This is an odd one. I was not planning to create a post about David Stern, but there is a voice inside of my head which screams “He needs to be talked about”and “Not enough people know about his greatness”. So, thereby, here I am, dedicating my day off to create an awareness of his legacy and how he has influenced the sport, which I hold dearest to my heart.
On January 1st, 2020, world was shocked to hear that David Stern has passed away from suffering with brain haemorrhage. May he rest in peace and all the best wishes to his beloved ones.
How did David Stern got to the NBA ?
David Stern was born on September 22, 1942 in a 3 children Jewish family and spent his early life in New Jersey, while being a big New York Knicks fan and a basketball enthusiast. After graduating high school, he pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in History and later on became a Doctor of Jurisprudence graduating from the prestigious Columbia University. Soon enough, David started working in the “Proskauer Rose” Law firm which is notoriously known for their expertise in sports law. In 1978, he joined the NBA to become the NBA General Counsel under the commissioner Larry O’Brien. By 1980, O’Brien promoted Stern to be the NBA’s executive vice president for business and legal affairs, which made Stern de facto in charge of marketing, television, and public relations for the league. He became a commissioner a commissioner on February 1st, 1984, just few months before Michel Jordan was drafted to the NBA.
His most nototious work
Introducing Drug testing policy
New York Times report in August 1980 suggested that 40 to 75 percent of NBA players used cocaine. David Stern tackled this issue by negotiating an anti-drug policy in 1983. Additionally, the NBA was the first Major American Sports league which started testing its player for Drugs.
Introducing Salary cap
Stern quickly realised that the teams, located in smaller markets have big disadvantage in terms of their financial capabilities.Thereby, before the 1984-1985 NBA Season, he introduced the 3.6.Million Dollar salary cap per team. This meant that the more earning teams would share revenue and every team would have fair chance on building a championship caliber team. Interestingly, in 2019-2020 NBA season, the Salary Cap is said to be $109M and the projection for 2020-2021 season is that the salary sap will rise to $118M. These numbers showcase how the product on NBA has grown, becoming not only a sports league, but a brand.
Branding and marketing of the NBA
Stern’s brilliance can be easily summarised by a quotes by Adam Silver “When I arrived at the league in the early ’90s, leagues weren’t considered brands the way they are now,” Mr. Silver told reporters in 2014. Mr. Stern, he said, was one of the first “to take modern state-of-the-art marketing practices, whatever the technology happened to be at the time, and apply them to sports leagues.”
More notorious achievements of David Stern include:
– globalising NBA and making it accessible around the world
– Establishing the Dream Team and introducing the world to the NBA in 1992 Olympics
-Initiating dress code change to make NBA more family friendly
-Bringing NBA to China with the help of Yao Ming and many more
Conclusion
Even thought there are critics over his style of leadership, short-temper and overall dictatorship like conduct, David Stern has to be remembered as one of the most influential basketball minds ever. In 1980’s, when NBA had drug problem, racial tension, he decided to take the job and turned NBA into an arguably best and most popular spots league ever. He did all that was necessary to grow the product, brand and was respected among the league. May he Rest In Peace.
Sports Blog by Henriks Diure 