David Stern
David Stern
David Joel Stern is the former commissioner of the National Basketball Association. He started with the Association in 1966 as an outside counsel, joined the NBA in 1978 as General Counsel, and became the league's Executive Vice President in 1980. He became Commissioner in 1984, succeeding Larry O'Brien. He is credited with increasing the popularity of the NBA in the 1990s and 2000s...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusiness Executive
Date of Birth22 September 1942
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
What he said was he had a conversation with a referee. I found that unacceptable and (also) his declining to identify him. ... He accepted the fine and acknowledged the statement that he got a call from an NBA referee was, shall I say in error, inaccurate. That makes it over.
What we're doing here is largely symbolic. But it tells everyone that we've got to help. We've got to do better.
There are different uniforms for different occasions. There's the uniform you wear on the court, there's the uniform you wear when you are on business, there's the uniform you might wear on your casual downtime with your friends. . . . We're just changing the definition of the uniform that you wear when you are on NBA business.
We're not going to be crazy. We just want our players to dress up,
I love my job. I come every day having a ball.
I regret the 1998 - 99 lockout. I regret that we didn't work harder to educate our players and our owners about what the damage would be. I never can quite come up with the answer on what else we should have done, but I always blame a part of the problem on us and some part on the players.
I think anyone who doesn't say that they'd like people to think that they're doing the right thing is wrong. I mean, I'd like it to be that way, but I've never allowed it to influence my actions.
I've never found NBA owners to be deferential. I never considered them to be reliant. All that I do is knock myself out to represent their interests the best way I can and sometimes tell them, as part of my job, what they don't like to hear.
My own basketball background was ripping up my ACL in a lawyer's league.
All I can say is you don't know what's going to be on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper. So I take no joy in what happens to another sport, whether it's about a perfect game or an issue of conduct.
I actually don't hope for a legacy. I think that it impedes your ability to make the hard decisions if you sit around saying, 'How will this affect my legacy?'
I'm persuaded that sports is the one place where the rules are pretty well set out, where fans are equal. And if you got game or you're a good official, you make it here, whether you're white or you're black.
We need a system where all of our teams have the opportunity to compete and to make a few dollars. That's not a bad desire for collective bargaining for a sports league, and it's great for our fans.
We couldn't get enough Jeremy Lin material in the NBA store fast enough. And when we did, it was just gone in minutes.