David Stern: A player feature from a fan's perspective

David Stern has been a very good commissioner. He was the only NBA commissioner in my own lifetime, so I have no one to personally compare him to, but according to the majority, he was a huge upgrade over Larry O’Brien. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize how well of a job he’s been doing because they’re either too young or wildly unreasonable – or both. My point is this – running a professional sport league successfully is an overwhelming task and nearly-thankless job, and David Stern did it better than most people think.

The knock on Stern these last several years is that he is stubbornly tyrannical, and that it’s been a long time coming for him to step down. Off the top of my head, I can think of four events that helped fuel this reputation of his. There was a public outcry for each one, but each one was defensible.