Legacy includes rescuing league from darkest moments
On New Year’s Day, professional sports lost a true innovator when David Stern, longtime National Basketball Association commissioner, died at 77 due to complications from a brain hemorrhage.
Stern may be gone, but his impact on the professional sports scene will never be forgotten. He brought the NBA up from the depths of its darkest period, rehabilitating a league that had a reputation for having a prevalent drug culture. In 1980, it was estimated that 40 to 75 percent of NBA players were actively using cocaine or had used it in the past.
The league was so unpopular during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s that its playoff games were broadcast on tape delay and shown after the late local news. This was despite the fact that the league’s premier teams of the day – the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers – still had passionate fan bases, but the league didn’t flourish much anywhere else.
Stern, who joined the NBA in 1966 as outside counsel and worked his way through the league offices, also served as general counsel and executive vice president before being named to replace Larry O’Brien as commissioner in 1984.
In his three decades as commissioner, Stern elevated the league through astute marketing of a product that nearly everybody would come to love. Under his leadership and with the initial help of superstars like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and later guys like Charles Barkley and the legendary Michael Jordan, the NBA went from an also-ran venture that couldn’t draw interest even to its playoffs to a league that became must-see TV on Sunday after church – especially in high-profile matchups like Kareem and Magic tangling with Bird and McHale.
Stern was a true marketing genius and a shrewd business man. His league was the first to implement a salary cap. He helped create the NBA League Pass and NBATV. He also exposed the league to new audiences overseas in Europe and Asia, welcoming international players such as Tony Parker, Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming, Rik Smits, Peja Stojakovic, Ricky Rubio and others to its ranks.
While those players flourished domestically in the U.S., Stern took the NBA abroad, as well, having teams in the league play exhibition and regular-season games across the Atlantic. He also expanded into Canada, establishing franchises in two cities. One, the Vancouver Grizzlies, would relocate to Memphis, but the Toronto Raptors boast a rabid fan base and were crowned NBA champions last spring.
Stern’s accomplishments are too numerous for all of them to be recounted here, but he retired as the longest-tenured commissioner in all of North American professional sports. He also helped pave the way for professionals to participate in the Olympics. Thanks to him, the sport of basketball exploded all around the globe, and the NBA has become one of the world’s biggest entertainment spectacles as a result of his influence.
