NBA at 75: Transformation during the 1980s

The NBA had enormous problems. Drug abuse among players was believed to be rampant. Many arenas were half-empty or worse on game nights.

Most franchises were losing money. Some were on the cusp of folding. And when games were on television, nobody was watching.

That was how the 1980s began.

The 1980s became a transformative decade for the NBA, which is celebrating its 75th season.

The springboard for much of that growth can be traced back to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, at first rivals who couldn't have seemed more different, then friends who realized they brought out the best in one another.

There were stars in all corners of the country: Julius Erving in Philadelphia, Dominique Wilkins in Atlanta, Jack Sikma in Seattle, and by the midpoint of the decade Michael Jordan was headed to Chicago.

The Pistons watched the Celtics head to the NBA Finals to face the Lakers again with racial issues continuing to divide the country — as they still do.

But the respect Bird and Johnson had for one another demonstrated on a national platform how people of different races and backgrounds can compete, be rivals even, and still coexist.

Pulling it all together for the country to witness was the unconquerable David Stern.

He became NBA commissioner in 1984, inheriting control of a league some in corporate America — and probably regular America, too — thought was too Black, too drug-addled, not mainstream enough to command a significant piece of the sports landscape.

Stern knew for the game to grow, it had to get in front of eyeballs, and the way to do that was television, especially with cable beginning to take root at that time.

The average player salary in 1980 was around $180,000.

By the end of the decade, it was around $900,000. The seeds were planted; today's average salary is around $8 million.

The dollar figures — what teams are worth, what they sell for, what players make — have soared every since.

For unsteady as the NBA's footing was early in the decade, with the influx of talent and Stern's guidance, the league — just like Magic and Larry — did a lot of winning in the 1980s.

IMAGE: AP