During this year's NBA Draft, it was announced that this would be the last time David Stern would be hosting the Draft & his last day as commissioner will be February 1st of 2014. Adam Silver will be his successor. He got boos from the crowd all night long until the last draftee was called in the 1st round. He played along with the crowd, smiling & gesturing them to boo louder at him. He's been under much scrutiny in recent years from fans of the NBA. Most recently, a three-team trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers, Lamar Odom to the league-owned Hornets & Pau Gasol to the Rockets was vetoed by Stern in the midst of negative feedback from owners, media & fans alike. But with all of his bad decisions & naysayers, would the league even be around without David Stern?
During the late 60's up til 1976, the rival ABA was in competition with the NBA and became popular due to the style of play that the NBA hadn't yet adapted to. In the mid to late 70's, the NBA saw declining TV ratings, low attendance and drug-related player issues. In 1984, David Stern became commissioner, succeeding Larry O'Brien. During that same year, 4 future Hall of Famers were drafted: Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, John Stockon, and Michael Jordan. Under his tenure, the league rose to unprecedented heights in popularity & revenue, largely due to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson & Larry Bird in the mid to late 80s. The league expanded from a previous 23 teams to 30, and the WNBA was formed. Also, the NBA now is televised in 215 countries around the world.
With all this said, how should he be remembered to us fans of the game? What should his legacy be?
Randall (@flymanran): As a fan and student of the game, Stern will be remembered as the greatest Commissioner in all major sports of my era. The way the game has elevated since he's taken over is mind boggling. The average player salaries have increased greatly, the league has added more teams and the league is more recognizable than ever before. The NBA has grown into one of the most popular sports leagues in the world. He's also made it more profitable to be a team owner. NBA franchises are selling for record prices, the lastest bid on the Sacormento Kings was $625M. He has had some not so good moments as well (i.e the Tim Donaghy scandal) but he's done a good job of trying to ease the minds of fans since by doing more in depth background checks on the league officials. And the whole Chris Paul/Lakers trade veto thing is also not a good look but at the end of the day he did what the owners wanted him to do and that's his job. But look at where the league was in 1984 and compare that to where it is now... The is NBA is bigger than ever. There are even talks of a NBA franchise being started overseas. Stern is probably the best Commissioner in major American sports history.
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