On the fifth anniversary of his official retirement as NBA commissioner, we take a look back at the most controversial moments of his David Stern's executive career.
1) Substance abuse policy implemented (1983)
2) Dress code instituted (2005)
As many have elucidated in the years since Stern officially stepped down as NBA commissioner on February 1st of 2014, one of the central tenets of his tenure was to essentially render a "black" sport digestible for white audiences. When Stern took over the commissionership from Larry O'Brien in 1984, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird had lifted the league's popularity to new heights, but it was still fighting against a general reputation as a glorified playground for inner-city thugs and drug addicts. Though he was still technically only the Executive Vice President of the NBA in 1983, Stern had enough power by then to broker a new, sweeping anti-drug program with the NBA players' association. It was the first anti-drug policy of any major pro league and it quickly had serious consequences for several players, including four-time All-Star Micheal Ray Richardson, who was soon banned for life for violating the substance abuse policy. Two decades later, the NBA was once again suffering an image crisis due to Michael Jordan's recent retirement, the Ron Artest-led Malice at the Palace, and the perceived "thug" nature of many of the sport's biggest stars, such as Allen Iverson. Heading into the '05-'06 season, Stern indirectly responded by instituting a new dress code. It emphasized that players had to dress in at least business casual attire during official team activities, and expressly forbid certain "urban" fashion statements like sleeveless shirts and bold jewelry. Once again the NBA was at the forefront among professional leagues, and the initial response was something resembling shock. Many players, most notably Iverson, as well as media members and fans, raged against the machine, claiming the new rules were blatantly racist and ageist. But ultimately the most interesting thing about the dress code was how quickly it became a non-issue. With the then newer generation of stars like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Kevin Durant so image-conscious and brand savvy, the need for a dress code was soon rendered almost quaint.
3) Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf refuses to stand for the national anthem (1996)
As the NFL national anthem controversy raged on across several seasons, and high-profile NBA stars like LeBron James found themselves embroiled in the debate, many quietly noted that the NBA had its own, arguably more draconian, anthem policy. It was instituted under Larry O'Brien's commissionership during the '80s and states that NBA players, coaches, trainers, etc. must stand for the anthem in a "dignified posture." And while many star players and coaches like James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Gregg Popovich have been outspoken in their views on social justice and race relations in the age of President Trump, no one has dared to challenge the NBA anthem policy since Abdul-Rauf in 1996. Twenty years before Colin Kaepernick sparked a revival in athlete activism and five years before the events of 9/11 incited a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in America, Abdul-Rauf cited his Muslim faith as his reasoning for not standing at attention for the national anthem before games. The then Nuggets star had been quietly protesting the anthem for weeks, opting to stretch on the floor or remain in the locker room before games. When local journalist began to take notice and report on his behavior and his reasoning for it, it incited a firestorm amongst fans and the media that Stern knew had to be addressed immediately. He eventually came to a compromise with Abdul-Rauf where the point guard would stand for the anthem, but could keep his head bowed and in prayer. This did little to satiate angry fans that booed him on the court and in some cases threatened violence off it. Three years later, Abdul-Rauf was out of the league, effectively banned for his political stance.
4) Knicks win the lottery and the rights to draft Patrick Ewing (1985)
5) Michael Jordan retires to play baseball (1993)
If you're the type that's inclined to believe in conspiracies like Q-Anon or Illuminati-style cabals (or Elders of Zion, for those whose anti-Semitism bleeds into their opinion on Stern), these are the real tent pole moments of Stern's career. Let's start here by setting aside the idea that either of events were conspiratorial in nature (first off, can you seriously believe Stern would risk his reputation and the reputation of his league to make either of these events happen? Also, the Ewing theory hinges on the ridiculous premise that Stern took the time to plant a frozen envelope, hoping that no one at the event or in the TV audience would notice). In and of themselves, they're still significant. Stern didn't necessarily need Ewing in New York. The team already had star power in the form of Bernard King, and big market franchises in Boston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia were the league's top three teams. But the Knicks winning the first lottery and landing Ewing was still a significant moment that laid one of the major pieces of groundwork for the '90s NBA. It could be argued that the NBA was much more desperate for Jordan to remain active in 1993. The league went into a brief crisis mode after his initial retirement, and another more existential one after he stepped away again in 1998. But the NBA endured and eventually became more popular than ever, which is a testament to Stern's ability to grow the sport in spite of its all-time greatest player stepping away on multiple occasions.
