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The biggest ego in the history of the sport, the emperor of the NBA gets everything he ever wanted now: 15 months of farewells and bows; a tidy 30 years to fit onto his Hall of Fame plaque; and a chance to repair and repackage a legacy that NBA commissioner David Stern had slowly, surely lost the power to manipulate.



For all the public proclamations, here's been the overwhelming league response to Stern's decision to leave the job on Feb. 1, 2014: a long, exasperated sigh, and a wish that his successor, Adam Silver, would be taking over sooner.

Stern still has work to do; promoting the work of David Stern. Here comes his victory tour, the tender one-on-one sitdowns, the testimonials, basketball's favorite fable and bedtime story about how Stern made Magic and Bird in the 1980s, Jordan in the '90s, about how no one else ever would've landed big, fat television deals for people to watch them play basketball.

Stern has been an excellent, opportunistic businessman. He did not inspire those under him, but ruled them with fear. He's shown a good heart, too, advocated social change for greater goods. Through it all, Stern reveled in the intimidation of league office employees, referees, general managers, coaches and players. Most thought that's why Stern would stay on the job forever, because he seemed to get such pleasure out of it.

These 15 months aren't about Silver's transition into the commissioner's job, but Stern's elevation into the sport's almighty. Why now? After the world found out how Stern controls whose voice will be heard on his state-run television, he changed the conversation from people ridiculing his petty, self-centered management style to people exulting his vision.

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After controlling NBA executives and the most influential of opinion shapers for so long, the truth about Stern – his volcanic temper and bullying and vindictiveness, the preferential treatment for his personal pets, the processes and protocols pushed aside to mete out justice and injustice, the manipulations of franchise and player movement, the heavy-heavy handed involvement in officiating – finally had found its way into the NBA's reporting and records.

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Between now and his departure, Stern is determined to get a franchise back into Seattle, league sources said. He has become a strong ally of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's group to bring back the NBA there. Ballmer's group has been trying to get the Maloof family to sell the Sacramento Kings, so that the franchise can eventually play in a new arena in Seattle.

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