NBA Commissioner David Stern has announced that he will retire on
February 1, 2014, 30 years to the day after he replaced Larry O'Brien.
Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, long Stern's right hand man, will be
Stern's successor. The timing of Stern's announcement is interesting;
the 15 month transfer of power presumably ensures a smooth transition,
though at least one cynic has already suggested that Stern hopes to have
some kind of farewell tour or victory lap. Stern has had a great run
and he is perhaps mindful that holding on to power until the bitter end
can indeed lead to a bitter end; thirty is a nice round number that also
means that Stern's tenure will have lasted a few months longer than NFL
Commissioner Pete Rozelle's. Rozelle is probably the only commissioner
of a major professional sports league whose career can be compared with
Stern's in terms of longevity and positive impact.
The NFL expanded from 12 teams to 28 teams during Rozelle's reign and
Rozelle is rightly credited with vastly increasing the NFL's popularity
and profitability.
Stern has long been viewed as the best commissioner in professional sports, though his reputation was somewhat tarnished by his voiding of the Chris Paul trade last season
and by the perception during the most recent lockout that he no longer
wielded the same power that he once did. It has become quite popular
among some media members to take shots at Stern but an objective
examination of Stern's career contains many highlights and very few
lowlights. The NBA expanded from 23 teams to 30 under Stern's watch,
revenues soared and each decade produced players and teams who will
forever be a part of American sports iconography: Magic's Lakers and
Bird's Celtics in the 1980s, Jordan's Bulls in the 1990s, Shaq and
Kobe's Lakers in the 2000s. Stern cannot take credit for the talents of
Magic, Bird, Jordan, Shaq and Kobe but he deserves some credit for the
fact that when those players were at their peaks they were among the
most popular and recognizable athletes in the world, something that has
not typically been true of the best players in the NFL, MLB or NHL
during the past 30 years. It is easy to forget that not long before
Stern became NBA Commissioner the NBA World Championship Series--the
catchier designation NBA Finals only became officially used in 1986, two
years after Stern took over--was shown on tape delay and the NBA was
widely perceived as a drug infested league that was "too black" to
achieve mainstream popularity. Stern took steps to change not just the
negative perceptions but also the reality; in other words, his triumph
was not just a matter of deft public relations work but also one
involving substantive actions: Stern instituted a drug policy that
provided treatment for players who had substance abuse problems but also
insured that such players would not be allowed to play until they fixed
their problems. Much like Rozelle, Stern had the foresight and
negotiating acumen to raise the NBA's TV profile and thus present the
beauty of the sport in a captivating way; "NBA action...it's fantastic"
is a slogan that is still repeated three decades later not just because
it is catchy but because it is true: the NBA features the best athletes
in the world (a phrase that Stern often used publicly) and it is truly
breathtaking to watch those athletes display a unique combination of
size, speed, jumping ability and dexterity.
A major part of Stern's vision has been to make basketball into a global
sport like soccer. NBA players first participated in the Barcelona Olympics in
1992 and that proved to be a seminal event in basketball history: the
"Dream Team" is arguably the greatest team ever assembled in any sport
and the heroics of Jordan, Magic and company inspired an entire
generation of basketball players around the world: Dirk Nowitzki, Tony
Parker, Manu Ginobili, Pau Gasol and many others are children of the
Barcelona Olympics.
Stern also cleaned up the NBA game on the court, pushing for flagrant
foul rules and fighting regulations that vastly toned down the violence
in the sport. When players got out of line on or off the court, Stern
swiftly issued fines and/or suspensions that not only punished the
initial offenders but deterred future potential offenders. In Stern's
NBA, if you throw a punch--even if it misses--you are suspended. The end
result: players rarely throw punches. In Stern's NBA, if you leave
the bench area during any kind of confrontation you are suspended. The
end result: bench-clearing brawls and ugly scenes that could escalate
into serious violence are a thing of the past.
The NBA has long been at the forefront among sports leagues in terms of
providing opportunities for women and members of minority groups to
become executives, coaches and referees. The NBA does not need special
rules regarding this (like the NFL's Rooney Rule) because equal
opportunity hiring has become a part of the league's culture. Stern also
oversaw the creation of the WNBA.
Is Stern's record flawless? Of course not. In addition to the Chris Paul trade debacle mentioned above, he presided over two lockouts
that resulted in lost regular season games (1998, 2011) and a federal investigation revealed that NBA referee Tim Donaghy bet on games that he officiated.
