The NBA All-Star Game is an annual gathering of some of the most gifted people on the planet — where some of the biggest and brightest among us shine.
But so often in years past at All-Star Weekend, the event that carried the most weight — that was most anticipated by insiders — was the annual “state of the league” address delivered to a rapt gathering of journalists by long-time league commissioner David Stern.
Stern grew up in New Jersey, the son of a Manhattan delicatessen owner and New York Knicks fan, and stood perhaps five-foot-seven inches tall.
But he commanded the room and the sport, became one of basketball’s biggest stars, and was eventually recognized as perhaps the greatest commissioner in all of North American sports.
Stern’s addresses at All-Star Weekend consistently provided a framework for the future of the league he ran with a broad imagination and fierce discipline. The same was true of sessions he held at the NBA Finals or the NBA draft or Summer League.
When Stern spoke, people listened.
And there was a lot to talk about.
Over Stern’s unprecedented 30-year run leading the NBA, he presided over an enterprise that expanded from 23 teams to 30; that went from having NBA Finals games broadcast on a tape-delayed basis to eventually becoming a broadcast property worth $24 billion. He saw the NBA go from being a league followed mainly in the United States and featuring almost exclusively American players to a global sport with 108 international players drawn from 38 countries to start the 2019–20 season.
His relationship with the NBA began when he was hired by the powerhouse New York law firm Proskauer Rose – the league’s outside counsel – following law school in 1966. The NBA in its current form as an international cultural and taste-making force was unrecognizable.
“The league was in survival mode most of my early years in the NBA,” said Wayne Embry, the Toronto Raptors senior basketball advisor, whose association with the NBA began in 1958 as a player and continued as an executive from 1972 until today. “Attendance wasn’t great and a lot of owners weren’t doing very well.”
Stern joined the NBA as general counsel in 1978 and was promoted to executive vice president with a large role in league operations in 1980 before taking over from Larry O’Brien as commissioner in 1984.
The league’s trajectory has been almost exclusively upwards ever since, bolstered by the arrival of superstar talent such as Michael Jordan and a growing platform that help them turn into crossover icons.
“He was an innovator. He thought ahead. He thought big,” said Embry. “Marketing was very key to him. The league office brought more people in with that concept and each team did, too. He took the product and made it what it is today.
“He was just a terrific commissioner.”
Among his first major policy initiatives — even before taking the top job — were implementing drug testing for players after a number of early-1980s scandals had tarnished the league’s image and helping draft the first Collective Bargaining Agreement that included a cap on overall player salaries, bringing some cost certainty to a then-fragile league economy.
Most importantly, he helped develop a partnership between the players and owners based on a revenue-sharing model that set the standard for other leagues to eventually follow.
“He learned how to bring the players association and the owners together for a common cause. That was big,” says Embry. “The owners were very protective [of their revenues], but it can’t be one way. The players play the game.”
Stern poses with Kyrie Irving at the NBA draft on June 23, 2011. (Mel Evans/AP)
With a structure in place, Stern set out to make the NBA the most telegenic league possible. He recognized the power of stardom — that the immediacy of the NBA game was unparalleled in sports, and that targeting a younger audience with better in-arena presentation, lighting and music could be a point of differentiation.
For decades, sports had been about selling tickets and opening the doors, expecting that would be enough. Under Stern, the NBA became about using the league’s stars and the quality of its competition to build brands and create an entertainment option that reached outside of the average sports fan and into Hollywood, music and fashion.
He also was early to recognize the potential of growing the NBA brand outside of the U.S. In the mid-1980s Stern himself would get on the phone to negotiate international television deals. When FIBA wanted to throw the Olympics open to U.S. professionals, Stern in turn threw his weight behind it, ushering in the Dream Team era for the 1992 Games in Barcelona. He was the commissioner who oversaw the league’s expansion into Canada, opened league offices overseas, and made NBA tours throughout Europe and Asia an annual occurrence.
And as cable, video and digital became ubiquitous under Stern’s watch, he recognized the benefits of having the league be seen by more eyes in more formats. The NBA was at the forefront of having games and highlights available on phones and tablets. The league has enjoyed a massive social-media presence because from the beginning the NBA allowed highlights from their games to be shared freely.
“David Stern is the No. 1 force, the No. 1 reason why this league is where it is today,” Miami Heat President Pat Riley told USA Today when Stern retired in February 2014. “That’s not disrespectful to any one great player in any one era or any owner. This has to do with the leadership of one man.
“Over that span of time, things don’t change because they’re coincidences. They don’t. There’s somebody at the top who is going to eliminate what is bad and market what is good. He was a very forceful, very pragmatic visionary.”
Stern could be charming and witty in public, but was known for being almost tyrannical at times in private. He knew what he wanted and was unafraid to forgo compromise. Question him at a Board of Governors meeting and prepare to be challenged.
“His management style was anyone who questions him would get a chance to experience his wrath, and I did a few times,” said Embry, whose tenure as general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers from 1986 to 1999 paralleled Stern’s rise. “I’d rather not say why because he and I mended our differences, but he was pretty headstrong in his beliefs.
