Former NBA Commissioner David Stern Passes Away

One of the great minds of the modern National Basketball Association has been silenced. David Stern passed away New Year's Day. He was 77. 

According to reports Stern passed away due to complications from a brain hemorrhage that he suffered three weeks ago. His passing was as sudden as it was shocking, sending shockwaves across the NBA.

Stern was considered by many to be the best professional sports commissioner of the modern era. In a time when Major League Baseball struggled with steroids, the NFL with the Patriots cheating practices, and the NHL with a season long lockout back in 2004 and 2005, Stern's NBA stood apart.

Yes, there were issues. The lockout of 1998 cut the 98-99 season to 50 games. And there was another lockout in 2011 that cut the season to 66 games. And surely Seattle fans are not going to forgive Stern for allowing their beloved Sonics to leave town for Oklahoma City.

 But beyond that, the NBA became a revenue machine under his watch.

He helped make the NBA a global brand around the world, and was commissioner during the league's best decade of the 1990s when the Chicago Bulls were the kings of the sport, and teams like the Knicks, Heat and Pacers just wanted someone to be like Mike.

By the 2000s the NBA had expanded to seven teams, and Stern even helped launch the WNBA.

The cast of characters to play in the sport under Stern's watch is as long as it is legendary. Players like Michael Jordon, Shaquille O'Neil, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant. I could go on and on.

His impact was everlasting.