Do you really care how much money David Stern makes? Does anyone watch or not watch a sport based on how much money a commissioner makes?
The public relations battle about David Stern’s salary is all about perception. It’s about the battle for the hearts and minds of the public during an increasingly testy lockout. Right now the two sides are engaged in the “paint the other side as Satan” portion of the negotiations. The actual negotiating comes later. (Hint to both sides: if the lockout reaches the regular season nobody wins the PR battle, everybody loses.)
But back to Stern’s salary. We discussed before how it was rumored that David Stern was making big money — upwards of $20 million a year, at least $15 million. However, during the lockout he is not taking any salary.
Now come reports that Stern’s salary is a lot less. He makes less than baseball’s Bud Selig or the NFL’s Roger Goodell, which means he would make less than $10 million a year.
So to sum up, David Stern makes huge sums of money each year. Maybe less than is reported, but almost certainly more than the average NBA player ($5.2 million last season). I’m not sure you really care — you care about the lockout getting solved, but not Stern’s paycheck — but there you go.
