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How to become a star basketball player
How to Become a Better Basketball Player
Do you play basketball? Have you ever thought of becoming the best player in the court? This article is here to help you improve your basketball skills and become the best in the game. You have seen the list of the best basketball players in the world.
The likes of LeBron James, Michael Jordan, the late Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and Magic Johnson all started like you. All they had was a dream and no skills. How did they make it? What made them rise to become the best basketball players of their times? Was it their condition, skills, strength, agility, and power?
In this article, we’ll look at the best tips you can borrow to become the best basketball player. Let’s go!
Be fearless
Do not be afraid to fail. It is through mistakes that we learn. Always encourage yourself to beat the records you have set. Do not see yourself as weak or someone who can’t do it. Never mind what your friends, family, or teammates will say.![]()
Try to overcome your fears. Hit the gym, train hard, and go the extra mile to improve your weaknesses. Avoid saying there is a stretch or part you can’t play. Try harder, and in the end, you will notice some good results.
Know your role
Know where you have been positioned in your team. Remember that you are not working alone but as a part of a team. Know your position on the court and acknowledge it. You can’t be everywhere, doing everything. If you are not comfortable with the role you have been allocated, talk to your teammates or coach. Ask for a change to a more suitable position.
By knowing your part, you will put all your skills into it, practice and hone your skills to become the best. Also, understand who is your immediate teammate, your role mate, and what roles your teammates are taking.
Learn and study the game
Always try to learn and practice the game to be the best. There are many resources out there that you can read or watch to become the best basketball player.
YouTube can be an excellent platform for training.
Vertical jumps, especially, can be hard to learn if you are new in the game. Luckily for you, this excellent vertical jump resource has done the hard digging for you, with a review of the top exercises you can utilize to enhance your vertical jumps quickly.
As opposed to most exercises out there that can be faulty, these are known to deliver the right results within a short timeframe. You only need to set your goals and dedicate yourself to them.
You might have the best skills, but without dedication, you won’t succeed. Understand the game and dedicate yourself to becoming an all-time performer.
Give your all
When practicing, playing or training, always try to give your best. Do not look at what anyone else is offering. Just try to be you and give it all you have. Avoid excuses and complaints, and always try to accept criticisms and corrections from your coach or people who are more experienced than you.
Take mistakes as a stepping stone and accept where you are wrong while improving on your weaknesses. Errors enable every individual to enhance, so make them work to your benefit.
Keep improving your skills
Being skilled in a game does not mean you stop acquiring more. Always try to learn from others and also through online platforms. With the advancement of the internet and other learning modules, you can easily acquire new skills even without paying for them.
Remember, in any field, the more you focus on one thing, the more you lose on improving others. It would be best if no skills were left behind. Follow the trends and be updated on every aspect of your game.
Avoid complaints
Do not be a complainer when you lose something. Never blame your coach or teammates when something does not work out. Be responsible and always learn how to fix issues. However, you need to accept that some situations are not within your control and always avoid anger, stress, and bad attitudes towards your teammates.
If possible, always encourage team building to bond with your teammates. Avoid evil thoughts and emotions while in the game. Focus on scoring and give it your best.
There are other tips which you can also borrow that include training both your body and mind, along with developing other capabilities. In this article, we have discussed some of the main aspects of improvement, hoping they will help you in your basketball career. Always try to give your best no matter the situation.
There is much competition out there, and everyone at any time hopes to outshine you. Use the advice provided in this article plus others to make yourself better. Provide your best to be on the top of your game.
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How to Start a Career of a Pro Basketball Player – Sports Ecyclopedia
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Meta Description: Do you want to have a pro career dribbling and shooting a ball into a basket? Read the post and discover how to become a professional basketball player.
How to Start a Career of a Pro Basketball Player
Do you like basketball and want to become a professional player to start a career? Well, the process of becoming a pro basketball player isn’t simple and consists of three crucial parts. Scroll down below and discover how to start a career as a professional basketball player.
A: Training
Doubtless, if you want to become a pro player, it’s not enough to be a good player. You have to be the best. Therefore, you need to train hard and never miss a chance to gain your skills.
Start Early
Professional basketball players who started late are rather an exception. Most pro players started their path from school and college basketball. Therefore, if you’re a student, join a team in your educational institution and start training.
Sometimes it may be hard to combine sports and education. If you don’t want to neglect education to become a basketball star, the question, “Can I pay someone to do my homework online?” will appear in your head.
Feel free to delegate your assignment to professional writers to achieve great results in basketball.
