As David Stern officially passed the NBA Commissioner's torch to Adam Silver yesterday, writers and prominent basketball figures continue to reflect on his 30 year-tenure in office.
GRANTLAND's Charles Pierce wrote, "There is a natural tendency to treat him as though he were some complicated hybrid of Henry Ford, Don Draper, and Rick Rubin: the man who invented and sold an entirely new product that crossed national and cultural barriers to mainstream a new kind of sports-entertainment complex wah-dee-doo-dah. Much of that is true, but it’s only half the story."
The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Chris Herring looked back at the "decisions and events that made Stern one of the most successful yet polarizing executives in sports history."
The SACRAMENTO BEE's Ailene Voisin writes Stern's imprint "extends all over the globe" to N.Y., Beijing, Barcelona, Russia, Argentina, China and, soon enough, India.
ESPN.com's Marc Stein wrote he "still feels as though Stern has been running the NBA my whole life," which is why "it's even harder to imagine the NBA without him."
The Cleveland PLAIN DEALER's Mary Schmitt Boyer: "I'm among those who think he saved the league and turned it into a global marketing machine."
The CHARLOTTE OBSERVER's Rick Bonnell wrote Stern "did a lot to salvage players’ reputations from times when there was a presumption half the league was doing drugs habitually."
ESPN.com's J.A. Adande wrote under the header, "The Many Sides Of David Stern."
Big East Commissioner and former WNBA President Val Ackerman said, "Without his vision and engagement, the league wouldn't have gotten off the ground. He was the mastermind, and the WNBA was really in line with his vision about how sports and society are intertwined."
Pistons G Chauncey Billups: "He had a great run as commissioner."
SPORTSNET.ca's Michael Grange wrote Stern "may rank at the very top" on the list of most valuable people in NBA history, "just as long as we aren’t talking about what Stern did in Canada."