6) Tim Donaghy admits to point shaving (2007)
There always has been, and always will be, fans that consider the NBA to be just as rigged as professional wrestling. This is especially true in the gambling community, but even though several major point shaving scandals had popped up over the years in college basketball, there was scant evidence that NBA games had been compromised in any fashion. Then along came a federal indictment against Tim Donaghy. The referee was accused of filtering inside information to bettors, and using his on-court status to tilt final scores in the favored direction of a point spread. The information and story that slowly unfolded was like a treasure trove of every previously unfounded cliche people repeatedly tossed at the NBA: refs being paid off by shady mob-connected gamblers, games being fixed by the league office to better serve bigger market teams, and, of course, star players receiving reverential treatment in foul calls. Stern responded by painting Donaghy as a rogue scumbag looking to damage the sport to preserve his own reputation. The truth is likely somewhere in between, but either way it's impossible to think about Stern's legacy without considering Donaghy.
7) Synthetic basketballs introduced (2006)
Athletes are well known to be creatures of habit and superstition as much as or more so than members of any profession. So when the NBA announced that the official Spalding ball was changing for the '06-'07 to a new synthetic microfiber composite, it was somewhat surprising that the uproar wasn't immediate. Some players came out right away with disdain for the decision, but most of the league's elite stars seemed willing to at least give the new ball a chance. Then the season started, and by December almost the entire league was up in arms over the supposed inferior quality of the new ball. Was it simply a case of the players conveniently blaming the equipment every time their own skills failed them? Possibly. But the case for the new ball, which was meant to have better grip and handle, was destroyed by an independent study which found the balls were actually more slippery and behaved more erratically when bouncing (bouncing being kind of a key feature of basketballs). Stern quickly announced that the league would return to the previous ball on January 1st, doing so in typical David Stern fashion with a passive-aggressive quip that the league's overall shooting percentages were actually slightly higher that season, compared to the prior one. Despite the snafu, Spalding, which was the first company to produce basketballs in the 1890s, is still the official ball provider for the NBA to this day.
8) Expanding the Christmas Day games
Though games being scheduled on Christmas actually traces back to the first NBA season in '46-'47, the tradition of those games being a showcase for the league's best teams and players didn't start until Stern became commissioner. Like many things during his tenure, this was partly a happy accident, as a string of memorable Christmas games in the early '80s set the stage for a traditional event that could become a larger part of the public sports consciousness. Though most players and coaches describe it simply as an honor to play on Christmas, Stern did get some criticism levied at him over it late in his time as commissioner. Coaches Stan Van Gundy and Phil Jackson made headlines (and were subsequently fined by the league) for speaking out against games on Christmas Day, as did LeBron James. And a San Francisco Chronicle writer even implied that Stern's Grinch-ian insistence on scheduling Christmas games was due to his Judaism (never mind the fact that NBA games on Christmas had by then been a constant for 65 years, and on national TV for over 40 years). Despite any misgivings from players or coaches, the Christmas games have been enhanced and expanded even further under current commissioner Adam Silver, and are now considered one of the marquee yearly regular season events of any sport.
8) Malice at the Palace (2004)
In 30 years chock full of strife and stress, it's still safe to say that this was probably the worst night of Stern's professional career. It was a Friday evening in Detroit where a matchup of two of the league's best teams devolved into a full-on brawl. Though the game was a marquee one, broadcast nationally on ESPN, it's likely that only a couple million people watched it live but a large portion of America knew of the Malice at the Palace by the next morning. The moment and the story and the highlights were broadcast around the world ad nauseam for days, much to Stern's dismay. Ron Artest, a.k.a. Metta World Peace, was the central figure in the incident, having taken to the stands to attempt a fistfight with a Pistons fan after getting targeted by a beer-filled projectile. Artest was already a controversial figure in the league, and the incident also prominently featured a coterie of notorious hot heads like Stephen Jackson, Ben Wallace, and Rasheed Wallace, not to mention the average Detroit fan. It was a shockingly abrupt breakdown of the unspoken social contract between athletes and fans. Beers, punches, and chairs were thrown. Then there was the fallout, with harsh suspensions and fines doled out immediately by Stern's league office. Nine players were suspended for a total of 146 games, most of all Artest who missed 86 (including that year's playoffs). In an interview right before his retirement, Stern stated that the incident was the worst of his commissioner career, as the media latching on and calling the players "punks" flooded back memories of the poor reputation of the league from when he originally took the helm.
