conferences, at least compared to a lot of his predecessors, he did all right. no big mistakes, but also no big huge news, i think that this is an interesting time, charlie, because most occasions in washington, one team or one party, if you there is on the offensive and the other is on the defensive, this time i think both are on the defense, it hasn't been a very encouraging 100 days for the obama administration but republicans are in worst shape than they were back in january and i think that was reflected today. the president probably scored some political points when he talked about sequester and the lack o of any effort on the part of the other side to do any kind

of grand bargain, he was muddled on syria as the policy is for, i think, rather understandable reasons, but it really was not what i would term any kind of a conclusive event, but that reflects the times. >> rose: chuck? >> yeah, i thought there was a lot of blame congress in there, when you take away the syria aspect, every issue that came across, he had a dig in there for congress, whether it was the sequester and the faa pick, even on implementing healthcare talking how congress is trying to stop him on healthcare, on guantanamo, an issue he hasn't been asked about a lot but with that hunger strike taking place down there is a lot of concern among a lot of people that something that one of these detainees could die and that could become a game change never that respect and again, he remined people congress is stopping him, so i heard the frustration, a lot of frustration in his voice on these -- you know, think where he thought things would be six months ago right before the election he said the fever was going to break, and then here we

are six months later, first 100 days into the second term and other than immigration, it is hard to see what is moving, and i think you could hear that in his voice. >> rose: he argued that elections have consequence but we wonder now about the consequence. >> right. something seems to be adrift right now. >> rose: jessica, what did you hear and see and what did the president -- you had a chance to ask a question. >> yes, i am surprised by how relaxed and calm he was, given the fact that he is thrown off his agenda. he wanted to be in the thick of immigration reform by now, he is instead had guns come up and fail, he has been thrown off by a terror attack and the north korea crisis, and still he was, you know, insistent he is going to not only get his whole agenda accomplished or at least protecting some confidence that he will, he is even adding to it by reaffirming he wants to go

ahead and try to close guantanamo bay. now, part of his job is to, you know, project confidence, but he really does seem to have this sense of calm about him, and projecting a kind of, i am not going to respond to the critics, i am not going to move at their pace, i am move at my pace, when i asked about the boston attack and whether intelligence was missed there, he didn't respond to the critics, he says i am going to let an investigation unfold before i do that, and just focus on how law enforcement has been effective, when he talk about syria, again, not going to move ahead of the investigation, we are going to let all of that proceed at pace, learning a 11 from iraq. so, again, he is really on his own timetable and it is kind of -- you wonder, charlie, if he really feels the urgency of a second term realizing he only had another year left to get things done before the 2014 election kicks in and as an

afterthought everybody is looking ahead to the next race. >> rose: you asked what he had the juice or not. >> yes, he had quite a response, look, i agree with chuck, the overwhelming thing here was the frustration at congress, at one point in response to that question, he said that it is not his job to make congress behave, that is their job. and i thought that was an interesting way of putting it but there is real frustration, he put so much into getting that gun bill passed, you know, the travel an the country, the trying to go, you know, one on one with senators, the sequester, you know, scaring us allbg-out what the impact would be, bringing all of the cabinet secretaries out, raising the alarm, and again nothing. the one thing that was done on the sequester being the faa he attacked that, then why did you go along with it and he basically said that there were no good options whatsoever. so some real frustration and we are only 100 days into this, but i also thought chuck asked about

the healthcare bill. >> rose: yes. >> and there is a lot -- >> rose: and the implementation. >> yes, the implementation of the health bill and, you know, when he has to make the point that most people are feeling the benefits of the healthcare law, even if they don't realize it, i mean that is a pretty tough case to make, and then at the same time saying look for 85 percent of the country this will mean nothing, it is already fully implemented that is not exactly right but you heard some frustration and a real admission that there are going to be problems because you have 30 republican governors in this country, many of whom are doing everything they can to either slow walk the healthcare law and not cooperate in implementing it including two of the governors of the biggest state, texas and florida, i want to look at two things, syria first and then jonathan, you have to leave and give you a chance first. this sense of where the administration is on syria, and what is it that the president essentially said we will look at more evidence, we may need to

