The traditional role of the commissioner of a professional sport is to serve at the behest of those who own the teams. To listen to the empowered and act upon their desires. They are supervisors, and the commissioner is the chief subordinate.
David Stern set fire to that script when he ran the NBA, probably grinning as it burned.
No commissioner in any American sport has so successfully changed the typical dynamic, forcing slack-jawed owners to do more listening than talking.
For a full 30 years, from 1984 until 2014, Stern was a straight-up boss, walking any way he pleased while carrying a stick big enough to wallop anybody in his path.