He is allowed to be a fan again, which makes David Stern’s sacred task Friday night so enjoyable. Always, hidden beneath the professional veneer and the formal burden of the commissioner’s office was the kid who used to sit in the blue seats, those 50-cent tickets acquired via the G.O. card that served as a Garden gateway for so many city kids.
His years helming the NBA, he was forced to take up other rooting interests.
“I would go to games and root for the referees, rooting that the game wasn’t determined by a missed call,” Stern says.