9) Chris Paul trade vetoed (2011)
10) Joe Smith contract fallout (2000)
Though the NBA salary cap is famously complex, there were only two high-profile incidents in Stern's career where the commissioner was forced to apply his executive powers on a transaction. The first came in 2000, when the Timberwolves made an under-the-table agreement with Joe Smith. Though Smith never lived up to his expectations as the first overall pick in 1996, he was still a solid player with career averages of 16.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, and was considered one of the top free agents when the 1998 lockout was lifted. It came as a surprise when Smith agreed to a modest, one-year deal with Minnesota, and it later turned out to be more suspicious than surprising. It was soon revealed that the franchise had reached a handshake agreement with the player to sign him for three consecutive one-year contracts, after which he'd be eligible for "Bird rights" and could be re-signed to a lucrative, long-term deal. When the jig was up, general manager Kevin McHale attempted to feign ignorance, while simultaneously deflecting blame by claiming that several other teams had similar, unpunished agreements ongoing. Stern levied the Timberwolves with a heavy fine, and forced them to forfeit four years worth of first round picks. Though this incident turned out to be pretty cut-and-dry from Stern's perspective, his intervention into the Paul trade 11 years later was much messier. The Hornets agreed to trade their disgruntled star point guard to the Lakers before the start of the '11-'12 season. The return package was a decent one, including Goran Dragic, Luis Scola, a then healthy Kevin Martin, and a first round pick. But other owners around the league found the trade distasteful, especially considering that the league office technically owned the Hornets at the time. Stern claimed that the Hornets general manager had full autonomy to make this and other roster decisions, but the other league owners began to push his hand. It's telling that the uprising was spearheaded by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, as the underlying grievance was that the league's biggest stars, emboldened by LeBron James' 2010 departure from Cleveland, were gaining too much power to hold their franchises - especially small market ones like New Orleans or Cleveland - hostage with trade and free agency demands. Ultimately giving in to owner demand, Stern vetoed the trade, but just days later Paul was dealt to Los Angeles anyway, when the Hornets made an exchange with the Clippers with a return that was comparable to, if not worse than, what they would have received from the Lakers.
11) Draft eligibility age limit raised to 19 (2006)
Upon taking the mantle as the NBA's first commissioner in 1946, one of Maurice Podoloff's earliest enacted rules was banned players from entering the league until four years after their high school graduation. This went unchallenged for 25 years until the proliferation of the ABA and a lawsuit from Spencer Haywood forced the NBA to create the "hardship" rule allowing players to enter the league early if they could prove financial burden. Though "hardship" was technically on the books for over three decades, its enforcement quickly became ceremonial. Conventional wisdom still stood that high schoolers weren't ready for the rigors of the NBA, until Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and others started to challenge that in the late '90s. Stern and his league brass realized quickly that they needed to revisit the eligibility rules, as for every Bryant or Tracy McGrady that succeeded straight out of prep school, there were several guys like Korleone Young or Leon Smith that flopped. In a move that had seemingly good intentions, Stern lobbied to include a minimum age of 20 for draftees in the 2005 collective bargaining agreement. The players' association opposed it, but eventually compromised with Stern on disbarring draft eligibility until the player was one year removed from high school. Critics immediately questioned the veracity of Stern's motivation, but the age minimum rule still stands as of the '18-'19 season. Stern's replacement, Adam Silver, initially stated that he desired to raise the age limit back to 20 but has since flipped that script, and now seems to agree with the players' association that the minimum should be reduced back to 18 years in the next CBA.
12) 1998 and 2011 lockouts
Other moments were more controversial, entertaining, or damning, but nothing defined the career of David Stern more than his handling of the two lockouts. The 1998 affair was decidedly one-sided, and was held up for years as the epitome of Stern's iron-clad grip on the league. While the media latched on to sound bites from players like Latrell Sprewell saying the lockout was taking food out of his kids' mouths, public sentiment was about even, considering it a battle of millionaires vs. millionaires. Never mind the fact that the average player actually wasn't a millionaire, and the average owner was actually a billionaire, but Stern came out looking like a hero, while the players' association gave a lot of concessions. The 2011 lockout was a little bit different. The public was savvier and less trustful of business moguls, as the Occupy Wall Street movement was in full swing in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The player's association also approached things more delicately, learning from their public relations mistakes in 1998. Though ultimately, as is always the case, the final result was likely an overall "win" for the owners, Stern came out looking less rosy. While his handling of the 1998 lockout made him seem like a ruthless Michael Corleone-level operator, in 2011 he was more Sonny, supposedly losing his cool in an embarrassing manner during negotiations. It was one of Stern's final major moments as commissioner, and it was not an ideal one.
