NBA: Commissioner Plans to Step Down

October 26, 2012 - 10:17 am | Category: Sports

The NBA will have a new boss in 2014. On Thursday, David Stern announced that he’s stepping down and he’ll pass the baton to his long-time protege Adam Silver.

Silver is far from a stranger to Stern and the league. He’s been Stern’s right-hand man for two decades and the pair has known each other since the early ’70s, back when Stern worked for a law firm run by Sliver’s father. Yet people that know both men say we shouldn’t expect the 50-year-old Silver to run the league like Stern.

Sonny Vaccaro, a one-time executive at a major shoe company, said, “They are absolutely two different people. David was thought of as someone who ramrodded his way through with his ideas. David is his mentor, but Adam’s not like that. He’s ‘Mr. Congeniality.’ I seldom saw an argumentative piece of Adam’s personality.”

Stern plans to retire on February 1st, 2014, which marks the 30th anniversary of this first day on the job.