STERN SLAM DUNK START TO 2020
David Stern was once a promising lawyer, before he moved to the career in which he made his name: basketball administration. In 1984, he replaced Larry O’Brien as Commissioner of the NBA, an office he held until 2014. Stern managed to take office directly as Michael Jordan become a global superstar, and was able to wean this new found interest in the sport into creating 8 new teams and 28 new basketball arenas across America. He played a hand in recruiting international talent, and founded the Womens NBA. He was also known for publicly backing Magic Johnson after his HIV announcement, who kept his spot in the Olympic Dream Team, and for trying to reduce the risk of infection via specific health and safety measures.
He suffered a severe stroke in mid-December, putting him on the radar of several DDP teams, including Reptile’s B-team and long time DDP regulars The Conqueror Worm.
I’ll be honest, American sports isn’t really my forte. So hopefully there wont be too much winging it like this… wait a minute, I picked an American sports star as my own Pan Breed joker? What the hell was I on?
David Stern
22nd September 1942 – 1st January 2020
Died aged 77 (5 teams).