The first person I heard from was Bill Walton. He sent me the nicest e-mail. I don't know how he found out so fast. He sent it to me 10 minutes after we told the staff.

I decided I wanted to take it a bit easier for a while and then see what I want to do. There are a couple of things in sports that would be of great interest to me. Announcing it this way gives me the time to think about what might make sense.

I felt the time was right for me to get off the treadmill for a while,

I felt the time was right for me to get off the treadmill for a while. I greatly appreciate all the opportunities David and the NBA owners have afforded me for personal accomplishment in this job.

I don't plan to do a tour of arenas and get rocking chairs,

I know that both of them are ultimately worthy.

That's at least an interesting notion. Then you're not dealing with the politicking.

After we successfully concluded our last collective bargaining agreement in June, and with six years remaining on that agreement and three years left on our television contracts, I felt the time was right for me to get off the treadmill for a while,

I want to take it a little bit easier for a while and then see what else I might want to do.

It's very unlikely we would go to reseeding after the first round. It's also very unlikely we would go to a system where we would seed teams one through eight.