Thank you, David Stern!

[ATLHawks3]

30 long years of increasing the popularity of Basketball. There will never be another David Stern.

[LucastheThird]

Why not? He left the blueprint on what to do: handmade popular players and teams win championships and middle of the road and below get money.

[ATLHawks3]

Why not? He left the blueprint on what to do: handmade popular players and teams win championships and middle of the road and below get money.

I read somewhere that he increased the revenue of the NBA from 189 million in 1984 to 5.5 billion. That's just awesome.

Edited February 1, 2014 by ATLHawks3

[Guest]

David Stern is vastly overrated. Joe Shmo would have done the same for the nba. The game was going to expand whether he liked it or not. Jerseys of players would be popular with or without him. He was a case of being at the right place at the right time. I'm glad to see him go and if I never see his ugly, yella keister again, it'll still be too soon.

[LucastheThird]

David Stern is vastly overrated. Joe Shmo would have done the same for the nba. The game was going to expand whether he liked it or not. Jerseys of players would be popular with or without him. He was a case of being at the right place at the right time. I'm glad to see him go and if I never see his ugly, yella keister again, it'll still be too soon.

I don't know if Joe Shmo would've realized that America loves a winner and hitched his wagon to Jordan the way that Stern did. The NBA is what it is today (finances and publicity) because Stern bet on the right player and put in action a plan for him to win. The reason that most people root for individual players instead of the team is because of Jordan. Stern took a business that was gonna profit reguardless and made it more profitable by introducing individualism and the best individual player we've seen.

[Guest]

I don't know if Joe Shmo would've realized that America loves a winner and hitched his wagon to Jordan the way that Stern did. The NBA is what it is today (finances and publicity) because Stern bet on the right player and put in action a plan for him to win. The reason that most people root for individual players instead of the team is because of Jordan. Stern took a business that was gonna profit reguardless and made it more profitable by introducing individualism and the best individual player we've seen.

Ya cuz it takes a keen eye to realize Jordan is just a bit better than Sam Bowie(sorry Blazer fans it's true).

[Sothron]

I don't know if Joe Shmo would've realized that America loves a winner and hitched his wagon to Jordan the way that Stern did. The NBA is what it is today (finances and publicity) because Stern bet on the right player and put in action a plan for him to win. The reason that most people root for individual players instead of the team is because of Jordan. Stern took a business that was gonna profit reguardless and made it more profitable by introducing individualism and the best individual player we've seen.

That's not a good thing, that is a bad thing. You should always root for the team first and not the individual.

[turnermx]

Basketball would have grown in popularity even more so if individual stars had to do it all on their own without any help from sterns refs that would be provided to any other individual players. There should be no "they arent going to call that on HIM"Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[benhillboy]

That's not a good thing, that is a bad thing. You should always root for the team first and not the individual.

I remember when Jerry Krause made some statements to the affect that Jordan didn't do it all and it takes a whole organization and team, and he was blasted for it. As a kid, I agreed and thought he was just a greedy, fat, ugly fool wanting attention and how dare he talk down on His Airness? Now I realize he had it right all along. I give more credit to Nike for popularizing Jordan than Stern. I think it was a natural progression from Bird and Magic to Jordan. They weren't quite as exciting and bankable, but they played on lovable teams. Jordan was/ is a global icon, but his teams certainly weren't as "sexy" or decorated as the 80's Celtics and Lakers. Like the Spurs in Kobe and LeBron's Era, Stern definately didn't want the Bad Boy Pistons being a flagship at the expense of Mike. At the end of the day, I can't knock a business for trying to maximize profit off casual fans' recognition of the most visible players off the court, many undeserving. We know the deal. Edited February 1, 2014 by benhillboy

[frankthetank966]

Tough call. Have mixed feelings about Stern. He isn't a great of a commissioner as Bud Selig, who is arguably the best commissioner in professional sports. Stern increased profits and popularity. To those who say the game would have become popular anyways, look at hockey. They've done an awful job promoting their players and the game. Hockey is only popular is parts of the country, basketball is followed in across the globe! However Stern allowed small market teams to crumble. We saw it with the Sonics, Hornets, and now were seeing it with the Timberwolves and Kings. A good commish doesn't allow teams to move from large cities like New Orleans or Seattle. He finds out what's wrong and tries to fix it with ownership. And if ownership isn't interested in building a team in that city, then the board needs to determine if they are the right owners. Although Stern did an amazing job marketing the NBA and it's players, this superstars syndrome is starting to hurt the game. Players like LeBron and Durant gets calls in their favor all the time. The new commish needs to review referring and replace most of the bums on the court calling games.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

Tough call. Have mixed feelings about Stern. He isn't a great of a commissioner as Bud Selig, who is arguably the best commissioner in professional sports. Stern increased profits and popularity. To those who say the game would have become popular anyways, look at hockey. They've done an awful job promoting their players and the game. Hockey is only popular is parts of the country, basketball is followed in across the globe! However Stern allowed small market teams to crumble. We saw it with the Sonics, Hornets, and now were seeing it with the Timberwolves and Kings. A good commish doesn't allow teams to move from large cities like New Orleans or Seattle. He finds out what's wrong and tries to fix it with ownership. And if ownership isn't interested in building a team in that city, then the board needs to determine if they are the right owners. Although Stern did an amazing job marketing the NBA and it's players, this superstars syndrome is starting to hurt the game. Players like LeBron and Durant gets calls in their favor all the time. The new commish needs to review referring and replace most of the bums on the court calling games.

Selig better than Stern? Is this sarcasm?