include more options, we want to hear from not only -- we want to hear not only from our own investigators but also what other governments are saying. what is the president waiting for in order to be able to respond to some of the criticism that is coming from the congress and elsewhere? >> well, he is in a box, first in terms of what they are waiting for in terms of the evidence. they believe the intelligence is rock solid, it is the chemical weapons were used in syria and you heard them say the things they don't know is how it was done and who it was done, they don't even rule out the possibility that it could have been the opposition using it in a way to try to get us to get into that war. but then the bigger question is once you accomplish establish that is what you do you about it? and i think you heard f'k the president, somebody who absolutely has no appetite for a military venture in the middle east right now, even as well justified as it might be in syria, there is no appetite for it and there is real concern

that whatever happens after assad could well be worse than what we have right now, there is a real concern about exactly what -- who is in that opposition in syria, and who will kind of fill the vacuum once assad is gone so there is no good option here and i he they got themselves into a bit of a box charlie when the president came out so strongly first in israel, saying that chemical weapons would be a game changer and be a red line because then it raises the obvious question, okay, now what? and they really don't have an. >> answer: for that. >> rose: could their hand be forced on syria? >> it could be but the options are really horrendous and even worse than that, because i think most people i talked to about that think the likelihood of after assad would be a radical jihadist regime. we have seen the consequences of that in afghanistan and elsewhere, and it is equally true having drawn a red line, having said it is a game changer, and i think it is clear

whatever games are being played this is the type of brutal regime that certainly is, and perfectly capable of rug chemical weapons and then you don't do anything, it does send a signal to north korea and iran and other places, so it really is, you know, a series of terrible options for the president, some of his own creation, but some of it is just an impossible situation for anybody. chuck, benghazi doesn't seem to go away. there was this story and the president seemed to say, i don't know of that, but where is that point? >> well, i think they -- the white house continues to believe benghazi is simply just a political talking point for conservatives. they don't take this criticism very seriously and they believe that the more evidence that you come up with the more that backs up their version of events that there isn't some sort of hidden aspect to this, that there isn't a cover up, that what you see is what wit what you get which is s was a terror attack, some what

planned, somewhat spontaneous, it is murky in the middle, but the interesting thing about the benghazi situation is that it does provide frankly a little bit of a caution flag, if you will, for the administration as it tries to deal with syria, you know, we got involved in libya, we came and decided that that was going to be, you know, that was something that was necessary/mess to do we had the united nations behind us and we had the arab league behind us so similar plenty of diplomatic cover to do that but since libya is trying to get itself together you see it is struggling, there are pockets of the opposition to qaddafi that turned out to be not very friendly to the united states, something that we found out firsthand in benghazi and that's the real fear in syria which is why you have extra caution here and i think you heard it in the president, everything i hear about this, about he knows he has got -- he has got to follow through on his words, game change, red line he knows he has to do that, but the follow through is not going to be u.s. fight in other words the

air cáoót%9g some sort of no-fly zone at first. i he it is going to be something really small, we already know there are reports about maybe just simply arming some members of the opposition that we identify as potential friendlies or at least not opponents, if you will, but it is going to be ververy careful while they try everything in their power to convince putin it is time to drop assad so a larger international coalition can come together but what does post syria look like, to what i hear it is not going to be one country, if assad goes this is not going to be one country, this is going to be partitioned or some sort of tribal civil war type battle for years to come. >> rose: and represents the boston nightmare of people hostile to the united states getting ahold of weapons of msnbc, weapons of mass destruction or chemical weapons. guantanamo surprised me the president spent as much time as he did talking about it. >> yeah, me too, charlie, and frankly, it was the most forceful case that i have heard

for closing guantanamo down coming from this administration since 2009, when they really made that effort that failed. it was blocked by congress, and what was interested is, he made the familiar arguments about it hurting our standing in the world, about it not being effective, not being efficient, referring to how costly it is to maintain that prison, but he also also talked about how, look, even if you thought it was justified to have the guantanamo prison in the days after september 11, the years after september 11, you know, those days are gone, we can do this, we have tried some really bad terrorists in civilian courts in the united states, we can do that with anybody who is left. but all that talk, h he has suggested he hasn't given up on closing it and is still going the make an effort and says he is still going to talk and make the effort on capitol hill, so as soon as the press conference was over i called to either sources in the white house and said, okay, what am i miss something what is going on? you guys have a new effort to try to get guantanamo closed? and the

