David Joel Stern was an American lawyer and business executive who was the commissioner of the National Basketball Association from 1984 to 2014.
28 Facts About David Stern
2.
David Stern is credited with developing and broadening the NBA's audience, especially internationally by setting up training camps, playing exhibition games, and recruiting more international players.
3.
David Stern helped found the Women's National Basketball Association and the NBA G League, the NBA's development league.
4.
David Stern established the NBA's social responsibility program, NBA Cares.
5.
David Stern started with the NBA in 1966 as an outside counsel, then joined the NBA in 1978 as general counsel and became the league's executive vice president in 1980.
6.
David Stern was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and FIBA Hall of Fame.
7.
David Stern was on the Rutgers University Board of Overseers, a Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and chair of JALC's Marketing Committee, and was a Chair Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University.
8.
David Stern was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
9.
David Stern was born in Manhattan, New York City, one of three children of Anna and William Stern, a Jewish family.
10.
David Stern grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, and his father ran a Jewish delicatessen in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
11.
David Stern grew up a New York Knicks fan, considered Carl Braun his hero, and attended games at Madison Square Garden with his father.
12.
David Stern played basketball briefly in adulthood before sustaining a serious right knee injury during a New York Lawyers League game.
13.
David Stern then attended Columbia Law School, receiving a JD in 1966.
14.
David Stern was the lead attorney representing the firm in the case of Robertson v National Basketball Association, the landmark lawsuit brought against the NBA by star player Oscar Robertson.
15.
In 1978, David Stern left Proskauer Rose to become the NBA's general counsel under Commissioner Larry O'Brien.
16.
On February 1,1984, David Stern became the Commissioner of the NBA, succeeding O'Brien during the league's recovery from its darkest period.
17.
David Stern guided the league through dwindling viewership en route to global growth.
18.
David Stern pushed to allow professionals to participate in the Olympics, helping spawn the 1992 US Olympic team of NBA players, dubbed the "Dream Team", which begat the first wave of international NBA stars.
19.
However, David Stern initially refused to go back to the original ball despite many complaints by players about the new ball.
20.
David Stern acknowledged that the NBA "could have done a better job" with the decision and implementation, and that it would have been better to get the players' input in advance.
21.
In 2007, David Stern injected himself in the controversy surrounding the purchase and subsequent relocation of the Seattle SuperSonics by Oklahoman Clay Bennett and his ownership group.
22.
On December 8,2011, David Stern vetoed a three-team trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers, Lamar Odom to the league-owned Hornets, and Pau Gasol to the Rockets for what a spokesman would only say were "basketball reasons".
23.
On October 25,2012, David Stern announced that he would step down as NBA commissioner on February 1,2014, after 30 years in the role, longer than each of his three predecessors.
24.
David Stern was succeeded by his deputy Adam Silver, but remained affiliated with the league with the title of commissioner emeritus.
25.
In 2014, David Stern was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
26.
David Stern was married to Dianne Bock David Stern, and they had two sons: Eric and Andrew.
27.
On December 12,2019, David Stern suffered a brain hemorrhage and underwent emergency surgery.
28.
David Stern died in Manhattan on January 1,2020, at age 77.