Since the mid-1980s, only one person has had more impact on the basketball world than David Stern, and that's Michael Jordan.

Stern has had his hand in nearly every basketball-related decision in the past 20-plus years, and for better or worse, he has made the NBA what it is today.

There are very few sports commissioners throughout the history of professional sports in America that have a squeaky-clean record when it comes to their actions.  Three of the four big commissioners today have overseen work stoppages leading to missed games, and Roger Goodell nearly became the fourth this year.

Still, there hasn't been a more controversial commissioner in the past 25 years than David Stern.

So what is the legacy that Stern is going to leave behind?  Is he an overpowering, egomaniacal, iron-fisted ruler, or a man guiding a league in his own stern, but fair, style?

Well I'll try to clear a few things up, taking note of a few of his major accomplishments and some of his biggest blunders.

5. Accomplishment: Launch of the WNBA

It has been the punchline of a joke more often than it has been praised, but when you think about it, David Stern launching and keeping the WNBA alive for as long as it has been is quite impressive.

There isn't another professional women's sports league in the United States that is anywhere near as well-known as the WNBA, let alone one that actually gets national coverage.

Sure, I understand that the product that the WNBA puts on the court isn't exactly the most appealing type of basketball, and there are probably quite a few rule changes that could fix the league, but it has been around for 15 seasons now, and that has to count for something.

Besides, Stern has said that where the NBA would be subsidizing the WNBA in the past, the league is now making money, something that the NBA can't say right now.

5. Mistake: Seattle Supersonics Debacle

Tell me how much sense this makes.  You are the commissioner of a league that among other things, is dependent on the sale of television rights to make your league work.  Then, for some reason in 2008 you decide to okay the sale of a team in the 14th largest television market to a guy that openly planned to move them to the 45th largest market.  That move either seems stupid or motivated by something underhanded and sneaky.

After the sale of the Sonics to Clayton Bennett and his group of investors, both the city of Seattle and Howard Schultz (their former owner) sued Professional Basketball Club LLC for not making efforts to stay in Seattle and conspiring to move the team privately while publicly saying they were trying to keep the team in place.

Schultz said during the lawsuit that David Stern had contacted him at one point, advising him to settle the lawsuit as Seattle had done, otherwise it would get "very expensive" for him and his partners.

4. Accomplishment: Multimedia Expansion

It seems basic, but one of the easiest ways to get people to see the product you put on the court, you should make media readily available to the public.

Well, David Stern and the NBA got with the information age early, making highlights and clips readily available all over the Internet, ignoring most copyright laws in favor of letting fans see their favorite players more easily.

It seems basic, but Bud Selig and the MLB are still dragging their feet behind the times, as they still don't let televised clips and highlights be published to YouTube.

Hell, the NBA (and the NHL for that matter) is even in talks with Google to stream games live on YouTube, very interesting to say the least.

4. Mistake: Various Conspiracies

From Patrick Ewing ending up on the Knicks, to Michael Jordan's "suspension" and bigger markets just happening to end up in the NBA Finals year in and year out, David Stern just can't seem to shake conspiracy theories.

It all started with the 1985 NBA Draft Lottery, where Stern and his goonies allegedly rigged the draft so that the Knicks would end up with the first pick by creasing the envelope containing their name before it was put into the tumbler.

Aside from that, there are those that think Michael Jordan's leave of absence to play baseball in the mid-90s was David Stern actually suspending him for illicit activities linked to Jordan and his association with gambling.

There were also accusations from the Milwaukee Bucks in 2001 and of course from Sacramento Kings fans in 2002 (even Ralph Nader got involved in this one) and the Dallas Mavericks in 2006 that referees were controlling the games for TV-friendly outcomes or, in the Mavericks' case, David Stern's personal grudge against Mark Cuban.

3. Accomplishment: Skyrocketing Team Values

With the rise of the 24-hour news cycle, the increase in televised games and just the overall popularity of sports, it's no surprise that the value of NBA teams has gone up, but exactly how much have they gone up in Stern's tenure?

Let's take a look at a few teams.  In 1983, after Ted Stepien ruined the Cleveland Cavaliers and a year before Stern took office, Gordon Gund bought the team for $20 million.  22 years later when the Cavs were rising to the top of the basketball world, he sold them for $375 million to Dan Gilbert.

Even Chris Cohan, who paid a ridiculous $139 million for the majority control of the Golden State Warriors in 1995 (some say it was 50 percent above market value) made out like a bandit last year when he sold the team for $450 million.

3. Mistake: 2011 Lockout

I've said since the lockout started that this would be the deciding event of the David Stern era in the NBA. If it goes well he could go down as one of the best commissioners in sports history, but if it turns disastrous, he is going to have a huge blemish.

So far, the 2011 lockout hasn't been a disaster, but it is dangerously close, and the story line is in place to make David Stern look like the biggest villain in this story of villains.

David Stern has threatened to cancel the first two weeks of the season if a deal isn't struck by Monday and then demanded that the Players Association agree to a 50/50 BRI split before another meeting happens.

Of course they aren't going to agree to go into a meeting already giving up a major bargaining issue, so no meeting is scheduled, and none is going to be scheduled before Monday.

2. Accomplishment: Seven New Teams

When David Stern took over in 1984, he was grabbing hold of the third most popular team sport in the country as it was on the rise.

In 1988 and 1989, the NBA added the Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Orlando Magic to its ranks, expanding again in 1995 with the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies, and finally in 2004 with the Charlotte Bobcats.

This not only gives more opportunities for income with more players and games played, but it also expanded the league past the borders of the United States.

2. Mistake: 1999 Lockout

The first time that Billy Hunter and David Stern butted heads in a work stoppage, Stern had a very effective, yet destructive plan.

Stern and the owners dug in, canceled games and waited for the players to stop missing paychecks to get the best deal possible.

The players and owners finally came to a deal in January 1999, forcing the season to be shortened to 50 games, leading to a decrease in television ratings and ticket sales.

If they miss that many games again after having their best season since Michael Jordan was blowing up the basketball world, it could be a complete disaster for Stern's legacy.

1. Accomplishment: Globalization

If you were to rank the popularity of team sports around the world, No. 1 would be soccer, No. 2 would probably be cricket (India is crazy for cricket; they and their 1.5 billion population say it's the second most popular sport), and then third is basketball, but it wasn't that way when David Stern took over.

With Stern as the commissioner, the United States started using professional basketball players in international competition, leading to the best product possible promenading around the world, exemplified by the 1992 Olympic Dream Team.

Around that same time, the league saw an influx of eastern European players (Drazen Petrovic, Toni Kukoc, Vlade Divac, Arvydas Sabonis and Zydrunas Ilgauskas), followed by African, South American and Asian players (Dikembe Mutombo, Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola, Anderson Varejao, Nene and Yao Ming).

This completely opened up Eastern Europe (including Russia's huge population), South America (with Argentina and Brazil being the best examples) and China (and their 2 billion people) to the basketball world.

Hmmm...there are 2 billion people in China?  Yea, I think it was a good idea to market the game there.

1. Mistake: Referee Scandal

What's about the worst thing that could happen to a sport?  Well, pretty much it's what happened to the NBA in 2007.

If it were ever revealed that the men who control what happens in the game, the referees, are being controlled by an outside source, it would hit the fan at that point, right?  Well it did.

Tim Donaghy was arrested in 2007 for his involvement in helping control the point spread of games, at which point he alleged that the league employed many referees who were influenced by the league to do what's best for the NBA.

What made things worse is that Donaghy was a referee at the most controversial series of the past 15 years when the Sacramento Kings lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in a controversial Game 6, eventually losing the series.

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