[LucastheThird]

That's not a good thing, that is a bad thing. You should always root for the team first and not the individual.

I didn't say it was a good thing just that I felt it made the game more popular with casual fans and that brings in more money

[Guest]

Tough call. Have mixed feelings about Stern. He isn't a great of a commissioner as Bud Selig, who is arguably the best commissioner in professional sports. Stern increased profits and popularity. To those who say the game would have become popular anyways, look at hockey. They've done an awful job promoting their players and the game. Hockey is only popular is parts of the country, basketball is followed in across the globe! However Stern allowed small market teams to crumble. We saw it with the Sonics, Hornets, and now were seeing it with the Timberwolves and Kings. A good commish doesn't allow teams to move from large cities like New Orleans or Seattle. He finds out what's wrong and tries to fix it with ownership. And if ownership isn't interested in building a team in that city, then the board needs to determine if they are the right owners. Although Stern did an amazing job marketing the NBA and it's players, this superstars syndrome is starting to hurt the game. Players like LeBron and Durant gets calls in their favor all the time. The new commish needs to review referring and replace most of the bums on the court calling games.

Good, bad or indifferent Stern cleaned up the NBA's image from a drug riddled product on tape delay to what it is today. He had the foresight to market the Magic/Bird rivalry from college and continue it into the NBA.When did the Jazz move from New Orleans compared to when Stern took over? The City of Seattle didn't want to pay for a new stadium hence the move. Stern was instrumental in keeping the Kings in Sacramento.

[Admin]

Funny thing is that the popularity of basketball is dwindling. The NFL has drastically increased it's lead as the most popular American sport. The NBA is actually behind college football and Nascar. So yeah it may seem like Stern did something good for the game but at the end of the day it has 1/6th the popularity of the NFL.http://m.espn.go.com/nfl/story?storyId=10354114&src=desktop

[NekiEcko]

Good, bad or indifferent Stern cleaned up the NBA's image from a drug riddled product on tape delay to what it is today. He had the foresight to market the Magic/Bird rivalry from college and continue it into the NBA.When did the Jazz move from New Orleans compared to when Stern took over? The City of Seattle didn't want to pay for a new stadium hence the move. Stern was instrumental in keeping the Kings in Sacramento.

Living here in Seattle, you learn a few things, like the city want to but with I-91 in place, saying that it has been a positive return for the city before they get into any agreement to finance a stadium and everybody knows that Clay Bennett want to move that team to OKC no matter what (hence that crazy demand to put the stadium at Renton for 500 million and no support from Bennett himself). Check out Sonicsgate on Youtube and you can get more information about it.

[DJlaysitup]

I read somewhere that he increased the revenue of the NBA from 189 million in 1984 to 5.5 billion. That's just awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDI4qOSxK0s

[MaceCase]

I mean jeez, people act like basketball was this immortal cash cow before Stern took over. As recently as the 80s the fricking Finals were on tape delay and other professional leagues (ABA, CBA) folded but oh, Stern just rode the coattails of an already "profitable" league. He oversaw expansion into small markets to begin with too. Charlotte(x2), Minnesota, Miami, Orlando, New Orleans, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Sacramento and then internationally with Canada with Vancouver and Toronto all came to be during his watch so I don't know how people even attempt to make the claim that he has no love for small markets when you wouldn't even have a lot of small markets to begin with without him. So what Charlotte moved to New Orleans, uhm mention Goerge Shinn in Charlotte and see if that doesn't get you shanked in a dark alley. He overlooked Seattle twice now in favor of a smaller market that would actually economically support their team at the expense of having a larger market.So he promoted individuals, boo hoo. Basketball is already a sport that is very dependent on individual talent. Half the threads are people complaining about the Hawks not having that player that can take over games but then you don't want that guy to get publicity for it? You have folks in countries you never even heard of yet alone would think played basketball playing in the league. Dream Team? Ever heard of them? Half the world is organized now simply thanks to spectacle that those guys put on but what made them special? Did the NBA allow Boston to compete at the Olympics to promote "teams" or is that group more famous for being the greatest collection of INDIVIDUAL talent?Throw in that the college game and international leagues have constantly been changing their rules to emulate the NBA's too. Clearly Stern and the NBA are doing something right if all of the bastions of "pure" basketball are following suite but I digress, clearly this guy was a chump who just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

[MaceCase]

Funny thing is that the popularity of basketball is dwindling. The NFL has drastically increased it's lead as the most popular American sport. The NBA is actually behind college football and Nascar. So yeah it may seem like Stern did something good for the game but at the end of the day it has 1/6th the popularity of the NFL.http://m.espn.go.com/nfl/story?storyId=10354114&src=desktop

Well basketball is not as culturally ingrained a sport as baseball, football, etc. as it's often considered an "urban" sport, so no I wouldn't expect it to be as popular as other staple sports but let's not try and pretend that you can't be considered successful at something simply because you aren't the best at it. Soccer isn't a culturally ingrained sport in America either yet it's gaining a steady foothold too. Geez I would hate to be your kid, you'd put every Chinese parent to shame with your expectations.

[DJlaysitup]

Well you have to give Stern credit for being a "steadying influence" over these many years. Not that I always agreed. More than once I emailed him/the league about instituting the 5-point shot (from half court or beyond) to make games more fun at the end...but never even got a response.

...and who knows, if not for Stern's influence on the owners the Hawks may be out in Vegas now owned by some pizza/casino dude.

[ATLHawks3]

Hope the new commish eliminates any and all biases with the refs.