Departing Stern’s legacy: ‘real friend of Las Vegas’

David Stern’s 30-year reign as NBA commissioner ended Friday, and among his numerous accomplishments was incorporating Las Vegas into the league’s ventures despite his anti-gambling stance.

The city has hosted preseason, regular season and even a 1992 playoff game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland. The 2007 All-Star Game was played at the Thomas &Mack Center. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke the league’s scoring record here in 1984 when the Utah Jazz played part of its home schedule at the Thomas &Mack.

The Vegas Summer League morphed into a popular destination for players, owners, executives and fans. And USA Basketball established a summer home in town that prepared it for consecutive gold-medal runs in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. In addition, both Los Angeles NBA franchises, the Lakers and the Clippers, stage annual preseason games at MGM Grand properties, both of which have sports books.

Stern “became a real friend of Las Vegas,” Las Vegas Events president Pat Christenson said. “The fact he embraced the All-Star Game and allowed it to open the door for other basketball events is a big part of our current landscape with the summer league and Team USA.”

Former Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman spent most of his 12 years in office trying to convince Stern to put an NBA franchise in the city. He may not have succeeded, but he was able to convince Stern that Las Vegas was a good place for the league to do business.

“He was anti-gambling at first,” Goodman said. “But at the end of the day, he came to see the city for what it is, a good place with good, hard-working people who supported basketball and supported the NBA. And once he saw how we regulate gambling here, I think it put a lot of his fears to rest and he embraced Las Vegas.”

Goodman said it wasn’t easy to convince Stern to see things his way.

“I was like a little dog nipping at his heels,” Goodman said. “But he’s a very smart man and a very fair man. And when he brought the All-Star Game here, it was a game-changer for the city. He said if the owners wanted to put a team here in Las Vegas, he wouldn’t stand in their way. That was big.”

While All-Star Weekend was fraught with incidents in some hotels, restaurants and clubs, most notably the shooting incident at a strip club, the events the NBA could control went off without a hitch.

In the aftermath, the league lent its support to the Vegas Summer League and helped it grow from six teams 10 years ago into 24 teams in 2012, and last year it averaged more than 5,000 fans per session over 10 days. Warren LeGarie, the summer league’s founder who has partnered with the league and continues to oversee its annual operation, said Stern should be praised by Las Vegas.

“Without his blessing, none of it happens,” he said. “Growing the game is a big part of his legacy, and Las Vegas is a part of that growth, no question. It has become the center of the pro basketball universe every summer.”

Stern’s support of allowing players to participate in the Olympics beginning in 1992 with the “Dream Team” paved the way for USA Basketball to grow its brand and establish summer residency in Las Vegas. Team USA has trained in town every year since 2005.

And with Stern’s departure, Las Vegas doesn’t lose a friend. Instead, it gains perhaps an even stronger ally in Adam Silver, who begins his tenure today as commissioner.

“Adam is the perfect guy to succeed David Stern,” Goodman said. “They’re different personalities, but Adam will do great things for the NBA and he sees Las Vegas as a good place.”

Christenson agreed.

“We want a commissioner who will embrace the city, and Adam is someone who is a friend of Las Vegas,” he said. “He understands what we’re about, and he’s very supportive. We have a great relationship with Adam, and we look forward to working with him for years to come.”

Contact reporter Steve Carp at 702-387-2913 or scarp@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @stevecarprj.