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
Of all the cities, Oklahoma City was the best geographical match in terms of travel for our teams. If the Hornets do well in Oklahoma City, we expect that they would not return economically hobbled.
For the week of the all-star celebrations we are going to see a merger between the basketball capital of the world and the entertainment capital of the world. We're looking forward to what we think will be one of the best all-star celebrations of all time.
Usually I come into the office and say, 'Will someone please time the last three minutes of this game that took 22 minutes and tell me why? I'm not sure that we're showing our fans our best basketball.
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.
Our goal is to make the officiating perfect, at 100 percent. We have not and we never will achieve that result. But I think we have the best officials, the best-monitored officials, the best-developed officials in all of sports.
Those are decisions best left to elected officials, but there are choices that have to be made.
I've taken the tour, sampled the fare, looked at the extraordinary video board ? this is one exciting building. You cannot miss the video board, it is simply the best in the league.
It seems that maybe we should go to a seeding of the four best teams by their record.
This is an extraordinary person who just happens to be amongst the greatest fifty in NBA history and probably the best power forward to play the game. It's been fun to be along for that ride.
The differing opinions among Hawks owners over the Joe Johnson trade made it clear that philosophical differences exist over how best to build the Hawks into a winning franchise.
(The playoffs are) a road you have to follow if you want to be considered among the great ones, because it demonstrates that you're either making the players around you better or management is putting better players around you in order to showcase your talent longer into the playoffs.
We think the nature of our fan would change dramatically because (inside) information becomes, you know something, you make a bet, somebody tells you something else and perhaps you even go away from the game unhappy because the home team won but they didn't cover.
I think that players play, and they compete, and it's not about incentives.
Everyone said that the NBA could not possibly make it because it had too many black players.