On the morning of January 2, Beijing time, the United States on the other side of the ocean has not yet ended the first day of the New Year, but there is news that makes countless basketball fans sad - the former president of the league, David Stern, died of cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 77.
There are many angles of nostalgia for Stern. From 1984 to 2014, the lawyer-turned-Jewish American ran the league for 30 years, and the most frequently appeared in the NBA draft every summer. The first to shake his hand was the great Hakim Olajuwon, and the last was Anthony Bennett, the most watery figure in history. Yi Jianlian was the only Chinese player to have taken a picture with Stern at the draft, and Yao Ming originally had this opportunity, but on the day of the selection, the Chinese giant failed to appear at the draft.
When he took over as president of the NBA, Stern was just 42 years old, facing a business alliance that had no presence in overseas markets. At that time, the league's annual income was $165 million per year, and the average annual salary of players was only $290,000, and by the time of its retirement, the league's annual income had increased to $5.5 billion per year, and the average annual salary of players had increased to $5.7 million, an increase much higher than the rate of inflation.
From reforming the draft system to make weak teams have a greater chance of winning high picks, to introducing a series of terms that regulate player trade and signing, Stern has deeply engraved his own brand on the NBA, of course, there are also criticisms, such as the dress code that was criticized by players that year. However, when it comes to Stern's contributions to the NBA, none of this compares to his push for the globalization of the NBA. It can be said that without the rapid expansion of overseas markets, especially the Chinese market, the NBA will never be able to achieve such dazzling results at the commercial level. After all, in the United States, the popularity of basketball cannot be compared with football, and it was difficult to even reach baseball for a long time, but whether it is the NFL, NHL or MLB, the achievements in globalization are difficult to compare with the NBA.
In a way, the NBA's success in globalization stems from its success in the Chinese market. This is the largest market for this business alliance outside the United States, and now it is undergoing an unprecedented test because of the "Morey Twitter incident" and the series of undesirable and slimy attitudes of the current president of the alliance, Xiao Hua.
Regarding Stern's exploration of the Chinese market, it is necessary to mention the story of his visit to the CCTV building alone in the late 1980s. Without making an appointment in advance, Stern waited outside in the windy cold for an hour before receiving approval from the Security Service. According to CBA executive Ma Guoli's recollection, at that time, he was like a salesman selling goods, sending his elaborately prepared event highlights to the staff of CCTV, and proposing that he could provide broadcast rights for free.
Some say stern's success is due to the "black and white era" created by Larry Bird and "Magician" Johnson, to Michael Jordan's gods, or to the stars of this century, but if it were not for the platform he built, any of these names could have dimmed a lot.