candid answer was, well, not really, there is really no chance of closing that prison down right now with the make-up of congress the way it is. but, charlie. >> rose: yes. >> the real fear here is that manager somebody is going to die in this hunger strike. >> rose: yeah. >> that is going on down there right now. and there is now -- we are, i think, over three-month and so i think there is a new sense of urgency, frankly with a lot of people both on capitol hill and here on the white house about something has to be done sooner rather than later because the situation may be untenable and talk about a horrible message to send around the world, somebody dying in a hunger strike is not one to the united states wants to deal with. >> rose: i want to come back to that, jonathan i know you have to leave for something you have to do, but thank you so much for joining me. >> thank you, charlie. >> rose: jessica what do you think of guantanamo and what options does the president have because i mean from the campaign as he took note today, did not want to be there. >> this is the principal issue

for the president and something he will have to continue to press, he said he is going to look at his own administrative options and see what he can do as the guy pointed out there is not a lot he can do without getting congress on board, when i called inside the white house what i fold is he will continue to push this with members, one on one, so even, he does have four years here, we are going to look at two years where he is not going to be the most effective pushing legislation and on the gram scale, maybe he can control and arm twist on, it is something that i will expect he will continue to press until his final days because for him personally, i know that this was a devastating loss in the first term, he committed to doing this right away when he got into office and when it went south, it wasn't just an embarrassment politically, but it was something that they committed to on an emotional and principled level and when it failed, it was

a blow to them in terms of what they thought they could accomplish and given their promises on the 2008 campaign. you know he keeps using that phrase this is not who we are as americans. and that means something to him, so i think in terms of when you look back at would war two and the japanese were in interment camps in the u.s., they feel this is that kind of phenomenon when you look at this moment in the war of terror and he doesn't want that attached to his administration that he didn't fight to change it and use all he could to change it, so i do think as he presses forward into this term he is recommitting and saying that he will continue to make this an issue. i also think that is why he came back to the podium at the end and made a statement about gay rights as well. >> rose: yes. >> because he also sees as a signature legacy issue from his administration is the fight that they have made to rights. he really believes is something he will be remembered for, charlie. >> rose: al, i want to come back and everybody join in on this. the motion that you wrote in the

column in the national tribune on monday about the 100 days of the second term, and clearly the president has reached out more, even joked about it at the correspondents dinner about who wants to have you talk to mitch mcconnell thereby is a sense he is meeting with congressmen and senators and yet there is a lingering sense that he is not prepared to be as tough as some people want him to be and to use his power more. well, first of all many of those people exaggerate the power he has and exaggerate the parallels to lyndon johnson, and others. he won a co kohn vinceing reelection and the white house thought, all right, republicans will be less recalcitrant and less resistant, with the seal exception of immigration, they have been anything, more recalcitrant and given him nothing. he has moved in a few things and

he even moved on the fiscal issues. when you talk about cost of living adjustments and means testing for medicare that is moving on entitlements, republicans have given him absolutely nothing. and so i think -- and they don't think they are paying any price for that at all, charlie. i he it is a very frustrating time as someone said earlier. he is having these dinners, i can't get my sense that there is any progress that is being paid, one can't look at any of the whole panorama of issues and say, all right, well, fine, at least there is some movement there and they are beginning to show some progress. other than immigration and even that still is worrisome for the proponents, but other than that, there is movement on virtually nothing. >> rose: chuck, what can the president do if he wants to create a narrative, change the narrative, try to do something within the window he has left? >> well, i think it is getting a budget deal, immigration is the nine sort of the nine, minimum

ante for him as far as having a big accomplishment in the second term. the if he doesn't get the big budget deal but healthcare is implemented and is the law of the land and becomes something that americans slowly warm up to and he gets that right nine and that is something more within his power .. he doesn't have to rely on congress in, then i think he can feel okay about his legacy but getting the budget deal and the question is where does it start? these dinners i hear they have gone well, you hear that -- you start to see a separation taking place on the republican senate, right? you have the young guns on one hand who want to stop everything, and then you have sort of the older legislative conservative guard, okay, a lot of them are these older southern senators from mississippi, georgia, tennessee who none of them are big, would ever be confused with liberal republicans. but they would like to cut a deal. they grew up in a republican party that used to cut deals. they grew up in a culture of

compromising and cutting deals in the south and they want to do that. does one of them become the leader? what the president needs right now to get something done is one of those southern senate republicans, it can't be lindsey graham and it can't be john mccain it has to be somebody else that leads, becomes sort of the leader of this group, about 16 of them, 17, 18, something like that and that's the person the president negotiation negotiates with and gets the deal if that happens and that's the whole point of these dinners if that happens he has a chance here but i have to say, you don't see evidence there is really movement here, happy talk but no movement. >> the president's hope lies within the republicans in the senate. >> that's the only place he is getting any deals done and, they are very optimistic. you talked to, talked to the most official seniors officials and think they can get a deal on the budget, republicans have backed down on the criticism of the president's budget proposals that they do think the president

