Adam Silver on Saturday formally succeeded David Stern as NBA commissioner, with the league posting a photo on its Twitter account showing Silver holding a basketball and being congratulated by his predecessor. Silver is the fifth commissioner in league history.
Stern stepped down exactly 30 years after holding office as NBA commissioner. He is the longest serving commissioner in league history and arguably its most successful.
"It is a source of great satisfaction to me that the NBA will now be led by Commissioner Adam Silver, for whom I have tremendous admiration, respect and expectations as he and his experienced and dedicated team take the NBA to successes that were unimaginable even a short while ago," Stern wrote Friday in a thank you email to media members as reported by ESPN.com.
Silver was Stern's assistance since 1992 and became deputy commissioner in 2006. On October 25 last year, Stern announced his retirement and team owners unanimously picked Silver to become his successor. As an indication of a new era in the NBA, the league will now use balls that bear Silver's signature as commissioner.
As ESPN reports, Silver is similar to Stern's root having been involved in the legal profession before joining the world's biggest basketball league. He was the league's lead negotiator during the collective bargaining negotiations in 2011.
League owners say Silver has become more than a deputy during his years with Stern.
"It's been David's show. Even up to the last meeting. But there has never been a question whether Adam was involved in every important decision," Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wrote in an email as reported by the website.
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