A lot of people on here are genuinely children

He wouldn’t be tougher on the owners. Pablo Torre would be dead though.

People weirdly forget that Stern covered up (and probably profited from) Donaghy‘s gambling operation to run rampant through the league. He would have gotten his cut of the Aspiration money

People remember hearing about how Stern would lower the hammer on anyone for stepping out of line. But that was players. The only time he really ever punished an owner was the Wolves Joe Smith thing, and they literally wrote the rule-breaking down in a contract, which I feel like anyone would have to punish

Also re: Timberwolves, I’m pretty sure the league would have avoided punishing them for that too if they didn’t basically have a publicly available document that essentially said “sign here if you’re doing crime” that they all signed 

Because those people are stupid

THANK YOU! David Stern wouldn’t have done a damn thing because he and Adam Silver work for the owners! They are essential figureheads nothing more!

Based on general demographics of this subreddit I think a significant amount of people were probably under the age of 15 when Stern retired and would not have actively seen how he operated for most of his tenure. They just know that they have an issue with Silver and that means that the guy before him must have been way better because he was a stricter person.

They both suck for various and different reasons. I imagine this post will be removed by mods shortly

Both of them basically work for the owners

He was from the Bronx who’s family had ties with Meyer Lansky, thats why

David stern wouldn’t have let this shit get out and would have iced Pablo and discredited it the second it was mentioned.

David stern didn’t fuck around

I’m one of those people. Willing to throw my opinion in the ring here.

I grew up watching Stern. I spent a lot of time grouchy about how he was too hardline to the rules, and that he was so by the book that it was actually harmful to the league (see, Suns / Spurs playoff series)

As I watch Silver now, I get the sense that Silver is just as concerned as Stern was about the rules, and I don’t think that Stern would have been necessarily “harsher”. I do though, think that Silver has a tendency to absorb and gather information in order to make the most correct decision, whereas Stern felt more prone to quicker action - which sometimes “feels” harsher.

I’m sure that what also plays a role, is that while Stern must have made 1,000 decisions a year in office, the things that he’s most remembered for - the suspensions, the trade vetos - were all very quick and clean decisions, regardless of how unpopular they were. By comparison, the only decision that seems to really fit that profile with Silver, is the most popular one - the decision to terminate the previous Clippers owner over the racist tapes that leaked.

Ultimately - for people that watched Stern, it was very clear that even the appearance of impropriety was enough to get stomped on by the commissioners office. If Silver comes out with a draconian punishment after what appears to be a multi year investigation, then yeah - people will back off. However, if the reporting is true, and this is turning into something that a fucking podcaster seems to be able to crack while actual multimillion dollar lawyers can’t seem to figure out, while also trying to negotiate a punishment with a billionaire who seems insistent on gas lighting the entire NBA ecosystem, then he’s going to get fucking smoked and deservedly so.

Edit - also, just as a point of order - I don’t think it’s plausible to think that Stern wouldn’t have ejected Sterling into space for those tapes had they been released during the midst of his tenure. Stern was categorically obsessed with the professionalism of the sport, and anything that could drag that down was heavily targeted for his ire.

The Commissioner’s job, regardless of era or scandal, is to protect the League’s value. It’s a thankless job that will inevitably be mired in controversy and criticism that they failed to meet the moment.

Every Commissioner who takes the job knows they’re signing up to be “hated” by some segment of basketball fans who demand a higher level of morality than is possible when running a global brand made up of thirty ownership groups and dozens of media and sponsor partnerships.

They don’t like silver because sports commissioners can never be liked. Also I think there’s a slight element of wanting to play into a mobster Mafia fantasy of Stern

In David Stern’s NBA, we never here about this and Pablo Torre disappears under mysterious circumstances

David Stern was a conniving piece of shit. He wouldn’t be any tougher than Silver

The only thing Stern would have done is shut Pablo up, lol.

People confuse Stern being more entertaining at press conferences with him being a tougher commissioner.

Because they didn’t live through it. Stern probably would have found a way to shut down Pablo Torre if anything or sent out the nastiest hit pieces in the media against him possible

if the trees dont grow, you must acquit!

David stern was needed back then. The league was rocky came out and survived multiple allegations, gambling, and collusion. We needed a ban hammer type of guy and he was it.

Adam silver is who we need now. We need someone to make things disappear quietly so long it doesnt affect viewership. If push comes to shove and we have problems again like under Davod Stern then we need someone to Crack heads.

Stern wouldn’t of did anything to Ballmer but he would of laid Pablo out like he did Jim Rome

The Don David Stern would have beaten Ballmer in the back of an alley with a baseball bat. He probably would have put a bullet in PTs head doe.

It wouldn’t be Stern, but there would be a block of old school owners that would be pushing for a punishment of some sort though. I think there was a larger block of owners back then who would view what Balmer did as…not unseeminly or unsportsmanlike…but as a chance to punch one of the other owners in the mouth. I think they were far less likely to protect each other when it comes to what they viewed as screwing them out of something.

