Stern Leads Commissioners Atop Sporting News’ “Power 100”

NBA Commissioner DAVID STERN has been named the most powerful person in sports by SPORTING NEWS in the magazine’s 16th annual “Power 100” rankings. SPORTING NEWS’ Stuart Miller writes Stern “used outside forces to his advantage — leveraging the crippling NHL shutdown to pressure the [NBPA] and his owners to move to the middle” in negotiating a new CBA. Stern also “fashioned compromises to get the changes he wanted — rules that gave him increasing control over the image of the NBA player.” The new CBA included a minimum age, increased drug testing, more player appearances and mandatory media training, while the league also unveiled its dress code and the $100M NBA Cares initiative.

THE RANKINGS: SPORTING NEWS this year returned to a format ranking the list 1-100. Last year, the magazine ranked the top 40, with the remaining members divided into categories. The following lists this year’s top 100, with their rankings from last year. ^ = denotes entries on last year’s list but not in the top 40 (SPORTING NEWS, 1/13 issue).

RK	NAME	ORGANIZATION/TITLE	'04
1)	David Stern	NBA Commissioner	4
2)	George Bodenheimer	ESPN & ABC Sports President	5
3)	Paul Tagliabue	NFL Commissioner	1
4)	Bud Selig	MLB Commissioner	3
5)	Brian France	NASCAR Chair & CEO	2
6)	Gary Bettman	NHL Commissioner	40
7)	Dick Ebersol	NBC Universal Sports & Olympics Chair	9
8)	Sean McManus	CBS News & Sports President	31
9)	David Hill	Fox Sports TV Group Chair & CEO and DirecTV Entertainment Group President	8
10)	Brian Roberts	Comcast Chair & CEO	^
11)	Ted Forstmann	IMG Chair	6
12)	Gene Upshaw	NFLPA Exec Dir	17
13)	August Busch IV	A-B President	7
	Tony Ponturo	A-B VP/Global Media & Sports Marketing
14)	Phil Knight	Nike Chair	10
15)	John Skipper	ESPN Exec VP/Content	^
16)	Adam Silver	NBAE President	^
17)	Bill Daly	NHL Deputy Commissioner
18)	Roger Goodell	NFL Exec VP & COO	12
19)	William Perez	Nike President & CEO	28
20)	Ed Goren	Fox Sports President	22
21)	Steve Bornstein	NFL Network President & CEO and NFL Exec VP/Media	25
22)	David Levy	Turner Sports President
23)	Erich Stamminger	adidas America CEO
24)	John McCain	U.S. Senator
	Jim Bunning	U.S. Senator
	Tom Davis	U.S. Representative
25)	Jeff Shell	Comcast Programming President
26)	Jack Roush	Roush Racing Owner
27)	Tiger Woods	Golfer	35
28)	Bob DuPuy	MLB President & COO	29
29)	Tim Finchem	PGA Tour Commissioner	^
30)	Mark Schweitzer	Sprint Nextel CMO	26
31)	Pat Bowlen	Broncos Owner and NFL Broadcast Committee Chair	^
32)	Colin Campbell	NHL Exec VP & Dir of Hockey Operations
33)	Tony Petitti	CBS Sports Exec VP & Exec Producer
34)	George Pyne	NASCAR COO
35)	Tim Brosnan	MLB Exec VP/Business	^
36)	Brendan Shanahan	Red Wings LW
37)	Russ Granik	Outgoing NBA Deputy Commissioner	34
38)	Omar Minaya	Mets GM
39)	George Steinbrenner	Yankees Owner	15
40)	Jose Canseco	Author and former MLBer
41)	Arn Tellem	Former SFX Sports CEO	^
42)	Ken Schanzer	NBC Sports President	^
43)	Tony Vinciquerra	Fox Networks Group President & CEO
44)	Robert Kraft	Patriots Owner	27