Learn the Rules
For sure, it’s impossible to become a great player if you don’t know all the rules perfectly. To not get fines playing a game, you should spend a lot of time learning the rules. It will also help you understand basketball, both physically and mentally, to know what to expect from a rival’s team.
Have a Good Shape
Basketball is an intense sport, so that your body should be in good shape if you want to become the best basketball player. Do not hesitate to jog every morning, work out in a gym, and jump with a rope to prepare yourself for tough games with professional basketball players.
Play as Frequent as Possible
Experience is one of the most important things that can help you achieve great results. Try to play basketball with different people to discover various playing models and types of players.
Consequently, you’ll have vast experience to smart out other players and shoot a lot of balls in a basket.
In case you’re a student, it may be hard to allocate enough time to play basketball. Therefore, feel free to ask your mates, “Guys, help me with my science homework so that I could play today.” Real friends will support you in your desire to become a professional player.
Gain your Dribbling and Shooting Skills
Mainly there are two ways to throw a ball in a basket. You can outsmart competitors, reach a rival’s team basket, and put a ball into the basket. Alternatively, you can shoot it from a greater distance. Therefore, you should train hard to improve your dribbling and shooting skills to become the one whose name is always first on the table.
Become a Team Player
A lot of players want to shine and always try to put a ball into a basket by themselves. It’s a big mistake, as basketball is a team game. If you want to win games, you have to be a team player and always cooperate with your teammates.
Try never to miss games. In case you have a lot of homework, feel free to delegate it to professionals. To find top-notch essay writers online, ask your friends, “Don’t you know someone who can write my essay for me cheap?”
B: Job Opportunities
Even if you’re an amazing basketball player, you need to use all the possible job opportunities to start a career. Keep on reading the post and discover the most effective ways to start a pro basketball player career.
Create a Video
For starters, you need to showcase yourself. The best way to show your professional skills is to create a short video. You can cut the best moment from your games and combine them in one short video clip. If you don’t have video-editing skills, ask a professional to create an engaging clip for you.
Find an Agent
In case you want to improve your chances of becoming a professional player significantly, you need to find a good agent.
Ask your teammates if they have an agent who can take you on and surf the Internet. Waiting until an agent will contact you by himself is the worst idea.
Get New Connections
Unfortunately, there is no well-planned guide on how to manage your network. However, you can be 100% sure that having a large number of connections will help you find people who can boost your career or share some helpful contacts.
Try To Get Overseas
Don’t explore job opportunities in your area only. Feel free to look for ways to start your career in a basketball club in Europe, Latin America, Australia, etc. It can be the first step on your career ladder to lead to more prestigious clubs in the US.
Final Step: Achieve Great Results
When you become a professional basketball player is not the time to relax. If you want to become a well-recognized player, you need to work hard every day and focus on basketball only. The professional league is highly competitive so that the only way to succeed is to achieve impressive results.
Advice from experienced masters: how to become the best basketball player
Basketball is gaining more and more popularity every year. Today you will learn a few simple guidelines that will help beginners build a path to a real professional. The development and improvement of mastery depends on how much a person can master the skills of independent development in this area.
Physical training is the basis of a good basketball player
All professional athletes, including basketball players, have a good and comprehensive physical development. In order to have an advantage over your opponents in this game, you must develop the following qualities: strength, speed, endurance, agility and coordination.
By training in the basketball section, you are most likely mastering general physical fitness. However, if you train only with the ball, then you will not be able to comprehensively develop your fitness. In order to achieve it, you need to take up other sports.
For example, athletics - it will help develop endurance and speed. Other qualities can be developed with the help of specialized exercises.
Each sport is unique and has a priority of development of one criterion, others, of course, are also developing, but to a lesser extent.
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- There is no limit to perfection. Any, even the simplest technique, can be perfected over the years. Which one to focus on? Pay attention to your own body.
- Athletes must master many techniques with high quality and then try to use them during training games.
- If a basketball player constantly develops his technical skills, then in time he will become a virtuoso.
- You must master your strengths and over time work on getting rid of your weaknesses.
- Do not try to go too far at once, gradually master new movements.
- Beginners should learn the whole arsenal at once and understand where to focus.
- The player can choose his specialization after he has already mastered many techniques. And then choose your style of play.
Master yourself
You must remember that every workout allows you to master your movements more clearly. Do not be lazy, and if there are no valid circumstances, then do not skip classes. The main thing is regularity. Over time, you will develop a habit, and you will not be able to imagine your life without basketball. Get rid of your weaknesses and focus on your strengths.
