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According to reports the face of the NBA will be stepping down in the middle of next season. What’s that you say, Michael Jordan retired ten years ago? Negative. I am speaking of the man who arguably revolutionized the game of NBA basketball and made it a global phenomenon (still not talking about Jordan): Commissioner David Stern.

Stern, who has been on the job since 1984 (the first year of the modern draft lottery) announcing, meeting and greeting NBA stars of tomorrow via the NBA draft, will call it quits on February 1, 2014. Stern has not only clashed with the NBA’s best athletes, but he has survived lockouts, turned the NBA from not being able to get the championship game (see: NBA Finals) on primetime television to a $5 billion a year industry, and spearheaded the movement for NBA players to take part in the Olympics (i.e. The Dream Team). He has been widely recognized as the best commissioner of the four major American sports yet it will all be over exactly 30 years to the day from the time he took over the league.

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Why has Stern decided to step down? “I decided that things are in great shape and there’s an organization in place that will ultimately be led by Adam that is totally prepared to take it to the next level,” Stern said Thursday (October 25) during a press conference following the league’s board of governors meeting. “Adam” is Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver (pictured above right, the guy with the glasses at the NBA Draft who takes over for Stern after the first round ends) who will assume Stern’s duties.

Are you going to miss David Stern when he retires?

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