According to the National Post, former National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern passed away at the age of 77 on Wednesday. Stern, a native of New York City, had been the NBA commissioner from 1984 to 2014.
Over the last month Stern had not been in the best of health. He had a brain hemorrhage in December and underwent emergency surgery for the condition on December 12. Stern is survived by his wife Dianne, who he had been married to since 1963.
There have been only five commissioners in the history of the NBA. The others were Maurice Podoloff, J. Walter Kennedy and Larry O’Brien before Stern and Adam Silver after Stern. However Stern has the record for the longest serving NBA Commissioner at 30 years.
Under Stern’s tenure, we saw the launching of the WNBA in 1996, NBA expansion into Canada (with the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies), NBA superstars being allowed to play in the Olympic Games, and the first round of the NBA playoffs expand from a best of five to a best of seven series.
Stern also received the Olympic Order in 2012, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014 and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2016. Among the all-stars who played in the NBA while Stern was commissioner included Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Steve Nash and LeBron James.
The most interesting interview ever conducted with Stern came with espn.com in 2008. Stern’s biggest regret as commissioner was the fact the Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001.
