One of the most significant figures in the history of the sports industry has passed away.
David Stern, commissioner of the NBA from 1984 through 2014, died Wednesday at age 77. He suffered a brain hemorrhage last month. Stern initially joined the NBA as general counsel in 1978 after 12 years as part of a law firm representing the league. He replaced Larry O’Brien as commissioner.
In the history of professional sport, perhaps only Pete Rozelle rivals Stern as the most impactful league commissioner. The NBA’s struggles when Stern took over have been well-documented. While it was not quite at rock bottom — the era of tape-delayed Finals games ended in 1981 — the league was a far cry from the international colossus it would become by his retirement.
Stern oversaw the NBA’s expansion domestically and internationally, aided by a trio of all-time greats, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan. He guided the league into close, lucrative media partnerships with NBC, Turner, and later ESPN, anticipating trends like the rise of cable and league-owned networks before his competitors.
The league’s success under Stern was only part of the story. In a crisis, and the NBA had many during his tenure, he was a commanding presence for good or for ill. From drug scandals in the 1980s to Latrell Sprewell choking his coach to the “Malice at the Palace,” Stern left no ambiguity as to the NBA response. Announcing that Ron Artest would be suspended for the season following the Pacers-Pistons brawl, Stern pronounced the punishments as “unanimous, one to nothing.”
His remedies were often controversial. Faced with racial stereotyping of NBA players as thugs and criminals throughout the 2000s, his response was an exercise in pandering, a dress code. During collective bargaining negotiations, Stern put the squeeze on the players on several occasions, most recently engineering a redistribution of wealth in the 2011 CBA that has enriched league owners to an unprecedented extent.
His towering presence sometimes overshadowed the action on the court, with fans convinced he pulled the strings to ensure the league’s desired outcomes in the NBA Draft Lottery and playoffs. He did not always help himself on that front — he once said the NBA’s best possible Finals matchup was “the Lakers versus the Lakers” — but despite the best efforts of Tim Donaghy, there was never any legitimate evidence that the league put its thumb on any particular scale.
There are no parallels to Stern among the commissioners working today. Roger Goodell is as famous, but intimidates nobody. Gary Bettman learned under Stern, but his record is lacking. Rob Manfred is too green. Stern’s successor Adam Silver may be the best-respected of all the active commissioners, but his fumbling response to the league’s China crisis last year showed that he did not have Stern’s ability to rise to the moment.
No other commissioner could spar with opponents like Stern, who was not afraid to light into anybody on the record — either during or after his tenure. He had no problem showing up Jim Rome or Dan Patrick on their own radio shows. His boldness could sometimes cross the line; ripping Bryant Gumbel in 2017, he said he had “done more for people of color” than Gumbel.
Outside of the league’s biggest stars, he was as familiar a presence as anyone in the NBA, even starring bathrobe-clad in ESPN’s initial NBA ad campaign during the 2002-03 season. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014, and his impact on the game rivals any of his Springfield contemporaries.
[News from NBA.com 1.1]