has offered reasonable or at least a compromise that they can make some further negotiations on with his offer on entitlement reform and that is up to the republicans how to do something on taxes. now the white house always thinks, okay, it is up to the republicans to do something on taxes and republicans don't think that it is their turn, and then the question is, how does this dance play out, but the next big move is can he create this entitlement deal and if he gets that done, you get, assuming you get immigration reform and some sort of entitlement reform or some budget deal he has two big legacy accomplishments in this term, that is a big deal, you know, for a second term, that is sort of enough before 2014 rolls around. everybody keeps asking why isn't he tougher? i mean we know who this guy is. he is not tough. after four years in office, we

are still asking, that is just not his style. he was the guy that used to put to compromise position on the table zero to begin with and everybody was complaining about that. at least he is not doing that anymore, and so he is at least holding his cards a little closer. but he is not elton jay and not frank underwood, everybody knows that and it is not his style, so he is who he is. >> rose: do you agree with that, chuck? >> yes. and the thing is you have to remember where does he have the greater -- his successes in the past before he entered the presidency were always based on being the guy who was the grand compromise sorry .. his first election to the harvard law review is because he was the compromise candidate that conservatives could get along with it happened in the illinois state senate and happened in the united states senate, so, you know, this is his nature, and you have to remember a lot of presidents their personal experience is everything and his personal experience is that is how he got things done, he is

not -- you know, that is it, you have got 24 hours to take this deal or forget about it. it is not in his comfort zone. the only time i have seen him truly visibly age friday is right after the gun bill and that was -- and that had to do, this, you know, newtown touched him in a way which is just different. personally i think it touched a lot of americans differently, but take that away, and he is a much -- he looks at these things in a very much a sober-minded compromising way, but that he is not ever going to be lbj. >> rose: i agree with you that new town did change him and you get a sense it touched him in a way he wanted to do something that was beyond politics, but he ran right into the nra and what politics means. does gun control, al, have a chance anymore, or will bit so watered down that no one will take note? >> and it is going to be watered down to begin with, even the measure that was defeated in the

senate didn't get the 60 votes necessary, it was watered down, i think there is a chance to actually come back on gun control, i think chuck is right, there is really a horror in america and i think between the money that is being spent between gabby giffords and other public faces i think there is a chance to come back on that. let me make one point, several times we talked about he is not lbj, lbj left office, charlie, 44 years ago. you and i are the, are the only ones old must have to remember that and there hasn't been an lbj since lbj, it is a non sequitur, it is not the way washington works for better or worse. >> rose: he was -- >> well, and don't forget, you know, he just basically stayed senate majority leader while he was president, so it was sort of a unique situation, i think we have to realize that that was an a no, ma'aanomaly that is not ps before, before before or after haven't acted. >> he had a two-to-one majority

in the house and senate which helps. >> rose: right. for all of two years. >> yes. the interesting thing about this conversation i have to close down is we have said nothing about house republicans which have been at the center of his discussion. >> charlie, they are at the sidelines and they know it, that all of the action, if anything happens and moves in washington, it is going to move in the senate first, and with senate republicans and if it moves there, then the house will act. everything has been reversed from where we saw things were two years ago. >> rose: chuck, thank you, jessica, thank you, albert, thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, charlie. >> rose: we will be right back, stay with us. >> rose: for three decade it is nba has thrived on the david stern's watchful eye, the league has become a cloabl phenomenon propelled by iconic starses from michael jordan to lebron james, tape delay accessible to hundreds of millions of fans

worldwide, next february, after 30 years david stern will leave his post as the longest serving commissioner in professional sports history, succeeding is adam silver, the chief operating officer since 2006, i am pleased to have them here at this table. at this interesting moment. welcome. >> and great to have you here. >> thank you. >> rose: i want to talk much about the league and much about you and what you have do enand how you have been able to do it and passing over the reins because one example of a successful ceo is he chooses his successor and it works in a way that all the board is happy. so we will talk about that. first this. the gay athlete, sports illustrated, i didn't set out to be the first openly gay in major league sports but i am happy to start the conversation by jason collins, just tell me how this -- you know a lot about this. how long have you money about this, what does it mean? do you expect to see more?

