SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ We would have no NBA basketball in Sacramento and the Kings would be a relic of the past without the power and influence of David Stern, the former NBA commissioner who died Wednesday after initially suffering a brain hemorrhage in New York on Dec. 12.
Stern was 77 and his loss is mourned deeply and widely because the diminutive, bespectacled lawyer-turned-commissioner is credited with elevating the NBA from a niche league to a global sensation over his 30 years at the helm, between 1984 and 2014.
Sacramento benefited immeasurably from Stern's support when he expertly deployed his formidable levers of authority to rebuff efforts to move the Kings to Orange County and Seattle. That bought Sacramento leaders enough time to recruit a new ownership group that would give NBA owners the option of keeping the Kings in the state capital, which Stern clearly wanted to do.
This years-long effort resulted in the construction of Golden 1 Center, home of the Kings, and the DOCO entertainment and shopping complex around G1C. These are now tangible symbols of Stern's expansive vision for the NBA and of Sacramento's thriving new downtown.
"Sacramento will owe David Stern a deep debt of gratitude for generations to come," said Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
"Without his willingness to step out and believe in us, our city would be missing a major piece of its ongoing resurgence. Thank you does not begin to express what David Stern has meant to our city."
Today, there is a street outside Golden 1 Center bearing Stern's name. That is the address of the arena, 500 David J. Stern Walk.
And throughout the world of sports and business, Stern was known as one of the most effective leaders of a major American brand in the last half-century.
"Commissioner Stern defined the gold standard of being a sports commissioner," said Kunal Merchant, who was chief of staff to former Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson during the years when Johnson led the local effort to save the Kings.
"(Stern) understood the full magnitude of what sports could be in society, in entertainment, in real estate, in technology, in international relations, in philanthropy," he said. "He was a person who was not (tall) and whose life intersected with human beings who were 6-feet-6 or taller, and yet he was a towering figure in whatever room he walked into."
