Some questions, you expect. And for others, you think fast on your feet.

“Why are you doing fringe basketball?”

That was the first question that former NBA Commissioner David Stern asked me when we spoke about the NBA’s early global outreach. He had kindly agreed to an interview for my in-process book, Basketball Empire, on the hidden story of how and why France has become a major pipeline for international players.

Speaking with Stern was more like a back-and-forth, part interview and part history lesson, but I appreciated his curiosity to dig more deeply.  

And before he was willing to present his perspectives and experiences, the former Commissioner wanted to know why I pursued the French storyline. France was not ‘fringe,’ I explained, when you looked at the data: that the United States’ oldest ally routinely sent more young men to the NBA than any other European country. At that time, it was a close call as to whether France or Serbia could claim to have sent more men from Europe all-time, period, with a margin of +/- a player. Today, after Adam Mokoka played his first match with the Chicago Bulls, France perhaps has the stronger case.

The French market in 1984 for the NBA may have indeed been fringe, and Stern went on to explain why it was not on his radar at the time. In the interim years, several events and trends have changed this, particularly George Eddy, who as the television broadcast voice of the NBA on Canal + gave life to an American-style game and hoops culture. When I speak with French NBA players past/present, they all recall first tuning into the NBA and learning about it through Eddy’s commentary and explanations.

After parsing the fringe aspect, I pointed out to Stern that France was still the first country outside North America to start playing the game. European basketball’s “zero hour” was the first game played on the Continent in the Parisian outpost of the YMCA on December 27, 1893.

“And how did it [basketball] get to France in 1893?” Stern asked.

Stay tuned (very soon) for that answer. But this short vignette illustrates Stern’s intellectual curiosity, a trait that fits into the portraits memorializing one of the greats of modern sports (and made for an interesting, dynamic interview).

Stern will be greatly missed, and there’s coverage of him in French media, including by George Eddy, Arnaud Lecomte and the team at L’Équipe, the non-sports press, and the NBA’s Frenchies.