“He had compassion for people, too, but if he believed something should be one way, he stepped to it and he wasn’t afraid to let you know it. I never questioned him [personally], but I would ask him generalized questions and I think I upset him a couple of times, but it was all for the common good of the league.”
Stern was able to run such a tight ship in part because he helped make so much money for everyone — players and owners alike. When Jerry Reinsdorf bought the Chicago Bulls in 1985, he paid $16 million. According to Forbes, the franchise is worth $2.9 billion today.
When Stern became commissioner in 1984, CBS was paying $22 million for the league’s broadcast rights. Shortly after Stern retired, the league’s new broadcast deal – which encompassed cable and digital rights – was worth $2.6-billion annually. Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James will earn $36 million on the floor and several multiples of that off the floor this season while the average NBA salary 2019–20 this season has increased to $7.7 million.
“He knew what the league needed at the time it needed it, and he was not afraid to convince the owners about what he thought,” says Embry. “He was very adamant in the way he did it – and people didn’t always like it – but he gained a lot of respect because of what he accomplished.”
Stern died on Jan. 1, 2020 as a result of a brain hemorrhage. He is survived by his wife and two children.
He moved comfortably and confidently among giants and left the biggest mark of all.
NAPA, Calif. (AP) — David Lipsky shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Silverado Country Club to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Procore Championship.
Winless in 104 events since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Lipsky went out with the early groups and had eight birdies with one bogey to kick off the FedEx Cup Fall series at the picturesque course in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.
After missing the cut in his three previous tournaments, Lipsky flew from Las Vegas to Arizona to reunite with his college coach at Northwestern to get his focus back. He also spent time playing with some of the Northwestern players, which helped him relax.
“Just being around those guys and seeing how carefree they are, not knowing what’s coming for them yet, it’s sort of nice to see that,” Lipsky said. “I was almost energized by their youthfulness.”
Patton Kizzire and Mark Hubbard were a stroke back. Kizzire started on the back nine and made a late run with three consecutive birdies to move into a tie for first. A bogey on No. 8 dropped him back.
“There was a lot of good stuff out there today,” Kizzire said. “I stayed patient and just went through my routines and played well, one shot at a time. I’ve really bee working hard on my mental game and I think that allowed me to rinse and repeat and reset and keep playing.”
Mark Hubbard was at 67. He had nine birdies but fell off the pace with a bogey and triple bogey on back-to-back holes.
Kevin Dougherty also was in the group at 67. He had two eagles and ended his afternoon by holing out from 41 yards on the 383-yard, par-4 18th.
Defending champion Sahith Theegala had to scramble for much of his round of 69.
Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the AT&T at Pebble Beach in February, had a 70.
Max Homa shot 71. The two-time tournament champion and a captain’s pick for the President’s Cup in two weeks had two birdies and overcame a bogey on the par-4 first.
Stewart Cink, the 2020 winner, also opened with a 71. He won The Ally Challenge last month for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
Three players from the Presidents Cup International team had mix results. Min Woo Lee shot 68, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., 69 and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., 73. International team captain Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., also had a 69.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., had a 68, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 70 and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had a 71.
Lipsky was a little shaky off the tee for much of the afternoon but made up for it with steady iron play that left him in great shape on the greens. He had one-putts on 11 holes and was in position for a bigger day but left five putts short.
Lipsky’s only real problem came on the par-4 ninth when his approach sailed into a bunker just shy of the green. He bounced back nicely with five birdies on his back nine. After missing a 19-foot putt for birdie on No. 17, Lipsky ended his day with a 12-foot par putt.
That was a big change from last year when Lipsky tied for 30th at Silverado when he drove the ball well but had uneven success on the greens.
“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out,” Lipsky said. “You’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that and it seems like it’s working out.”
Laird stayed close after beginning his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th. The Scot got out of the sand nicely but pushed his par putt past the hole.
Homa continued to have issues off the tee and missed birdie putts on his final four holes.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open.
The Mississauga, Ont., native defeated the tournament top seed, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16 on Thursday.
Stakusic faced a 0-4 deficit in the third and final set before marching back into the match.
The 19-year-old won five of the next six games to even it up before exchanging games to force a tiebreaker, where Stakusic took complete control to win the match.
Stakusic had five aces with 17 double faults in the three-hour, four-minute match.
However, she converted eight of her 18 break-point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities are investigating the disappearance of two Paralympic athletes from Congo who recently competed in the Paris Games, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny confirmed on Thursday.
Prosecutors opened the investigation on Sept. 7, after members of the athletes’ delegation warned authorities of their disappearance two days before.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that shot putter Mireille Nganga and Emmanuel Grace Mouambako, a visually impaired sprinter who was accompanied by a guide, went missing on Sept. 5, along with a third person.
The athletes’ suitcases were also gone but their passports remained with the Congolese delegation, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the case.
The Paralympic Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo did not respond to requests for information from The Associated Press.
Nganga — who recorded no mark in the seated javelin and shot put competitions — and Mouambako were Congo’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, organizers said.
