Advertisement

NBA Commissioner David Stern talks about globalization, stepping down, and his legacy


NBA Commissioner David Stern will step down on February 1, 2014, ending 30 years as head of the world’s top basketball league.

Stern is already the longest-serving commissioner in any North American professional sports league. He took over from Larry O’Brien in 1984 when the league was at a crossroads. Television exposure was still spotty, and league revenues were nowhere near the level that they are today.

But armed with a vision, Stern steered the NBA to greater heights, and also paved the way for the globalization of the game. That latter aspect culminates, fittingly, with the first NBA preseason game to be held in Manila.

Stern flew into town to personally watch the Indiana Pacers-Houston Rockets game at the Mall of Asia Arena, and a few hours before tip-off he spoke with a handful of journalists from the region in a roundtable discussion. Excerpts:

On the Philippine basketball culture and the globalization of the NBA

You have to be here to appreciate it. The Philippine fans are extraordinary. They know everything. They are rabid fans in a wonderful way.

It’s a great time to be a fan of the NBA. We came off a terrific season. We saw our fans really appreciating our players and their efforts.

I have always said that globalization would come upon us. I was mocked in 1992 when I suggested to critics of the Dream Team that the only way for the world to catch up with us would be to play at our level. And then 10 years later, in 2002, the US team finished sixth in the World Championships in Indianapolis, so it happened faster than I thought. But we’re blessed to have a sport that’s been in the Olympics since 1936, and everything we do grows the game on a global basis.

Our biggest challenge is how we find the resources to take advantage of all the opportunities, particularly in Southeast Asia.

On holding a regular-season game in the Philippines

I don’t have a timetable. The next time you can ask Commissioner Adam Silver. But it’s an interesting subject. It’s much more difficult to mount a regular-season game. The regular season games that we’ve played in Asia were back in Japan in 1991.

But we hope we’ll be returning in the not-too-distant future, whether it’s a friendly game like this one or a regular-season game.

On a Filipino making it to the NBA

You know the old joke? How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. No one has to give advice to the Philippines. They’re an intense basketball country. They qualified for the World Cup and for the junior version of the World Cup. So obviously there’s a lot of basketball being played here.

My guess is one player or another will be scouted and be brought to the colleges and see how they do and then move up. Or maybe directly (drafted), I just don’t know. But I don’t think the Filipino basketball community needs any advice from me on player development. They’ve been developing players for a long time.

On his first day as commissioner


Our philosophy was, “How do we get through the day?” Remember, none of the arenas that exist today in the NBA existed back then. There may have been a Madison Square Garden, but it’s nothing like the billion-dollar Madison Square Garden.

We had just come off two years earlier of being on tape delay for our finals, and we just spent a lot of time circling the wagons a bit and saying to everybody, “This was our brand, this was our game, these are the world’s best players.”

Issues about race occasionally popped up, even folding teams, merging teams. Basically we wanted to get up in the morning and find out that we still had a league. Gradually since we cared more about our league than anyone else did, it indicated to people that we had the best athletes in the world. So it gives me great pride that 30 years later our players are on top of the sports celebrity chain, well-known on a global basis.

ALSO READ: What Bird wants to teach today's NBA players

What he’d tell his successor Adam Silver


You know, I don’t have to tell him anything because many of the moves we’ve made and places we’ve come to included Adam. By February 1 we would have worked together for 22 years. I will tell him to keep up the good work. Every CEO has his own priorities and ways he’d like to try something different. That’s why in some manner change is good. It opens up opportunity. But many of the opportunities that we have, with respect to network television, with respect to growth in digital and social media, with respect to growth in globalization, all are going to provide opportunities for Adam and his extraordinary colleagues that got us to this point to go to even higher points.

On expansion teams outside the Americas

It’s interesting. I don’t think so.  A decade possibly. I think it would be possible that there would be a time that there would be franchises in Europe because of proximity. Any place that’s as close as going from Portland to Miami is a place where you might consider having a franchise.

With respect to other places, it depends upon the state of basketball there. I could see having NBA-themed or sponsored tournaments or conferences in Southeast Asia. I could see the NBA Development League sort of stretching down to South America, maybe in conjunction with the football clubs there. I could see NBA marketing moves in other places, but I don’t see franchises there.

But that’s the beauty of having a new commissioner. He could have a broader vision than I did.

His legacy

You know, I don’t like to describe the word “legacy.” In some way the legacy is the people of the NBA, the people that we’ve sort of put together and how we’ve all come together and met the challenges and helped grow the game.

The most difficult decision he’s had to make


I never really did enjoy having to tell a player that his career was over due to drug use. It’s something that’s provided in our collective bargaining agreement but to have to tell it to a Micheal Ray Richardson that he can longer play in the league is very difficult. But it’s part of the job and I have to do what I have to do.

His memorable moments in the NBA Draft

Honestly, the most memorable moment for me was when in the last draft, the last pick, Hakeem Olajuwon came out wearing what looked like the same tuxedo he wore in 1984. Of course, he’s expanded a bit, but that was a very, very memorable event. And my colleagues hadn’t told me about it. (Note: Olajuwon was the very first pick Stern announced after taking over as commissioner, the first pick in the 1984 draft)

And Yao Ming. You know, that meant something to me. He wasn’t at the draft. I called his name, and here was someone who was going to go into the CNN studios in Beijing and be interviewed by whoever was in charge of it. And it told me that sports has yet another layer to it, because that was really the beginning of Yao Ming being a bridge between two countries. Through Yao, the Chinese were going to know a lot more about the USA and Houston, and through Yao we were going to get to know a lot more about China. And that’s an aspect of sport that I’ve always enjoyed.