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Practical tips to improve your game
- Remember that every sport favors muscle elasticity.
Do your best to be flexible. Eliminate the possibility of injury due to lack of flexibility. - Carefully study all the rules of the game. Find out what you can get a foul for, what is dribbling, rebounding, etc. Also, if you have a friend who can pass on some knowledge to you, be sure to chat with him.
- Practice basic movements. Become your own coach, choose a sports ground that you like and train hard on it. Move at different paces, throw the ball into the air and catch it as you move. Practice throws into the ring from different angles.
- Practice with other basketball players. Learn all the terms and definitions and start using them regularly. They should fit tightly into your vocabulary.
- You must be a good friend. Pass often, occupy an open area in order to help another team member who is blocked.
- Come up with new tricks. Start with simple ones and gradually complicate them. Be patient and keep practicing until you succeed. Don't give up, be determined.
- Play at least once every two days, preferably every day. If there is an opportunity to go to the basketball court - by all means use it. Develop tolerance and a sense of devotion to basketball, and then you will definitely achieve certain heights.
- Play with peers. As a player, you need to know how your opponents handle the ball. If you can't beat them, then work harder. After solo workouts that focus on boosting ancillary qualities like speed and stamina, be sure to be the best on the court.
- Focus on dribbling. The only possible way to achieve great success is to be good at dribbling. You may be the most accurate basketball player on the planet, but you won't be a good player if you can't break through the opposing team's defense.
How to become a good basketball player?
- The main thing to remember is that hard work is the key to becoming a great basketball player. A cheerful spirit and self-confidence will definitely contribute to this.
- Remember that clever attacks are key.
- Eat healthy food. During the game you lose a lot of calories, recover well. Eat more protein and plant foods.
- When you play defense, always stand face to face with your opponent.
- Get used to constant interaction with teammates. Develop your signals.
- Remember that basketball is a team game where the team wins, not just one player. If you want to win, then be as united as possible.
- Be friendly and never scold other team members. If you think that you are better than them, then know that arrogance is a terrible character trait.
- You will win favor with the judges if you play fair.
- Earn the respect of your new teammates with a good game.
Top warnings to help you avoid big mistakes
- Never be afraid to throw the ball or attack if you think you're not ready. Also, never show off, let your partners know that you have your place and that you are a useful team member.
- Warm up well before playing. Do a light jog, then joint exercises and stretching. Flexibility while playing is a must. If you get hurt, you will blame yourself for it. So be smart.
- Get rid of stereotypes. You don't have to be tall to play basketball. Everyone can enjoy exercising.
- Do not show aggression towards other players, otherwise you will simply be escorted off the field. Treat your opponents with respect. It is clear that the release of adrenaline makes itself felt, but try to control yourself.
- Do not play basketball in enclosed spaces such as an apartment. The clatter of the ball can annoy your cohabitants. Moreover, you risk breaking something.
Keep your body in good physical shape
Sport involves the development of all physical abilities to one degree or another. To be a good basketball player, you need to keep fit, learn new tricks and learn new things.
Good athletes never miss a workout and constantly develop their skills.
For many sports players, the ball is the meaning of life. Are you ready to sacrifice a lot in order to master it professionally?
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How the NBA started making billions of dollars with David Stern
On January 1, David Stern, the former commissioner of the US National Basketball Association (NBA), passed away. He led the NBA for 30 years in a row - from 1984 to 2014.
His marketing talent and business sense helped pull the association almost out of oblivion, and make basketball players the same world stars as football players and millionaires.
Before Stern's appointment as commissioner, it seemed very real that the NBA would disappear. This basketball association looked very faded against the backdrop of the leagues of American football and baseball. And when Stern retired in 2014, the NBA had annual revenues of $5.5 billion, its broadcast revenues had grown 40 times over $1 billion in 30 years. The NBA had offices in 15 cities outside the United States.
Her games have been broadcast in over 200 countries in over 40 languages. Compare for yourself: how much do you know about American football or baseball, but how much about American basketball?
The attractiveness of the business for investors has also grown. Shortly after Stern's arrival, the Chicago Bulls were sold for $16 million. And after 30 years of his work, the Los Angeles Clippers changed hands for $2 billion. Salaries also increased. The famous basketball player Charles Barkley recalled that in 1984 the average salary of players was $250,000. Now it is almost $9 million. He broke the record of the head of the National Football League, Pete Rozelle, for a year (1960–1989).