45)	Yao Ming	Rockets C	24
46)	Jerry Jones	Cowboys Owner	30
47)	Pat Riley	Heat President & coach	^
48)	Brian Cashman	Yankees GM
49)	Larry Lucchino	Red Sox President & CEO	^
50)	Trevor Linden	Canucks C and NHLPA President
51)	Rob Manfred	MLB Exec VP/Labor Relations
52)	Sean Bratches	ESPN Exec VP/Sales & Marketing
53)	Charlie Weis	Notre Dame football coach
54)	Lance Armstrong	Retired cyclist
55)	John Galloway	PepsiCo North American VP/Sports & Media	32
56)	Scott Boras	Agent	16
57)	Tom Fox	Gatorade Senior VP/Sports & Event Marketing	32
58)	Jim Delany	Big Ten Conference Commissioner	36
59)	Micky Arison	Heat Managing General Partner and NBA BOG Chair
60)	Ed Horne	NHL Enterprises President
61)	Ozzie Guillen	White Sox manager
62)	Bob Thompson	FSN President
	Randy Freer	FSN COO
63)	Myles Brand	NCAA President
64)	Tom Brady	Patriots QB
65)	Lesa France Kennedy	ISC President	^
66)	Jeff Pash	NFL Exec VP & CAO
67)	Norby Williamson	ESPN Exec VP/Remote & Studio Production
68)	Jack Williams	Comcast SportsNet President & CEO	^
69)	Shaquille O'Neal	Heat C	^
70)	Doug Perlman	NHL Senior VP/Television & Media Ventures
71)	Billy Hunter	NBPA Exec Dir	^
72)	Tony Hawk	Skateboarder/Entrepreneur	37
73)	Jeff Gordon	NASCAR driver	^
74)	Tim Duncan	Spurs F
75)	Jerry Richardson	NFL Panthers Owner
76)	Arte Moreno	Angels Owner
77)	Bruton Smith	Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chair & CEO	^
78)	LeBron James	Cavaliers F	^
79)	Tracy Dolgin	YES Network President & CEO
80)	Sonny Vaccaro	Reebok Dir of Grassroots Basketball	^
81)	Matt Leinart	USC QB
82)	Archie Manning	Father of Colts QB Peyton Manning and Giants QB Eli Manning
83)	Stu Jackson	NBA Senior VP/Basketball Operations
84)	Joe Paterno	Penn State football coach
85)	Joel Litvin	NBA Exec VP/Legal & Business Affairs
86)	Tom Condon	IMG Football President	^
87)	Rich McKay	Falcons President & GM and NFL Competition Committee co-Chair	^
88)	Larry Brown	Knicks coach	^
89)	Bob Bowman	MLBAM President & CEO
90)	Chuck Pagano	ESPN Exec VP/Technology
91)	Jerry Colangelo	Suns Chair and USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team Managing Dir
92)	Al Michaels and John Madden	ABC's "MNF" announcers	^
93)	Michelle Wie	Golfer
94)	Ted Saskin	NHLPA Exec Dir
95)	Mike Krzyzewski	Duke and USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team coach
96)	Stephen A. Smith	ESPN commentator and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist
97)	Roger Clemens	Free agent P	^
98)	Dave and Dana Pump	Double Pump Founders
99)	Donna Orender	WNBA President
100)	Brian Bedol	CSTV co-Founder & CEO

DOZEN TO WATCH
RK	NAME	ORGANIZATION/TITLE
1)	Theo Epstein	Former Red Sox GM
2)	Sidney Crosby	Penguins C
3)	Danica Patrick	IRL driver
4)	Lou Piniella	Former D'Rays manager
5)	Stuart Sternberg	D'Rays Principal Owner
6)	Salil Mehta	ESPN Enterprises Exec VP
7)	Troy Vincent	Bills S and NFLPA President
8)	Brian Grey	FoxSports.com Senior VP & GM
9)	Maverick Carter	LeBron James' agent
10)	Gavin Harvey	OLN President
11)	Rob Langstaff	adidas America President
12)	Katie Lacy	ESPN Senior VP/Marketing