The former NBA commissioner, who ran the league until 2014, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 77. The league saw unprecedented growth during his tenure, thanks largely to his success in marketing players to the media. However, Stern was much less eager to appease the press when he was the object of attention. What follows are the greatest hits of three decades of SI's coverage of arguably the most successful, and mysterious, commissioner in the history of sports.
The first lengthy portrait of the notoriously elusive commissioner, by E.M. Swift in the June 3, 1991 issue, was completed only after another SI writer, frustrated at the lack of access, gave up on the project.