The NBA under David Stern

David Stern celebrates his 25-year anniversary as NBA commissioner on Feb. 1. Here is a look at some of the league's biggest developments in the Stern era.

Stern, the son of a New York deli owner, is named commissioner on Feb. 1, 1984. The fourth man to hold the post (after Maurice Podoloff, J. Walter Kennedy and Larry O'Brien), the league's former general counsel and executive vice president soon earns a reputation as the best of the bunch and arguably as the top commissioner in pro sports. ''Nobody, including me, envisioned that this young, bright attorney would have such marketing genius,'' Washington owner Abe Pollin tells Sports Illustrated back in 1991.