I’ll give Stern his props for being about his MONEY, and helping these guys get paid. That’s the bottom line. The league did experience numerous lockouts with him. The NFL was bigger in the 80s and 90s, than the NBA.
I didn’t like the CP3/Lakers fiasco. And, he did help take the NBA global. He’s had his good and bad moments. The dress code fiasco was blatant though. You can’t have it both ways. Those Pistons fans did cross the line.
His marketing was otherworldly, for the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. But nowadays with the advent of social media, etc. and the world being connected, there’s no such thing as marketing. Everything is accessible.
But the fact that he HELPED these guys get money and maximize themselves, I’ll give props