Casey Wasserman

I operated a professional football team in L.A. By no means was it the NFL, but I understand what it takes on some level to build and operate a professional sports enterprise in Los Angeles.

I had the freedom to choose my career. I had the opportunity to choose a career in sports. It's what I'm most passionate about. It's what I love.

The All-Star Game represents everything we as a nation love about basketball on and off the court - diversity, sportsmanship and, most of all, a commitment to unite fans.

Giving back was an expectation, not an option.

You can't just put a bubble over the Westside of L.A. and pretend like there aren't other problems. The way that we are failing the kids in this city through our education system has a profound effect on everybody in the city, and I'm not prepared just to turn a blind eye to that.

I have been in business a long time. I never had a successful relationship or partnership with any entity by issuing an ultimatum.

I don't need the NFL to be happy or successful.

This is one of the last unique things to do in the business of sports, to return the National Football League to the city of Los Angeles. I happen to love the city of Los Angeles; I happen to love the NFL - and to somehow be a part of that, a helper in that process, is something I've always been interested in.

It's no secret that I have, at best, a strained and awkward relationship with my dad. The Wasserman family - my mom, my sister, Lew and Edie - raised me. They are the people I define as my family.

I love the entertainment business. I have a lot of friends in it, but it wasn't my passion. The sports business is what I am passionate about. I also wanted to define myself through something that wasn't linked to my grandfather.

I don't think 3D television gets huge adoption until the consumer experience is no different than HD television. Until you can sit down on your couch and just turn on your TV, and it's 3D without anything else happening, I don't think it'll be a massive adoption.

All the lessons I learned from my grandfather from the day I was born until the day he passed away served me well, and I think about them and use them every day. It was much more valuable than any business school could have provided.