From deli to basketball
David Joel Stern was born on September 22, 1942 in Manhattan (New York, USA). His father ran the family's deli, Stern's Deli, where all three of his children worked from childhood. Stern chose a profession far from both trade and sports. First he received a degree in history from the prestigious Rutgers University (New Jersey).
Then - a law degree from Columbia University. In 1966 he joined the law firm Proskauer, Rose, Goetz & Mendelsohn.
David's parents divorced when he was young. Like his father, he became a fan of the New York Knicks basketball team and often went to games with his dad.
Stern himself played for a while, and played well. His height was not basketball - about 176 cm (although, according to the sports website ESPN, he still turned out to be taller than the leaders of other US national sports leagues). “I played for my law firm's team in the New York Lawyers Basketball League. And it cost me most of the cartilage in my right knee,” Stern joked in an interview with The New York Times (NYT).
Being a basketball player is more profitable than being a football player
In the 2019/20 season, Steph Curry, defenseman for the Golden State Warriors, should receive the largest reward among NBA players - $ 40.2 million (the reward is calculated from the forecast of income from basketball activities and is subject to adjustment at the end of the season), writes the author of the blog in Sports.
ru. But even, for example, the 51st number in the NBA rating Malcolm Brogdon from the Indiana Pacers (Indianapolis) should receive $ 20 million. That is, he earns more than such football stars as the striker of the English Manchester City and Argentina national team Sergio or the goalkeeper and captain of the German Bayern München and the German national team Manuel Neuer. Brogdon's name doesn't mean much to the average person, and he's not the only one in the NBA: according to the rules of the NBA, based on its projected income, 51 players should receive at least $20 million this season.
His work as a lawyer also turned out to be related to sports. Proskauer, Rose, Goetz & Mendelsohn represented the NBA. Stern has been involved in several high-profile cases, including a 1970 antitrust lawsuit in which NBA player union president Oscar Robertson interfered with the NBA's merger with rival American Basketball Association (ABA). As a result, the merger had to be postponed for six years - the case in court dragged on until 1976.
It had other important consequences. For example, before the players were actually serfs of the club: they did not have the right to negotiate a transfer to another team, at the same time they could be fired at any time.
How Stern increased the competition
In 1978, Stern was lured to the NBA, where he became general counsel. Then the post of vice president was created for him. In addition to resolving legal issues, he was responsible for marketing, PR, negotiations with television companies and much more.
The NBA star was waning in those years. In the 1980/81 season, out of 23 teams, 16 were unprofitable. The finals of the games were often not live, but recorded, and at an unpopular time - at 23.30. At 1980 a drug scandal erupted. An article in The Los Angeles Times claimed that 40 to 75% of gamblers use cocaine. The press then wrote about the NBA as an association overflowing with black players and drug addicts, Stern recalled in a conversation with ESPN.
As vice president, he entered into negotiations with NBA member clubs to introduce anti-drug tests before games. The NBA was the first sports league in North America to implement this innovation.
In 1984, Stern took over the NBA. Other candidates were not even considered. He was number two in the NBA for several years, and his appointment seemed like a no-brainer. One of his first steps was to help small clubs. Restrictions were introduced on the size of the players' pay fund, which was tied to income from basketball activities (BRI, basketball-related income), and, accordingly, it is different every year. The first time it was $3.8 million per team (in the 2018/19 season- $ 109.14 million, according to the Sports.ru blog dedicated to salaries in the NBA). This somewhat equalized rich and poor clubs—the rich could no longer buy up all the stars who needed to be paid a lot—and led to a new round of rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, which seemed to have faded back in 1969.
Now the system of remuneration of players is arranged according to the principle of soft and hard ceiling, therefore it is permissible to exceed the originally announced limit. But there is an amount starting from which the NBA will have to pay the so-called "luxury tax" - in the 2018/19 seasonthe tax threshold was set at $132.627 million. And finally, there is a hard ceiling that cannot be broken under any pretext: in the season just ended it is $138.928 million. club owners to find a compromise regarding remuneration: basketball players received the right to 53% of the income.
People, not teams
Current NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says Stern was among the founders of modern sports marketing - "one of the people who took modern marketing techniques and applied them to the sports league."
He founded the licensing and sponsorship division of the NBA. Together with its director, he compiled a “dream list” of NBA partners (McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, etc.
) and went on a trip around the country to persuade them to cooperate.
