On New Year's Day, former NBA commissioner David Stern passed away after undergoing surgery to address a brain hemorrhage. He was 77 years old. In this blog post I want to quickly share my thoughts on Stern and the impact he made on both the NBA and the game of basketball.
David Stern was the NBA's commissioner from February 1, 1984 to January 31, 2014. In those 30 years, the NBA transformed itself from a league known for its rampant cocaine use (R.I.P. Len Bias) to a league that had global appeal and the biggest stars in all of sports. It's fitting that just a few months after Stern took office, Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and John Stockton were drafted into the NBA. Those guys became the face of the post Bird/Magic NBA along with Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, and Shaquille O'Neal who were all drafted in subsequent drafts. Stern taking over as commissioner truly ushered in a new era of the NBA.
For me personally, David Stern is the NBA commissioner of my childhood. In some sense, he still feels like the commissioner even though Adam Silver I feel has done a wonderful job replacing him. I still feel like Stern's name should be on an NBA basketball. He's that ingrained into the fabric of the league. In a lot of ways, he was and still is the modern NBA.
While the players I just mentioned along with many others took the NBA to new heights with their talents, Stern gave them the platform by which they could do so. He cleaned up the image of the NBA, had a vision for where he thought it could go, and he took it there. He felt the NBA could become a global brand and he made sure that it happened.
What says it all I think, is the response from players around the league. Scottie Pippen was just one of many who tweeted about Stern's impact on the game.
Very sad day for basketball. We saw David Stern a lot in the 90s and I found him to be kind, thoughtful and almost always the smartest person in the room. He was an innovator who helped grow our sport into a global game and his impact will never be forgotten. RIP, Commissioner. pic.twitter.com/FzlJwnJmrK— Scottie Pippen (@ScottiePippen) January 1, 2020
Pippen's words I feel sum it up the best. Stern was "an innovator who helped our sport grow into a global game and his impact will never be forgotten." Truer words could not be spoken about the subject. When we look back on what the NBA has become and the genesis of where it all started, in many ways it begins with Stern. Before he became commissioner, he took over as executive vice president for business and legal affairs under commissioner Larry O'Brien in 1980, the same year Larry Bird and Magic Johnson not only entered the NBA, but began to save it as well. Stern was primarily responsible for the marketing, media relations side, something he would continue in full force when he became commissioner.
If you are a fan of basketball and especially the NBA, David Stern has played a very important role in your life. Without him, the sport and game we all love wouldn't be what it is today. On behalf of all NBA fans around the world, I want to say thank you to David Stern. You will not be forgotten.
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