The Stern Years: 1984-2014

By Evan Weiner

David Stern began his association with the National Basketball Association in 1966. The NBA of 1966 will never be confused with the NBA of February 1, 2014 when Stern retired after a 30 year reign as National Basketball Association commissioner. The NBA of 1966 still featured games played in non NBA city where a promoter threw a bunch of money at two teams and told the team owners come to our city and play. In the Stern NBA, that also happened but games played in on NBA cities where in places like London and Beijing. When Stern became the NBA Commissioner in 1984, the league was trying something new, a salary cap to rein in salaries and drug testing for players. The salary cap wasn't exactly new, it was tried decades earlier, the drug testing was new and was done partially to appease critics who thought the league was too black with too many drug users. By the end of the 1980s, the NBA was "fan-tastic" not because of Stern's brilliance as a marketer but because David Stern was smarter than everyone else in that he was able to use Michael Jordan's marketing team, some federal law changes and Ted Turner opening the door to the Soviet Union to grow his business. It worked and by the time Stern retired, basketball was the second most popular sport in the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evan Weiner
• Release date: Aug 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311216366

Evan Weiner

Evan Weiner is an award winning journalist who is among a very small number of people who cover the politics and business of sports and how that relationship affects not only sports fans but the non-sports fan as well. Weiner began his journalism career while in high school at the age of 15 in 1971. He won two Associated Press Awards for radio news coverage in 1978 and 1979. He was presented with the United States Sports Academy's first ever Distinguished Service Award for Journalism in 2003 in Mobile, Alabama. Advisor to the SUNY Cortland Sports Business Management Program. The United States Sports Academy's 2010 Ronald Reagan Media Award.He is the author of 14 books ,From Peach Baskets to Dance Halls and the Not-So-Stern NBA, America's Passion: How a Coal Miner's Game Became the NFL in the 20th Century, The Business and Politics of Sports -- 2005, The Business and Politics of Sports, Second Edition -- 2010 and 2014 Edition: The Business & Politics of Sports. The Stern Years: 1984-2014. The Politics Of Sports Business 2017, I Am Not Paul Bunyan And Other Tall Tales, The Politics of Sports Business 2018: Politicians, Business Leaders, Decision Makers, And Policy, The Politics Of Sports Business 2019, COVID-19 Edition: The Politics Of Sports Business 2020, The Politics Of Sports Business 2021, The Politics Of Sports Business 2022 and The Politics Of Sports Business 2023.He has been quoted in 25 other books and his words were read into the United States House of Representatives Congressional record: July 14, 2004 - Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eighth Congress, second session.He was been a columnist with the New York Sun and provided Westwood One Radio with daily commentaries between 1999 and 2006 called "The Business of Sports." He has also appeared on numerous television and radio shows both in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. He has been on msnbc, CN8 and ABCNewsNow.He has written for The Daily Beast about the politics of the sports and entertainment business and has a daily video podcast called, The Politics of Sports Business.Evan speaks on the business of politics of sports in colleges and universities as well as on cruise ships around the world.In 2015, Evan was featured in the movie documentary "Sons of Ben", the story of how a group of fans got a Major League Soccer team in the Philadelphia, PA market.Evan can be reached at [e-mail], https://www.facebook.com/evanj.weiner and @evanjweiner on twitter.

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