Manhattan, Dec. 18th--David Stern, the NBA commissioner, dismissed Rasheed Wallace’s inflammatory comments in mid-December as the ramblings of a “confused, ignorant nigger.”

Stern was immediately praised by the league’s owners, general managers and most of its coaches for his even-handed, deescalating response to Wallace’s suggestion that, at the highest level of management and ownership, the league exploits its players, many of whom are young, increasingly inexperienced and undereducated blacks.

Stern scoffed when asked if, beneath his alienating style, Wallace may have been addressing or circling a valid issue.

“C’mon, look at [Wallace],” he said. “He’s got the I.Q. of a pencil.”

“And don’t take that the wrong way,” he cautioned, confident that nobody in the league’s hierarchy would.

Wallace, at the urging of his attorney and agent, eschewed further mudslinging, adding only, “Yeah yeah…I hear that. I’ll let that big-nosed Jew have the last word.”