They didn’t care about DS racism, because they all were that. They didn’t care about gambling scandle because that didn’t hurt them. I think they would have cared about this because that hurt them or made them look bad/cheap.

People think Silver and Stern own the league, and they heard how much harsher Stern was. The truth is, the same owners Silver works for Stern would. Either would rock a boat that the owners want rocked and neither would rock a boat they don’t

Silver got rid of Sterling which was overdue. But that was over 10 years ago

Evidence. Sterns nba has rules.
Today’s doesn’t

Owners didn’t have as much power in the 80s and 90s because they weren’t uber wealthy. Stern did what was best for the League. Silver serves like Goodell, at the behest of the owners.

Stern would have khashoggied Pablo

Stern offered the fbi investigator a higher paying job during the Donaghy investigation. He would be slurping Balmers gravy today

You don’t seem to know David Stern and his era at all. And don’t understand basic inter-relation of things

David Stern was not supposed to be hard on the owners just like Silver. He was hard on the players. He can careless about a racist owner, but he will sure fine the fuck out of Kawhi Leonard. People only remember the TWolves lost draft picks, but he also voided Joe Smith’s contract and his birds right. Player empowerment is not gonna happen, Ben Simmons will be long gone before all the shit was happening. Anthony Davis trade to the Lakers will be blocked just to fuck with Rich Paul. Uncle Dennis would be arrested under some mysterious circumstances and ban for life from any NBA facility 10 miles in radius.

you’d be surprised at how many people on reddit weren’t even born when Stern was the commish.

Because of recency bias. If I had to guess, most Redditors were only alive for the tail end of Stern’s tenure and don’t know how incredibly corrupt he was.

David Stern was shrewd and he was a lawyer . He knew where the bodies were buried, because in many cases he helped bury them

He acted on behalf of business , on behalf of the league and his image and he was not hesitant when he acted

He was a product of a different time - he was commish from 1984-2014. and was involved with the league even before that.

For all of you think ‘oh no, sterling was racist’, well, if you ejected every owner who was racist you would have a lot few owners in major leagues, and a lot more ex-commissioners as well, as they would have been ejected too, often for overreach. With some specific exceptions it isn’t illegal to be racist.

Sterling was finally ejected by Silver, because he had a player mutiny on his hands. And Silver would have been embarassed as his punishment would not have held up except for 3 lucky circumstances. a) Sterling was going through a divorce b) He had appointed his wife as alternate governor and c) His wife was able to convince the judge that Sterling was senile, and get control of the Clippers and sold it.

he was evul

Ownership of a team is not restricted to Mother Theresas and Fred Rogers of the world.

Stern…just implemented a kinda openly racist dress code

Stern knew his audience and where the money was coming from. And Stern by that code delivered billions of dollars to African American players and kept the NBA popular.

“if Stern was here hed take all the first round draft picks away from the clippers.”

AFAIK, that is against the CBA. Stern was a lawyer who IMHO would have known exactly what he could get away with and what he couldn’t. If there is a loophole in the CBA for punishments, he would figure out if he could or would use it.

Stern was from an era where there were a lot fewer rules about who could do what , had broader discretionary power and had a lot more influence with the owners

And he wasn’t afraid to take on an owner for the good of the league .. Mark Cuban was the new billionaire on the block and criticized the referee publicly. Stern fined him publicly and continuously.

People view Stern through rose tinted glasses, and will do the same with Silver in 20 years, when the next commissioner rolls around. Also, if people believe it’s up to Silver whether to punish Ballmer or not, and not the other 29 owners, they are delusional. He’s just a mouth-piece.

He was stern with the players not the owners lmao

Stern wouldn’t have let this come to light. He absolutely would have allowed it

People get confused because of his name. They think he’ll be stern.

Exactly. People idolize the past for some weird reason. There are people who think that George Bush Jr wasn’t that bad

There’s a contingent of people who are nostalgic for Stern because they were like them, enjoyers of basketball but also vaguely racist and hated the vast majority of the people playing it

Thet’a because Reddit is extremely reactionary. Probably more so than many other platforms. Once a particular idea or ideology starts trending, people who identify with it flock there en masse, and opposing opinions get bashed into oblivion.

That’s pretty much today’s online culture tho Reddit’s facade of open discussion gives people a false sense of objectivity, even though communities can be incredibly tribal and hostile to opposing views

It’s very rare to see meaningful posts or comments NOT downvoted here.

Say what you will about David Stern, but he looked out for small markets. Kings were one foot out the door to Seattle and Stern said “no you don’t”… Sacramento is not a city many stick up for, and he looked out for us.

When the Timberwolves circumvented the cap to sign Joe Smith in 2000, Stern stripped them of 5 consecutive first round picks, voided Joe Smith ‘s contract making him a free agent, and the team owner was suspended.

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he would have covered it up and made kawhi join the Professional Bowling Association for two years.