Whether you view him as God’s gift to the NBA or merely a smug opportunist reluctant to yield power, late Commissioner David Stern should be applauded for the downright “cushy” set-up he’d left in place for his hand-picked successor – a contentious labor negotiation was in the rear-view mirror, and the head of the Association’s biggest embarrassment (Donald Sterling) was left “teed up” for easy disposal when the moment was right, a PR coup waiting to happen.
Alas, I don’t suppose Adam Silver’s enlightened predecessor left him a blueprint for this current set of circumstances … not beyond the “escape clauses” written into that Collective Bargaining Agreement that would render it null and void, anyway.