Stern, who joined the NBA in 1978 as general counsel and became commissioner in 1984, discussed how this leadership principle helped the league overcome some of its early struggles.
“What people wrote about us is that we were too black. We were too drug-infested. Our players were too highly paid. And so we fell into every stereotype that you could possibly imagine,” Stern said. He referenced a Boston Globe journalist who “had the audacity to believe that our league was doomed because America would never accept a black league.”
To combat this, Stern focused the organization on a single idea: basketball is a great game. “In the face of the press, in the face of the media showing our empty seats, we focused on our product. We focused on the talents of our players. And we focused on America. It sounds corny now, but we said, ‘It can’t hold. America’s too good for this.’”
Leadership, Stern said, is ultimately defined by how you manage change and respond to crises. He described several significant changes to occur during his time as commissioner:
- The rise of sports marketing. “Michael [Jordan] did wonderful things on that front, and suddenly everyone was involved in sports marketing. To get a sponsor to spend behind your product and promote your player with his uniform on and your brand equity is an acquisition that you couldn’t possibly afford to make yourself.”
- New arenas. If the Nets move to Brooklyn as intended, all of the league’s buildings will have been built or dramatically renovated since 1987. “We had bigger buildings and higher prices, and our revenues were going straight up,” Stern said.
- Television and media. When Stern negotiated the league’s first cable deal in 1979, there were only four million cable subscribers in the U.S. “Now we have NBA TV, our own digital network, we have NBA.com. We weren’t the first to do each of those; we were the second. We don’t mind being second. We want to see what’s going on and then move into it.”
- Globalization. “We’ve just enjoyed enormous growth” since NBA players became eligible for the Olympics, Stern said. He cited the NBA’s opening of offices in Milan, Istanbul, Madrid, Paris, London and China as evidence of basketball’s global reach. He also discussed a new joint venture with the Anschutz Entertainment Group to build and manage arenas in China.
“My conclusion is, as it always is: enjoy it if you get lucky,” Stern told the students. “And we’re pretty lucky. We work in a great industry, we have an impact on people’s lives, and every year there are new players. We’re constantly refreshed. The changes in the world are our friend.”
Photo courtesy of Columbia Business School
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