A Biography on David Stern

David Joel Stern is the current commissioner of the National Basketball Association. He grew up in New Jersey and attended Rutgers University. He graduated as a dean's list student in 1963 and attended Columbia Law School. He graduated from this college in 1966 and passed the bar in New York the following year. He joined the National Basketball Association in 1978 as a General Counsel after being an outside counsel for about twelve years. Two years later, in 1980, he was designated as the sport's Executive Vice President. He became Commissioner in 1984, following Larry O'Brien. He had also served on the Rutger's Board of Overseers and a Chairman on the Boart of Trustees of Columbia University.

Stern got his first action in the NBA in 1966. During the time he was the Executive Vice President, two major changes were instituted. First, drug testing was placed as a standard. Second, the team salary cap was put in place. The drug testing policy helped cut down the perception that most players used drugs. While this was confirmed by the NBA, they had promised to clean that up. The salary cap created a system where owners and players could work effectively as partners. These two changes helped make big strides for Stern becoming the commissioner, both on the inside and outside.

On February 1, 1984, Stern became the fourth Commissioner of the NBA. During his first year in the league, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley and John Stockton all entered the league. Michael Jordan brought with him a new era of basketball. By 2002, Stern had expanded the league from twenty-three franchises to thirty. He also had one team, the Toronto Raptors, located in Canada, and had more and more games being televised and played overseas.

Stern oversaw the creation of the WNBA. He also has helped internationalize the game of basketball. He has set up different camps and exhibition games to enhance the character development of the National Basketball Association. There are now eleven offices of the NBA outside of the U.S. The game of basketball is shown around the world in forty-two different languages. He also has led the NBA onto an increase in charitable contributions. He has set up the "Read to Achieve" program and the "NBA Cares" program. He has also organized various NBA activities to enhance the help given out to communities. He has done extensive work in organizing this change in the National Basketball Association.

Wikipedia, David Stern