>> i think that -- i would say we knew something was up, not specifically, with jason, but there was a lot going on. >> rose: what does that mean? >> we were talking to some people that there was going to be a situation where an athlete or athletes were going to come out. >> rose: in sports illustrated? >> no. just in the nba. and how would we feel and we said, you know us, you know, inclusive, diverse, we will be with you 100 percent. but on this one, jason and his agent called us yesterday morning before the article was released online and said, we are coming out. >> rose: this morning. >> that's all. >> rose: so you knew somebody was going to do it, you didn't know how and you didn't know when. >> no. >> rose: you didn't know how many? >> no, but, in fact, working with a number of organizations over the last several years in the lgbt community and doing

video spots and the like we have been talking to our players, talking to our, talking about our transition program, preparing videotapes and the like, our players are pretty smart, i think, sophisticated and knew that they would be called upon to be supportive when this ultimately happened. >> rose: is he telling me everything he knows? >> he is. we had been preparing for this moment. >> rose: that's what i thought, preparing for this moment. >> we have been preparing, well i say david has been preparing for this moment since he became commissioner in terms of having an inclusive, diverse league but we knew a player was preparing to come out, we didn't speak to jason until yesterday morning and then we spoke directly to jason and he told us in his own words what his plan was and we told him we were, we are here for you. >> rose: we are here for you. >> absolutely. >> rose: you just want to be supportive and there be. >> i want to be there and set the tone, everyone knows where we stand on these issues, and let's get on with it and let's not make it into an issue, but

for our being scheduled here, we are not -- i haven't been talking to the media, other than a couple of print interviews yesterday and i was at a game last night but we have turned down interviews because our sense is, let's get over this media frenzy. >> rose: right. >> and then let's move on to whoever the next one might be and let's just treat it as normally as we possibly can. >> rose: what is the response of players and coaches within the nba, have any of them come forward and say, somebody on my team may do this or someone -- >> no. >> -- someone else may want to do this? >> i think there may be some conversations going on at different levels of our organization with different people of different teams, but the overwhelming response from our players are our team executives has been, this is great, we want everyone on our league to be who they are, let's move on. >> rose: but you are a well-known disreak of human rights around the world and you know we.

>> we started the wnba, we thought the women deserved the platform, it is in its 17th year and dealt with magic johnson, hiv, aids, we had a few experiences in sort of publicity here. >> rose: and in fact the worst moment was the referee crisis you had. >> yes but that went less to human rights and more to -- >> rose: what do you make of the fact that when a woman who was a star in the women's league. >> britney. >> rose: britney h she was gay and almost nobody said much. >> we had long conversations about that. it pay a statement about women's sports in our society that, it may be a statement, one there have been several high profile female athletes who have come out as gay, martina, obviously and others. i mean it may be a statement about the state of women's basketball, frankly or professional women's basketball in this country, but i mean, frankly it actually disturbed us a little bit that there seemed

to be a double standard there, that we knew that eventually when an nba player came out it would be the kind of issue that lands on the front of sports illustrated but for some reason it isn't the case with the female athlete. >> rose: so as the incoming new commissioner what is the responsibility for you? is there any role that the commissioner should play? >> yeah, i do, i mean, one to answer your prior question, i would say in a way don't generally think of it this way but jason is our co-worker, i think that we are proud of all of our coworkers in the league, the players for their reaction, the acceptance of jason, and there are several executives at team level, at the nba who are out who e-mailed or called david or me to say how proud they were that jason felt comfortable enough in this league to come out and how proud they were that david had made the statement he did yesterday to be as supportive as we are of wraifn. >> rose: i will ask you to do

maybe an uncomfortable thing, tell me what you thought, you think david stern has done for the nba in 30 years. >> i have got him wired with an electric prod so if he says the wrong thing something happens. >> he has turned the nba into a leading global brand, not typically the way that people think of as a sports league, i would say if you looked a at a list of the top global brands in the world, brands like coca-cola, brands like apple, i think the nba deserves to be on that list, if you look at the sort of recognition we get on a global basis, if you look at as you mentioned when you were opening the show david has taken games from tape delay, you know, in the eighties to i mean, every one of our play-off games is live in prime time now and actually most of our play-off names are live on a global basis. 200 plus countries. >> rose: is it the second most popular sport outside of soccer internationally. >> absolutely. and in some markets line china the number one sport.