While still a vice president, Stern helped launch NBA Entertainment's basketball-related content division. And becoming a commissioner, he expanded the staff, agreed with video game manufacturers, and in the end, with his participation, a hit appeared - a series of sports simulators NBA Jam (the first came out at 1993).
He decided to promote star players rather than whole teams. If in the 1960s the rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers was a battle of clubs, then under Stern it became the confrontation between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Stern's other star was Michael Jordan, who joined the Chicago Bulls in 1994.
In his first year as commissioner, Stern sold the rights to broadcast NBA games to an Argentinean TV channel for a ridiculous $2,000 a year. Every Sunday in a country where children dreamed of football, they showed that the ball can be dribbled with their hands.
And it has borne fruit. When Argentinean Emanuel Ginobili was a child, he looked at Michael Jordan and thought he was from another planet. Since then, Ginobili has won the NBA championship four times with the San Antonio Spurs, although there had not been a single one of his compatriots in the league before.
Women, Greek and Canadian
David Stern added seven new teams to the NBA, bringing the total to 30. The NBA Women's League was born in 1997 and the NBA minor league for the G League farm clubs in 2001. According to Stern, we need to work with young talents so that there are as many boys and girls as possible who “will start to dribble the ball with their hands instead of kicking it.”
The NBA was a purely American league. And now the title of its most valuable player is Giannis Antetokounmpo, a Greek born to Nigerian immigrants, and the NBA champion is the Canadian team Toronto Raptors with players from three continents.
In 1989, Stern waited four hours in Beijing to meet Chinese CCTV representatives, then persuaded them to broadcast the games for free.
Now 18 million people watch the NBA games in China, and last year the Chinese Tencent and the NBA announced a five-year contract for $1.5 billion.
NBA - and defeated all rivals. That team was called the dream team, and upon their return they were honored, as Stern told the NYT, as if it were the Bolshoi Theater, the Philharmonic and The Beatles put together. “The dream team ignited interest in basketball around the world,” Stern recalled ESPN last year. – Before the Olympics-92 NBA games were shown in about 80 countries, today - in 215.
The following fact testifies to Stern's attitude towards the players. In 1991, Magic Johnson announced that he had HIV and was retiring from playing. The disease in those days caused irrational fear and disgust in society. Some did not want to play on the same site with Johnson, for fear of getting infected through scratches. But Stern launched a whole campaign of tolerant attitude towards HIV patients - doctors came to the players and talked about the disease.
He insisted that Johnson not be crossed off the voting lists for the most outstanding player of the season - and he earned the award. The photo of Stern presenting the prize to Johnson was posted by the NBA commissioner in a prominent place in his office. He also pushed for Johnson to be included in the Olympic Dream Team.
Stern soft and hard
Stern liked to call himself Easy Dave, which can be translated as "easy Dave" and "easily inferior Dave." But among those around him, he earned a reputation as a tyrant. In 2005, Stern became concerned about the image of the players and introduced a dress code. At official NBA events, they were ordered to stick to business attire, abandoning shorts, wide pants, massive chains, bandanas and other attributes of gangsters and hip-hop fans.
This sparked strong protests from players, fans and even African American rights activists. The dress code was clearly infringing on the style that black players were used to. However, it brought a positive effect, Sports.
ru noted: basketball players thought about their appearance, hired stylists, and developed their own clothing style. And, as a result, articles about their life outside the basketball court began to appear more often in the media.
Dress code - yes, it has entered the life of the players. But in another important issue, Stern did not succeed in insisting on his own. In the 2006/07 season, he introduced synthetic turf balls into the game, despite the dissatisfaction of the players: after test drives, they complained that the ball bounced off the floor differently. Already in December 2006, it was necessary to announce that the NBA was returning to the good old leather balls.
Stern was not soft on the guilty. Latrell Sprewell was suspended for the entire season-19 for assaulting a coach during training.97/98 - 82 games. In court, Sprewell's lawyer managed to reduce this period to 68 games, for which the NBA legal counsel received a severe scolding from Stern.
In 2004, during a match, the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers teams fought - first with each other, and then with the audience.
Nine players were suspended for a total of over 100 matches without pay, which resulted in a loss of about $11 million. “We couldn't let the barrier between players and fans break down. This would deprive us of the most accessible game in the world, where you could literally sit on the edge of the court and almost touch the players running past, ”Stern explained. But at the same time, he visited the family of Indiana Pacers player Ron Artest, who was suspended for as many as 86 games at his insistence, and helped his sick relatives get the necessary medical care.
