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If you look at Adam Silver’s background, you wouldn’t think he’d eventually come to lead the NBA, or make it the massive marketing and media powerhouse it is today.
The son of a labor lawyer, he grew up in Rye, N.Y., editing his high school newspaper and running cross-country. He studied political science at Duke University, clerked for a federal judge, and then became an associate at a major New York law firm. None of that would have screamed sports mogul.
But in 1992, when he joined the NBA as a junior staffer under then-commissioner David Stern, Silver quickly rose over a three-decade-plus career from special assistant to chief of staff, to president of NBA Entertainment and finally, deputy commissioner. It wasn’t until February 2014 that he was elected to be the league’s fifth commissioner.
Over the course of his 12-year tenure in the position, Silver brought the league back from what many fans initially saw as a fledging sport struggling to keep up with the growing viewership of the NFL and MLB. The heyday of the entertainment era: (Dr. Jerry Buss screaming, “Showtime!” after giving Paula Abdul her big start probably emphasizes this most prominently) from growing cross-country feuds to the sport taking on a global stage during the 1992 Olympics was largely seen as the height of the sport. Silver, learning from Stern—who brought the NBA from a league where fans would tape delay the finals to a $5-billion-a-year global industry—took that le...
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