>> rose: the china presence with all of those people is especially interesting because we talked at the time of jeremy lin and did 60 minutes all of the young kids, in a bill-3. >> it is a country that believes it invented basketball. you know, china -- >> rose: do you encourage them in that belief? >> yes, absolutely. after dr. smith invented it in the ymca in springfield he went over to china as a missionary, so they think they created it and sent a temperature to the olympics in 1936. when you came to the nba what was it like? >> first of all you were an outside attorney and then you became counsel and then you became, whatever. >> whatever. yes. >> it was a lot of isis management. >> rose: like what? >> like the only time we were in the newspapers was when kermit washington and rudy john virtue got into an altercation, when

sports illustrated commented crowds were down and white players were disappearing, and so it was a matter of race. and then the first drug allegations were made about black players who earned too much money, they earned a quarter of a million dollars and people didn't realize that drugs were going to become a national and international phenomenon in every school, in every police station, in every hospital, and station,,ai%mes that we had, an, we considered merging, not folding, merging a couple of franchises. >> rose: because? >> because they just were not getting their support. i recently saw stone, the owner of the utah jazz and we were rim missing about a meeting where, reminiscing where he and denver were talking about making spite

one franchise, i don't know where they would play in split cities but we had a lot of difficult times together. >> there is still talk and controversy about which cities will have an nba franchise, i suggest sacramento might be a place we start. >> well, there was a deal for a group, a very good group of seattle to buy the team. >> ballmer, the ceo of microsoft and others. he would be a perfect owner be 2 mayor of sacramento put together a group. >> rose: kevin johnson. >> kevin johnson. >> and that is at the front of the same sports illustrated article. and he put together a group and put together an arena package and right now, we had a committee that voted our relocation committee subject to them putting together a report and then having the board vote on it, that the team should not be moved, a the recommendation it should stay in sacramento into is running the nba different from running any other

corporation? >> i he it is. i think it is a public trust of sorts, and that is how communities see their team and hwe are seeing that in sacrameno right now i think some people are surprised at the preliminary decision, the relocation committee has made but they say look at seattle there are more corporate headquarters and there is a potential to generate more revenue shouldn't you move the fran choo i see to the market with more revenue and our response is not necessarily, that if you look at total value overtime, and brand building and community support, that continuity is important and i mean look at seattle now and part of why the citizens there are so upset we understand that is they lost their team. >> rose: right. >> to oklahoma city. i would say -- >> rose: and how difficult that franchise do? >> not bad. i would say one thing, the rest of the world is sort of catching up with us in terms of the difficulty and the difference in managing because for example,

the -- covering the financial community has become a sport, okay? with us, the daily crises, whether jason collins decides to come out, whether latrell sprewell decides to strangle his coach, whether ron artest -- >> why are you bringing up things -- come on. >> but those get conversations going and those conversations are usually intelligent conversations that people like to engage in. and now whether this insider information or that insider information or that firing or that mortgage or whatever, the business pages are now much more like the sports pages used to be. >> rose: what have you learned from him? because it is like perfect training to do what you are now going to do. everything i have done in my life has prepared me for this moment when he went to ten downing in 41. >> i mean, i actually began as david's assistant a little over 20 years ago. i used to open david's mail and shadow david around to meetings

and on his trips. >> and get his coffee and things like that. >> that is true. >> rose: that is not true. >> it is true. i learned how to deal with people, i learned how to negotiate, i learned how to manage, i mean what did you learn about negotiation? >> i learned about, i learned from negotiation to be direct, to go into a negotiation knowing precisely what it is you want which people often don't do. >> rose: with the n bed, what the nba wants. >> to go in and i think david has a particular style, i mean, you know, we played sort of off each other, not long since i was an assistant but i would say in the last decade maybe when we negotiate, so we do have different styles but i learned to be thorough, i think david began as a lawyer, i began as a lawyer, and i think david's mantra has always been detail and execution and that is certainly something i have learned from him. >> rose: and one of the things that has been best for me is that adam is not timid in

expressing those rare occasions where i might not be right. >> rose: i assume you encourage him to do that. >> i do. and he warms to it well and it is very important, there is a lot going on and sometimes you have a quick reaction that needs to be pulled in. >> you knew his father at the law firm. >> i did. his dad was the head of the firm and a leading historic pig in label law in new york city. and he comes over to see you and says what advice can you give me and you say come work for me? >> well he was going to go work some place else cheaply and if i match that pay, will you come here so i got him very low price and just gave him fair increases and kept him under control for as long as i could. >> rose: what is interesting like this is two people who spent their entire life in one company, essentially. >> right. >> rose: so many people move around these days. there is also this. we have a lot of people like that at the nba. >> really? >> and that exroat and that strength is as a result of those