He also interfered in the affairs of teams. In 2011, he banned New Orleans from trading players. For many years, Stern explained this decision briefly in all interviews: “It was in the interests of basketball.” And only two years ago, already retired, he condescended to details: “I offered the best option <...> But [Dell, who was in charge at that time of New Orleans] Demps, turned out to be a lousy general manager” (quoted from Championat.
com). What is a lockout? . The first lockout began in the summer of 1995 and stretched out for two months, but ended before the start of the season. Only the summer fees suffered. The second lockout lasted only three hours in 1996. The third lasted from July 1998 to January 1999, due to which the start of the season had to be postponed and the number of games in it was reduced from 82 to 50. The last one was from July to December 2011 ., due to which the season was reduced to 66 games.
Player income was the key issue. For example, during the 1996 three-hour lockout, basketball players demanded more TV revenue, and the NBA agreed to increase payouts by a compromise amount.
Stern represented club owners during the lockouts who wanted to save money on players, but played more of an intermediary role. Reviews about him were mixed. Stern threatened the players. “I know where the bodies are buried in the NBA — I personally buried some there,” he said, appearing in the locker room of the basketball players during Star Weekend.
True, the cases of his revenge were unknown to anyone, ESPN assures: he was an explosive person, but quick-witted.
"You can't be too nice a guy"
In 1986, just two years after his appointment as commissioner, David Stern interviewed former basketball player Rod Thorne for the position of vice president in charge of discipline. "They say you're a nice guy," Stern said thoughtfully. “Well, at our job, you can’t be too nice a guy.” “There was nothing soft about him,” recalled Thorn, who was hired and served as vice president of the NBA for 14 years. He expected you to do your job. And if not, he will not hesitate to tell you about it. From time to time I listened to similar things, sometimes in very harsh terms. But most of the time [Stern] was right." Stern loved to arrange mini-exams: ask subordinates questions, the answers to which he knew, and if they found it difficult to answer, he gave them a dressing down.
One of the top managers of the NBA admitted that many times he left his job with the thought of being fired.
But at 10 p.m., Stern called, talking about new goals and how great it would be when they were achieved: “And I was ready to go through walls for Stern.”
The permanent commissar was forgiven a lot for his ability to ignite people, and for his ability to foresee the future of sports, and for the fact that he gushed with ideas. For example, in the 1990s a subordinate gave him the idea of holding a press conference about a new deal with Coca-Cola, showing clips on video screens. Stern immediately ordered to figure out how to organize an event in a cinema: on a huge screen, the commercials would look unbelievably better. “You walk into his office thinking you've thought of everything,” the subordinate concluded. “And he says something that didn’t occur to you - and, damn it, he’s right!”
Sociologist Harry Edwards, who studies the characteristics of African American athletes, assured that Stern's reputation among the players only strengthened as a result of negotiations.
But HBO sportswriter Bryant Gumbel called him egocentric and compared his negotiating tactics to the diplomacy of a plantation overseer. Stern himself, many years later, having already retired from the NBA commissioners, publicly responded to Gumbel: he called him an “idiot” in an interview with The Washington Post - another touch to his harsh character.
Season 19 lockout98/99 ended with the victory of the owners of the clubs, who set the maximum salary cap they needed for players, mainly due to Stern's actions, wrote the NYT. He sowed distrust between the players and agents, so that the athletes no longer knew who to listen to.
During the 2011 lockout, club owners were able to increase their share from 43% to 50% of revenues.
But even Stern's opponents recognized his merits. “Stern realized that the game is about the players, and raised their market appeal to such heights as never before,” said lawyer Jeff Kessler, who represented the union in numerous battles with Stern.
“He was a worthy adversary and sometimes a pain in the ass, but I loved him despite all the difficulties.”
Commissioner farewell
As NBA commissioner, Stern made about $9 million a year, according to ESPN. In February 2014, he retired and could have lived an idle and comfortable life. But he is a natural workaholic. He actively advised his successor, taking the post of honorary commissioner of the NBA. He has served as an advisor to investment bank PJT Partners, venture capital firm Greycroft Partners, consulting business PricewaterhouseCoopers, and a number of other smaller firms.
Last November, Thorne, a former NBA vice president, and his wife dined with Stern and his wife. He was in good health and in excellent spirits. But on December 12, Stern suffered a stroke and emergency surgery, which, unfortunately, could not save his life. On January 1, he died at the age of 78. Shortly before his death, he was asked what he would have done differently in the NBA if he had had a chance to work those 30 years as commissioner again.
