David Stern was deep into his third decade as NBA commissioner when Stephen Curry showed up at the Warriors’ doorstep in the summer of 2010.
They were icons who passed in the night, two towering figures who in their own right shaped and re-shaped what we now know as the postmodern NBA — Stern by growing the league into a global behemoth, and Curry by stretching the court with his sharp-shooting brilliance.
From appearances, they couldn’t have been more different. The Washington Post, in its obituary on Stern, who died Wednesday, described him as an unathletic 5-foot-9.