The man hasn’t even finished his first full season as an NBA commissioner, he hasn’t even made it through a calendar year as a commissioner and the NBA’s Adam Silver has been named the most influential figure in sports business by SportsBusiness Daily.
Fittingly the only athlete named on the list is Cleveland Cavaliers former MVP, All-Star LeBron James. He is ranked number 26 by the list along with his owner, Dan Gilbert.
Here’s the full list from SportsBusiness Daily.
1. Adam Silver, NBA
2. John Skipper, ESPN
3. Robert Kraft, The Kraft Group
4. Bud Selig / Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball
5. Roger Goodell, NFL
6. Sean McManus, CBS Sports
7. Ari Emanuel / Patrick Whitesell, WME-IMG
8. David Levy, Turner Broadcasting System
9. Gary Bettman, NHL
10. Brian France, NASCAR
11. Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Group
12. Randy Freer, Fox Networks Group / Eric Shanks, Fox Sports
13. Steve Ballmer, Los Angeles Clippers
14. Mike Slive, Southeastern Conference
15. Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys
16. Tim Finchem, PGA Tour
17. Mark Parker, Nike Inc. / Trevor Edwards, Nike Brand
18. Phil Anschutz, AEG
19. Don Garber, Major League Soccer
20. Casey Wasserman, Wasserman Media Group
21. Kevin Plank, Under Armour
22. Jim Delany, Big Ten Conference
23. Stan Kroenke, Kroenke Sports Enterprises
24. Michael Levine / Howard Nuchow, CAA Sports
25. Bob Bowman, MLB Advanced Media26. Dan Gilbert / LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
27. Larry Baer, San Francisco Giants
28. Peter Holt, San Antonio Spurs
29. Scott Blackmun / Larry Probst, U.S. Olympic Committee
30. John Henry, Fenway Sports Group
31. Indra Nooyi / Adam Harter, PepsiCo
32. Bob Bowlsby, Big 12 Conference
33. Ted Leonsis, Monumental Sports & Entertainment
34. Jeff Pash, NFL
35. Michele Roberts, National Basketball Players Association
36. Joe Leccese, Proskauer
37. Jorn Socquet / Lucas Herscovici, Anheuser-Busch InBev
38. Bill Daly, NHL
39. DeMaurice Smith, NFL Players Association
40. Tom Long / Andy England, MillerCoors
41. Mark Emmert, NCAA
42. Judge Claudia Wilken, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
43. Don Fehr, NHL Players’ Association
44. Mark Tatum, NBA
45. Sandy Douglas / Sharon Byers, Coca-Cola North America
46. Brian Rolapp, NFL
47. Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks
48. Tony Clark, MLB Players Association
49. Sunil Gulati, U.S. Soccer Federation
50. Harvey Levin, TMZ
Congrats to Commissioner Adam Silver, who in his short tenure has overseen the horrible media scrutiny from Donald Sterling, to overseeing Sterling’s exit and then getting the over $2 Billion dollar sale to Steve Ballmer of the Clippers. Of course, you can’t forget the new deal struck for their TV deal with Turner Sports and ESPN for over $24 billion dollars that goes in affect in 2016.
