David Stern Is For the People

Anyone who thinks Stern has lost a step, gotten clumsy about rigging the league or sold out to Republicans and the Chinese just doesn't get it. Well, they sort of get it. He makes a point of trying to reach every plausible demographic, even the ones that require something of a stretch, and even when that means seemingly ignoring the league's base.

At the same time, he's never seemed interested in just banking the future on China or small red state markets like OKC. Nor is he dumb enough to not have recently told Seattle they could have a team some time soon. The dress code and zero tolerance? Those have now been transformed by time into far less draconian policies. And now, here we get the very staged appearance of Stern in an African-American barbershop, communing with the fans that he could easily afford to take for granted, and never attempting to moralize, invalidate their opinions or otherwise dismiss them. He even jokes about Finals conspiracies.

Stern isn't just the consummate moderate. He actually has a lot in common with a certain (currently embattled) American political force, who speaks to all while subtly tailoring his message toward his audience. Obama may like to talk about his play on the court, but in fact, his greatest relevance toward the game might be as a model for how to sell it around the world.

For more NBA coverage, visit SportingNews.com's new NBA blog, The Baseline.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.