"Ask me anything,” David Stern says.
It's a Wednesday morning in August. We're sitting in his new office, 33 floors above Fifth Avenue and five blocks from his old office. Outside, it's so hot that the thermostat has been locked at 78 degrees to conserve energy. In here, however, Stern—76 years old, shirt creased, white hair still parted as if by laser—is unperturbed. If anything, he appears to be in a great mood.
Ask him anything? Where to start? In 30 years as NBA commissioner, Stern led a floundering league to unprecedented growth. Since his departure LeBron moved back to Cleveland, the Warriors became The Warriors, Donald Sterling got the boot, and LeBron left Cleveland again.