However, the other sports leagues had worse problems and scandals
during the past 30 years. Rozelle's NFL lost seven games--almost half of
the season--to a strike in 1982 and then in 1987 the NFL lost one game
to a strike and used replacement players in three other games. A dark
cloud hangs over the NFL now because of the numerous pending lawsuits
alleging that the league has not properly cared for players who suffered
head injuries. MLB canceled the latter portion of the 1994 regular
season and also wiped out the entire 1994 postseason, including the World
Series. MLB's all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, was banned for life for
betting on baseball games. MLB's record book is infested with inflated numbers
produced by PED cheaters. Labor issues shortened the 1994-95 NHL season,
wiped out the entire 2004-05 NHL season and may also eliminate the
2012-13 NHL season. The NHL does not adequately police on-ice violence
and thus there have been numerous ugly incidents involving players
assaulting other players. For the past three decades, Stern's NBA has
enjoyed a better record of labor peace than the other major American
sports leagues and has achieved this while increasing both revenues and
player salaries without neglecting the health and safety of the players.
I have two primary complaints about Stern's tenure. Stern's NBA should have acted much more
swiftly and much more generously to take care of retired players in
general and and the "Pre-1965ers" in particular. Stern's NBA also should have clearly and unequivocally included ABA statistics in the pro basketball record book.
I sincerely hope that Adam Silver corrects both of these injustices; it
is shameful for a league as profitable as the NBA to not take care of
the players who built the sport and it is shameful for the NBA to act as
if ABA statistics do not exist: the NBA should not only fix its own
official records but it should insist that its television and media
partners acknowledge the ABA just like the NFL's television and media
partners recognize that pro football's first 4000 yard passer was Joe
Namath, who accomplished that feat in the AFL.
There has been such a media backlash against Stern recently that I
almost feel compelled to make a few things clear to anyone who might
question why a writer would praise Stern. I do not know Stern personally
and I have never interviewed Stern one on one; my closest contact with
him came when I attended a few of his press conferences during All-Star
Weekends and prior to playoff games. I am not employed by the NBA nor
does it seem likely that I ever will be--even though my writing skills
and historical knowledge could be a tremendous asset to a league that sometimes acts as if basketball history began with Bird, Magic and Jordan. So, I
have no interest or motivation to be an apologist either for Stern
specifically or for the league in general but it is my honest opinion
that an objective evaluation of Stern's career would rank him very
highly in the pantheon of commissioners.
A major aspect of leadership is perception. A leader must have a strong
personality and a clear vision for the future but he also must convince
others that they should follow him. A young Kobe Bryant once told Phil
Jackson that he wanted to lead the Lakers but Jackson chided Bryant that
no one on the team was ready to follow Bryant just yet because Bryant
was too young and unproven. Bryant ultimately became one of the
sport's great leaders and great champions; he always had a strong
personality and a clear vision but he had to convince his teammates to
perceive him as a leader. When I think of David Stern, I think of his
response to the "Malice in the Palace"; he immediately issued several
lengthy suspensions, he suspended Ron Artest for the entire season and
when media members asked Stern if a vote had been taken about those
punishments Stern replied, "It was unanimous, one to none." That is
leadership; he did not pass the buck, he did not wait to see which way
the wind was blowing: he made it very clear that players who go into the
stands to fight with fans will not be playing in his NBA. In contrast,
when I think of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, I think of Selig shrugging
impotently as the 2002 All-Star Game ended in a tie--and, much more
seriously, I think of Selig turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the abundant evidence of rampant PED cheating in his sport.
For 30 years, Stern has looked the part of a commissioner and, much
more significantly, he has acted the part. You never doubted who was in
charge of the NBA with David Stern at the helm.
Thanks, David, for an excellent review of Stern's term.
ReplyDeleteI would add that it seems that he really wanted to better the situation of the players, which was dire at the time he took over, and that his motivations were not only financial but also ethical and civic.
I think we would do well if we had more leaders like that.
The comment moderation task is too difficult, by the way.The letters are almost unreadable.
Yogi:
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. I agree with you that Stern has strong ethical and civic motivations, even if his critics would scoff at that, and I also agree with you that the players are better off now than they were before he became commissioner.
As for the comment moderation "task," if I am not mistaken there is a way to click and ask for another set of letters if the first set is too hard to decipher. Sadly, comment moderation is necessary to prevent spammers from bombarding the site with junk ads. Sites that do not use comment moderation either end up with a lot of spam comments or the owners have to constantly remove the spam comments.
David,
ReplyDeleteDo you think it is at all possible that David Stern has turned a blind eye to performance enhancing drugs in the NBA? I'm not saying he has or hasn't, but I do find it suspicious that HGH isn't tested for. Stern has always been in favor of cleaning up the league, but possibly where it matters most, the NBA is severely lagging. As the WADA stated, there are numerous “gaps” in the NBA anti-doping system.
I sincerely hope that PEDs are not commonplace in the NBA, but after the Lance Armstrong fiasco, these types of questions need to be asked and answered.
Michael:
ReplyDeleteAnything is possible but I don't think that anyone has come forth with any evidence of widespread PED usage in the NBA.