13) Air Jordans banned (1985)
14) Athletic Propulsion Lab shoes banned (2010)
Performance enhancing drugs and equipment have thus far failed to taint the NBA the way they've proliferated public opinion of the NFL and MLB. The two most infamous cases of Stern dealing with technological advances providing an unfair advantage are actually humorous in retrospect. As opposed to popular belief, the Air Jordan brand of Nike shoe was not banned in 1985 because it gave players a competitive edge. This was a "fact" propagated by Nike after the shoes had already been banned. The reason Stern actually disbarred the shoes was because of an archaic regulation stating that all sneakers worn had to contain the color white. The original Air Jordans were stylized to reflect the Bulls colors of black and red. As a clever PR stunt, Nike asked Jordan to wear them during the '85-'86 season anyway, and paid the NBA fines for every game, claiming all along that the shoes were banned due to their superiority. The next year's version of Air Jordans did include white, and always have since. 25 years later the league finally did ban a shoe because of its potential advantageous nature. The Athletic Propulsion Labs' Concept 1 shoes were released in 2010 amid a flurry of press releases touting its patented Load 'N Launch technology (yes, they actually patented something called Load 'N Launch). Though many considered this an elaborate joke, the league office took it seriously, and immediately banned the shoes for their potential competitive advantage. The company continues to laud their product's ability to instantly increase your jumping ability, and has taken to branding their Concept 1 design as the "Banned Edition."
15) Seattle SuperSonics skip town (2008)
Was it a coincidence that Stern - who allowed the Sonics to screw over the city of Seattle and move to Oklahoma City - stepped down as commissioner on February 1, 2014, and one day later the Seahawks won the city's first major sports title since the Sonics in 1979? Yes, probably. But it was still a fitting epilogue to his retirement. Just months after a group led by Clay Bennett was approved in 2006 by the league office to purchase the SuperSonics, he began holding the city hostage, demanding public funds for a new arena. One of his co-owners even outright admitted that the move was leverage to allow them to move the franchise to Oklahoma City. The league responded by heftily fining him, but still allowed the charade to continue. After a new arena agreement with the city didn't materialize by 2008, the NBA owners voted 28-2 to allow Bennett to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City. The city of Seattle battled back, filing suit to force the Sonics to remain in Seattle for at least two more years to finish out their contract with Key Arena. Though the case ended in a settlement, Bennett was the obvious winner as he was allowed to move the franchise after paying the city $45 million. Stern was mostly hands-off in the negotiations, though he popped in at one point to twist the knife in Seattle a little further by publicly stating that he didn't anticipate the NBA ever returning to Seattle. Adam Silver has repeatedly declared franchise expansion to be "inevitable" and has specifically mentioned Seattle as one of the first cities that will be considered, but Louisville and Mexico City also seem to be prime candidates. In the meantime, the city of Seattle recently approved a new stadium to replace Key Arena in the hopes of luring an NHL franchise short-term and an NBA franchise long-term.
Was it a coincidence that Stern - who allowed the Sonics to screw over the city of Seattle and move to Oklahoma City - stepped down as commissioner on February 1, 2014, and one day later the Seahawks won the city's first major sports title since the Sonics in 1979? Yes, probably. But it was still a fitting epilogue to his retirement. Just months after a group led by Clay Bennett was approved in 2006 by the league office to purchase the SuperSonics, he began holding the city hostage, demanding public funds for a new arena. One of his co-owners even outright admitted that the move was leverage to allow them to move the franchise to Oklahoma City. The league responded by heftily fining him, but still allowed the charade to continue. After a new arena agreement with the city didn't materialize by 2008, the NBA owners voted 28-2 to allow Bennett to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City. The city of Seattle battled back, filing suit to force the Sonics to remain in Seattle for at least two more years to finish out their contract with Key Arena. Though the case ended in a settlement, Bennett was the obvious winner as he was allowed to move the franchise after paying the city $45 million. Stern was mostly hands-off in the negotiations, though he popped in at one point to twist the knife in Seattle a little further by publicly stating that he didn't anticipate the NBA ever returning to Seattle. Adam Silver has repeatedly declared franchise expansion to be "inevitable" and has specifically mentioned Seattle as one of the first cities that will be considered, but Louisville and Mexico City also seem to be prime candidates. In the meantime, the city of Seattle recently approved a new stadium to replace Key Arena in the hopes of luring an NHL franchise short-term and an NBA franchise long-term.