Former NBA Commissioner David Stern Coaches You On 4 Rules of Business

March Madness is upon us, and college basketball fans everywhere are likely laboring over brackets for the company pool. As you watch your school team play during this year’s tournament, you may be wondering if one of your players has what it takes to be the next NBA protégé.

One person who has seen many athletes become legends is David Stern, the longtime commissioner of the National Basketball Association. By the time he retired in 2014 after 30 years at the helm, he'd grown the NBA into a $6 billion business and overseen countless controversies, scandals, and crises. So when CEOs need advice, they call up the commish.

Last year, I interviewed Stern for the Radiate podcast and asked him to coach me through some tough scenarios. Here are my favorite pieces of court-side wisdom:

When something bad is happening, make decisions quickly.

Some of you might recall this fiasco when Indiana Pacers player Ron Artest stormed into the stands amid a fight between players and fans. The brawl led to the suspension of 9 players and millions in salary lost.

"The idea was…[to] decide as fast as possible—so that the discussion becomes whether I was an idiot or didn't take it seriously enough—and...get the interest away from the players, because they had to go out and play basketball," Stern said.

In other words, when something awful is going on, make a decision so that the focus turns from how bad the situation is to how bad (or good) the decision is. Diffuse by deciding.

Never miss an opportunity to shut up.

"I'm not suggesting I follow it as religiously as I should, but you're more likely to get in trouble for talking too much than not," Stern advises.

Details matter.

I've heard this from a lot of CEOs because it's very true: if you are meticulous about details, you'll almost always succeed.

"Whoever said ‘God is in the details’ is right," Stern said. "You have to be obsessive-compulsive about the details. If you're going to bother doing it, do it. Be open to learning new things, because if you understand the march of history, whatever it is that you're comfortable with and are doing...in ten years it's going to be a big waste of time."

Everything is about sales.

Stern realized that his biggest job as commissioner of the NBA was not managing the owners, setting rules or imposing fines. The biggest job was being the best salesperson for the league. How else did he grow its franchises and global footprint? Every role in a company goes back to sales—how you present and represent your product to the world.

"Everything is about sales," Stern said. "A good lawyer is a salesman and a good commissioner is a salesman."

He didn’t share any of his own picks for this year’s March Madness, but I did appreciate his business advice. I expect that many of you reading this article will too.

Want more business insights from the sports world? Check out this Radiate interview with golfer-turned-entrepreneur Greg Norman:

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