News Information and Media Site: Sports: David Stern Saw the Future of Sports

January 2, 2020

How David Stern Navigated Race in the N.B.A.

David Stern, who died Wednesday, understood that there were implications to the choices he made as the commissioner of the N.B.A.Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

As N.B.A. commissioner, David Stern transformed the N.B.A. from a league that could barely pay its bills to a multibillion-dollar industry. He died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 77.

Our reporters have followed Stern’s career throughout the years. He was the fourth commissioner of the N.B.A., serving from Feb. 1, 1984, to Feb. 1, 2014. During that time, he propelled the league forward by keeping focus on its biggest names — from Magic Johnson to Michael Jordan.

“Instead of trying to snuff out the rising power of players — an approach that had cost baseball and football hundreds of millions of dollars and huge chunks of seasons — Stern figured out how to embrace the change and capitalize on it,” Matthew Futterman wrote in an essay on Stern’s legacy.

But his legacy is complicated, Harvey Araton writes. “Yet the argument could be made — and Stern would probably have been the first to make it — that he was born for the challenges and crises that inevitably loomed, like the so-called Malice at the Palace.” It’s where Araton saw Stern at his most grim.

“If moving the needle on social and racial advancement were life-affirming benefits of an influential business, protecting its widespread marketability and growing the pie no matter how it eventually was sliced was always the mission that came first for Stern,” Araton writes.

Read Marc Stein’s obit of David Stern here.

ON FOOTBALL

N.F.L. insiders say it will take more than the Rooney Rule to diversify the league’s leadership.

Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

Only Three N.F.L. Head Coaches Are Black. ‘It’s Embarrassing.’

N.F.L. insiders say it will take more than the Rooney Rule to diversify the league’s leadership. Their immediate goal: Increase offensive coaching opportunities for minority candidates, who are often overlooked.

By Ken Belson

N.F.L. Decade In Review

From Baugh to Brees, There Is No Slowing the N.F.L. Passing Game

With every successive decade, passing in the N.F.L. gets better and better.

By Victor Mather and Joe Ward

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ON BASKETBALL

Anthony was back at the Garden for the first time in 25 months, this time as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers.

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

On Pro Basketball

Carmelo Anthony Scores, and Loses, at the Garden. Sound Familiar?

The former Knick had 26 points and 7 rebounds, but his Trail Blazers fell.

By Scott Cacciola

Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images

N.B.A. DECADE IN REVIEW

The Process. The Decision. The Big Three. They Changed the N.B.A.

The league has been upended in fundamental ways over the past decade, from how teams see players to how players see themselves.

By Shauntel Lowe

ON SOCCER

The problem is not V.A.R., but the laws themselves.

Andrew Yates/Reuters

On Soccer

In Premier League, V.A.R. Exposes the Limits of the Laws

A weekend filled with exasperating video reviews showed how the sport’s rule book is simply incompatible with the scrutiny of the replay system.

By Rory Smith

Hannah Mckay/Reuters

Rory Smith On Soccer

A Soccer Decade Defined by Characters

Soccer has changed beyond recognition in the last 10 years, on the field and off, as what used to be a sport has become content.

By Rory Smith

ON BASEBALL

A Yankees pitcher will miss a large portion of the 2020 season.

Elsa/Getty Images

Yankees’ Domingo German Suspended 81 Games for Domestic Violence

The suspension includes 18 games German missed in 2019 while M.L.B. conducted an investigation, so he will be out for the first 63 games of 2020.

By Tyler Kepner

When Baseball Made a Cameo at the Berlin Olympics

In 1936, more than 100,000 spectators were, in the words of one sportswriter, “unbearably bored” by America’s pastime.

By Andrew Maraniss

Gracie Gold Embraces a Rugged Comeback Path

To rebuild her figure skating career after a reckoning with mental health struggles, the Olympian has focused on redefining what success means.

By Karen Crouse

Mark Tenally/Associated Press

Postscript

A Rookie Season in the N.F.L. Filled With Thoughts of a Lost Friend

On the night Corey Ballentine was drafted by the Giants, his college teammate and buddy was killed in a shooting. But Ballentine, who was wounded in the incident, has persevered.

By David Waldstein

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