Pissed me off sometimes, but has been the only commissioner I ever kind of liked. And he has the gif I often send people for no real reason. Pull through, big dog. Praying for you.
Respect him for nixing the CP to Lakers trade for "basketball reasons". IMO, he would have done something about the cowardly Durant to Warriors move as well. OTOH, Silver is a satanic mixed breed of a zombie, a vampire, and Dick Bevetta.
I always pictured him as a more likable Les. He was very shrewd in minimizing scandals away from him while sending enough signals that he was in control of the league. Compared to the other leagues that display powerless commisioners or a nanny to eccentric owners, he ran a fairly tight ship. You could say Jordan handed him the league on a silver platter, but he cleaned up the drug era disaster and transformed a group run by car dealership owners and real estate mavens into something consistently powerful. Ofc the dude was sneaky and bigly rigged situations whenever he could, but the Rockets won against the Ewing gifted NY Knicks so he couldn't have been that bad... Hope he has a speedy recovery.
Hope he makes it though He was the commissioner who didn’t bend the knee to China He made them bend the knee to basketball
David Stern Legacy is Hiring Tim Donaghy, Scott Foster, Tony Brothers, Ed Malloy, James Capers, Ken Mauer and Many More. Joey Crawford, Dick Bavetta wont be missed. The Corrupt League is even more Corrupt with Adam Silver, Legalized Gambling, Las Vegas Summer League. Mafias own the League now.
This. Stern at least tried to keep parity in the league. If he didn't allow Cp3 and Dwight to the glamor lakers he sure as hell wouldn't allow KD to GSW or KD for all star Russell (I know Russell hasn't been as good in GSW but Stern still wouldn't have allowed it to happen).
Stern couldn't stop KD from going to GS. KD was a free agent and could sign anywhere; CP3 and Dwight had to be traded. Big difference. Either way, hope he makes a full recovery.
Stern couldn't stop KD from going to GS but he can shift the narrative and media bias so that everyone starts hating on him going to GSW so much that he doesn't even consider it an option. Remember when Lebron went to Miami they got hated on by everybody so much it messed with Lebron's mind. KD going to GSW got some flack but not to that extent, I mean by year's end people were already calling KD the best player on the planet whereas Lebron worked his ass off for 4 years leading the league in mins played and posting epic nos in the playoffs people still hated on him for having it easy. OTH Stern would've cocked blocked sending KD to Nets for freaking Russell and gifting GSW with a max player upon losing KD. Like I said Russell isn't performing as great as they expected but he is still scoring 22 pts, 6 ast, 3 rebs with 36% 3 pt 55% TS which is pretty good considering he is playing out of position.