people, in other words, we have more than a handful of people that have been with us well over 20 years, they don't get tired, they get better. >> rose: he is a knick fan, what are you? >> wait, wait, you grew up loving the knick. >> i call him a duke fan .. >> oh, gosh that is awful, i am surprised you two guys didn't -- >> rose: i like him even more now. your life and your job has been enhance bed at this fact you have people by the name of bird, johnson, jordan, james,, dream team. >> absolutely. >> rose: and you had magical people bringing attention to the nba. >> magical people in the nba, someone as old as you are,

charlie should have started started out chamberlain, koozie, okay? how about -- >> rose: come on. >> there have been great player >> rose: took a giant step forward with magic and larry, come on. >> i did. >> rose: and michael comes and follows that. >> in conjunction with a lot of other things. >> the players, it has been great to have them forever, but our owners built buildings, you know, every building in the nba is new or totally renovated since 1987. >> rose: right. >> rose: they made a contribution to -- >> big time. look what happened in television, you know. >> rose: people who decide on your salary made a contribution. >> if they hadn't, if they hadn't made a contribution]:z would say that too. they know that too, okay? they know that. >> rose: so what have you wanted to do that you could not write about, bring about? anything? well, go ahead. >> i would like to have come up

with a better formula for taking these very wealthy man young men and making sure they would be wealthy for their whole lives, they would have a post high school post high school graduation and we are getting there. we just agreed with the players association in the last agreement on an annuity that would supplement their pension, we are implementing that to where we are talking about a new program of, you know, sort of post graduate education. i don't mean post graduate, get degrees if they want them, life experience, life skills if they don't. that is one area that i think remains a challenge, but -- >> rose: to take care of your own. >> to take care of our own. >> rose: is that where it ought to be, 19. >> no, i think it should be higher but that is a function of collective bargain. >> rose: we got it up from 18 to 19, and i think that gives the players one more year of life experience and makes it better for our teams to make difficult decisions that have great economic consequences.

>> rose: can you imagine in the future, and i mean by there in the next five or ten years will thereby three or four teams in china and three or four teams in europe and they will be part of the nba? >> ask the new commissioner. >> unlogistically in china. >> rose: it is too far to travel, i can imagine we have a league we play or that we partner with others there, to your list of players, yao ming. >> we have international superstars that come as well. europe is a different issue we have been talking about that for a while, logistically we could probably pull it off, the 02 arena in london where we play regular season names, they are going to build a new refurbished arena in paris, berlin has a new arena, they are talking about it in madrid and barcelona, i can imagine a division in europe. >> but that is just reachable or logistically possible. >> we probably played 130 games in the last 20 years or so or

more outside the united states. >> exhibition games. >> exhibition games. >> rose: to sold out crowds. >> yes. if you announced a game in china it sells out in china. >> one in beijing and shanghai in october. >> rose: $275,000 to 5.15 million since 1984. this is the average salary. >> that's a long. >> rose: so what would you change now, other than finding a, building some kind of organization that takes care of the players? >> i don't have any particular things that i look back on. >> rose: are injuries an increasingly larger problem? >> we haven't analyzed this year. one of the things we are doing is, and i guess i would say it is a change from a league perspective, we are honing in more on some certain medical issues that impact our players. >> rose: wliek what. >> extend their career. >> rose: ankle injuries or -- >> no, like acl injuries, knee related, also, heart related

issues that sometimes affect athletes. we have a huge trove of data and the whole idea of extending a great player's player by a year is a lot of additional -- >> rose: what is the average time. >> 3.4 years but it is much longer for superstars, i mean that includes all of the players who move in and out of the league. >> rose: can't stay there because they don't have the talent and new talent is coming in. >> exactly. >> rose: there is also this question of parity among the teams, the franchises how do you maintain that? or create that? >> we would say initially you create it through the right type of collective bargaining agreement and you asked earlier what haven't we accomplished? and we accomplished a lot of what we hoped to through the last collective bargaining cycle, but we look at other leagues as models, the nfl has a hard cap, it is something we proposed to our players union and something we ultimately compromised on and didn't get, you know, we have a strong

