“With the first choice in the 1984 draft, the Houston Rockets choose Akeem Olajuwon. " In terms of size, David Stern was not, strictly speaking, small. But to see, year after year welcoming colossi on the platform during the draft, these distributions of the best young players in the different teams, we came to think that the former commissioner of the NBA lived in Brobdingnag, the country of giants visited by Gulliver. Was that why he spent his career thinking big? Huge developer of the North American Basketball League, David Stern is dead, Wednesday 1st January, at the age of 77, following a brain hemorrhage.
“When David took over the NBA in 1984, the league was at a crossroads. But in thirty years as a commissioner, he invented the modern global NBA ”, paid tribute to his successor at the head of the North American Basketball League, Adam Silver, in a press release.
The son of a New York grocer, David Stern begins by assisting his father behind the counter. Then pass "From corned beef to caviar", as the 1991 weekly headline Sports Illustrated. His NBA adventure began in 1966, when he was recruited as a lawyer by the North American basketball league. And must, from the outset, negotiate the absorption of four ABA franchises, a competing league, to unify American professional basketball.
Big boss of a small league of giants
In 1984, he was sworn in on the "NBA Guide" and was unanimously appointed "comissioner" after the retirement of Larry O’Brien. Big boss of a small league of giants, undermined by a dirty reputation. Because in the mid-1980s, the NBA was in bad shape: declining audiences, rooms not refueling, teams losing money … the public turned away from the League, tainted by problems of drugs and racism. He says he believes he can make basketball not only a major sport in the United States, but a serious competitor in football worldwide.
That same year, 1984, David Stern welcomed a certain Michael Jordan into the League. A player – the best future in history – who will help the NBA boss develop the League around the world. Like before him, the Larry Bird – Magic Johnson rivalry and the emergence of the LeBron James phenomenon at the turn of the 2000s.
For several generations of players, hearing David Stern call his name and shake his hand on the stage was a dream. "Of course, it is a day that counts more than others"insists Tony Parker. Along with a few others, the French leader is one of the first to be engulfed in the international opening advocated by the one his collaborators nicknamed "The pole star". Always there to indicate the direction. And Stern, aware of the popularity of his sport in the world (where American football, king in his country, struggles to cross its borders, except Super Bowl), insisted on exporting the NBA, from Europe to the Asia. "The United States is not the only place on the planet where we play basketball", he argued, against the advice of many observers, fearing that the NBA would lose its luster.
"Thanks to him, the NBA is a truly global brand"
In addition to the opening of the League to foreign players – the MVP (most valuable player, best player of the season) of last year is the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo -, it was he who instigated the presence of NBA stars at the Olympic Games in 1992 in Barcelona with the "Dream Team". A decision that has worked greatly in the globalization of its league, until then, the United States sending only a team made up of university players.
For David Stern, the League, basketball, the players, the behavior of the fans, their mode of consumption … form the pieces of a puzzle. "The game for the NBA was to try to put them together", he assured a few months ago in Sports Illustrated. A global vision that allowed him to develop the NBA to the point of making it one of the most followed championships in the world, and one of the most flourishing. "Thanks to David, the NBA is a truly global brandAdam Silver said in a statement. This makes him not only one of the greatest sports leaders of all time, but also one of the most influential business leaders of his generation. "
His reign was not without jolts. Reflecting the image of an old-fashioned boss, sometimes rigid, often severe, David Stern has embraced his role as " bodyguard " of the NBA. To the point of colliding head-on with the evolution of the players, and their style. The embodiment of an increased drug policy when it took over the NBA – not the anti-doping fight, often left under the rug – the " commish "Repeatedly confronted the players.
In particular when, in order to give the League a more polished image, far from the hip-hop spirit and neighborhoods that certain players like Allen Iverson could convey, in 2005 it imposed a " dress code " requiring athletes to wear the costume during their public outings. David Stern had to contend with conflicts with the players, immobilizing the League for long weeks. The last "strike" (or lockout in American basketball jargon), in 2011, left the commissionaire particularly tried.
By his own admission, the " best memories " of his long tenure is not "Jordan's shoot, sealing the last Chicago Bulls title" But "Those moments when I had to put myself forward and protect the League. It wasn't extra stress, it was just my job. " In particular the management of fights between players, accidents, or the announcement of the seropositivity of Magic Johnson, his favorite player, in 1991. If he was not always at the forefront of openness, pragmatic and decided , David Stern worked to make the NBA the League where players express their opinions.
The NBA liking beautiful stories – and handling storytelling wonderfully -, it was by shaking hands with the first giant that he welcomed on the platform in 1984, Hakeem Olajuwon (the former pivot of the Rockets added an H to his first name after his conversion to Islam), that David Stern bowed out in 2013, at the end of his final draft. A carefully choreographed start, where he handed over the keys to the NBA to the successor he chose, Adam Silver. A league forever transformed by the passage of its " North Star ", who died Wednesday, three weeks after collapsing, suffering from a sudden cerebral hemorrhage, during a lunch in his city New York.
