he completely transformed the NBA into what it is today. sad day for the NBA unless you're a lakers fan although i'll never forgive him for vetoing the cp3 trade
He did a lot of good things guiding the league into the current era. I also found him arrogant and most likely dirty. I'm glad he had the foresight to groom someone as an apprentice who could eventually succeed him. Silver seems to have learned some great lessons along the way, but also is very independent in his thinking.
Pretty much sums up my thoughts. He was a great businessman who brought the NBA to new heights (with the help of Magic, Bird and MJ of course). But we can't just gloss over the fact he was crooked and ruled the league at times like a dictator. Great business man, but a questionable person at best.
some kind words: Turns out Sonic fans hate him and feel like they were misled by the OKC purchasing group (Probably were). They did a 100 million taxpayer funded renovation of Key Arena and the team was gone in 10 years.
basketball reasons was a terrible decision that nearly killed his golden goose. bet he wanted that one back. giving the 2006 heat the title was pretty bad, too. didn't like his public persona at all. maybe he was nice to people that knew him better?
I of course always hated him for "Basketball Reasons". With as much as I have come to hate Chris Paul over the years since, that is coming around full circle to possibly "Thanks David". Certainly if he carried the same flopping and a-hole personality to the Lakers. Am pretty positive, from his own words on the subject, Kobe would have just shut him down with the flopping but he probably would have welcomed a 2nd a-hole personality toward the opposition and all those skills.
not to derail, but cp (not the other flopmaster) was the reason the rockets challenged golden state, and he's currently dragging okc's corpse of a team to the playoffs, too. we would have been in so much better shape had he been here. probably still would have lebron anyway, too. still mad now, even with the team being in good shape. there was no reason the lakers needed to suck for 7 years.
yeah, stern vetoing that trade pushed this franchise back an entire decade pretty much if the lakers get cp3 in that deal they still would have been able to trade for dwight (who most likely would have wanted to be a laker with cp3 being there.) a lakers team with cp3-kobe-dwight would have been a perennial title contender. instead, stern vetoes the deal and the lakers panic and end up trading a sh** ton for 40 year old steve nash and acquiring dwight who never wanted to be in LA. obviously if nash hadn't gotten hurt right away and d'antoni hadn't destroyed kobe that team might have been able to reach the finals but who knows the biggest mistake the lakers made in that time was holding onto pau for too long and letting him walk for nothing. he should have been dealt right after the canceled trade like LO did