luxury tax to discourage teams from spending over a certain amount but i think something to focus on for the future is to try to bring even more parity to the league. i we want a league where teams ultimately can be vunld based on their management, it is not a function of what community they are in or how much revenue they can generate, we are getting closer to that system now but ideally whatever market you live in you want to believe if your team is well managed you have an equal shot to win a championship. >> rose: is it healthy for the league that lebron and chris and dwayne all end upton same team and you forbid chris paul to go to la to the lakers? is that healthy? >> well those are two separate issues into i understand that. >> and so first having to do with how players wind one teams, there were these guys called, it wasn't just bird, mick hail and this guy magic played with kareem and worthy, so there have

been all kinds of gathering of players in particular teams and that's a question of the draft, trades, free agency and ultimately management and how in how you do that. with respect to chris paul as the owner representative and the owners being the nba that own that franchise that was a trade the players elected not to make. >> rose: the referee that went to prison, that was your toughest challenge, you have said that, i am just quoting you. >> no, no. it was very -- >> rose: to remind you of what you said. >> it was very difficult. it certainly was. and we worked so hard. >> oh, a shock. a lot more surprising than when we got the call from jason collins. >> rose: really? >> a knock on the door from the fbi saying, to learn you have a corrupt official. right. oh, by the way we will announce an indictment of your official for betting on games. it can't get worse than that. >> rose: what did you do? what was the first thought you had, the first thing you did? you know, we wanted to know everything we possibly could

from the fbi, from our own records we went back and studied it just to see what was happening, and we said we need help here. if this can happen, without us knowing about it, whatever we are doing, we have got to do better and we have to do more of. >> rose: what do you have to do beyond the ability that david has brought to the league and recognition is one of the great commissions in sports, what do you have to do to build on what he has left? behind? >> well, i mean, he is so much he has put in place. we worked together for so long, but i am particularly focused -- >> rose: without -- >> it is an unfair question. direct the witness and make sure that the counselor rephrases it. we have three lawyers here. be nice. >> i think what my greatest focus and my greatest concern is to be -- to keep pace with the changes in technology. >> rose: that is interesting. >> the opportunity for the future of this league as you

mentioned before, we are broadcasting over 210 countries, the ability to bring those games to people on whatever device they choose to use, i think the latest i read is there are 7 billion people and 6 billion cellphones. >> rose: exactly. >> in the world and i think increasingly that is how our fa are consuming our games, even within the united states. >> rose: so that raises the question, i talked to roger goodell about this, whether it is more attractive to watch the game outside of the stadium than at the stadium. iis that a real issue yet? >> i have talked to roger about their issues, we have different issue. our attendance has gone up over the last several of years, the number of season ticket holders has gone up, i he it is a very different experience in an arena and in a stadium, in our case i think look we would love to have the ratings the mfl does, they certainly have figured out the television equation and i think we can use technology to increase our tv ratings where right now they are focused on technology to keep people in the

seats and stadiums. >> rose: add. >> adam is very much the architect of our digital technology. >> rose: i am not surprised by that. >> touche. so that our social media number of 400 million likers and followers that we have on a global scale, you know, nba.com and all of the videos that get access for highlights, youtube and the like, this is something which really develops our game and causes our fans to perhaps want to experience it in person. >> rose: well, david it is good to see you, thank you so much, this has been a remarkable issue, and adam much success as you continue here. this is sports illustrated the gay athlete, jason collins, an announcement that has everybody talking including the president of the united states. who called jason collins and this is what he said today after his press conference.

>> for an individual who has eckersley sell at the highest levels in one of the highest sports to say thi in this is whi am and i am proud of it, i am still a great competitor, i am still seven-foot tall and can bang with shaq, i think america can be proud this is just one more step in this ongoing recognition that we treat everybody fairly. >> rose: president of the united states. thank you again. >> thank you, mr. president. >> rose: thank you, mr. president. thank you for joining us. we will see you next time. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh

access.wgbh.org >> funding for charlie rose has been provided by the coca-cola company, supporting this program since 2002. and american express. additional funding provided by these funders. and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. you are watching

>> it's time for "classical stretch." i'm miranda on a beautiful sunny beach in jamaica. we're about to do a deep hip and hamstring stretch workout. >> ...is made possible in part by... with beachfront resorts around the world. each resort features extensive gardens and large swimming pools with maximum respect for the surrounding environment. iberostar hotels and resorts. [jazz instrumental music playing] [captioning made possible by friends of nci]