J. Walter Kennedy

• 1. Introduction

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  J. Walter Kennedy ran the National Basketball Association for twelve years, from 1963 to 1975, and in that span the league went from nine struggling teams to eighteen. When he took over, there was no television contract, attendance was sagging, and the NBA faced competition from the American Basketball League. By the time he retired on the 31st of May 1975, income had grown by 200 percent and attendance figures had tripled. That kind of transformation does not happen by accident. It raises a question worth sitting with: how does a man who contracted polio as a child, who could never compete in sports himself, end up becoming the most consequential steward in the NBA's early history?

• 2. A Fan Who Could Not Play

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  Kennedy was born on the 8th of June 1912 in Stamford, Connecticut, to Lottie and Michael Kennedy. Polio arrived early in his life and left him with a disability that kept him off the playing field. For most people that would be the end of a sports career before it began. Kennedy turned it into something else entirely. He channeled his love for the game into coaching and administration, working as a high school coach and athletic director at St. Basil's Preparatory School in Stamford during the late 1930s. He married Marion McRedmond in 1940, and they had three children: David, Robert, and Kathleen. His alma mater, Notre Dame, later called him back to serve as its Sports Information Director, a role that suited the communications gifts he would spend the rest of his life refining.

• 3. The Globetrotters Years

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  Before he ever sat in a commissioner's chair, Kennedy spent much of the 1950s traveling the world as Publicity Director for the Harlem Globetrotters. That global tour gave him a feel for basketball as spectacle and for the business of putting fans in seats. He also moved through a pivotal moment in professional basketball's organizational history, working as Public Relations Director for the Basketball Association of America just as that league merged with the National Basketball League to form the NBA itself. When he came home to Stamford, the city elected him mayor in 1959. He held that office until NBA owners elected him president in 1963, making him one of the very few people in American sports history to step directly from elected public office into the top job of a major professional league.

• 4. An Iron Hand at the Top

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  Succeeding Maurice Podoloff, the NBA's first president, Kennedy made clear from his opening weeks that the era of leniency was over. He fined Red Auerbach $500 for rowdy conduct during a pre-season game in 1963. That figure was, at the time, the largest fine ever levied against a coach or player in NBA history. It was a deliberate signal. Kennedy's title was formally changed from president to commissioner in 1967, but the authority he carried had been evident from day one. He also upheld the first protest ever filed in the NBA, ruling in favor of the Chicago Bulls after their 1969 game against the Atlanta Hawks, a contest that came to be called the Phantom Buzzer Game. Both decisions, the fine and the protest ruling, showed a willingness to make unpopular calls when the rules demanded it.

• 5. Building the Modern NBA

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  Kennedy inherited a league that was fighting for survival on multiple fronts. The American Basketball League had folded just before his tenure began, in 1963, and the American Basketball Association would not cease operations until right after he stepped down. Holding the center through those years of rival leagues required steady management. The television contract he secured changed the financial architecture of the sport. Nine teams grew to eighteen. The 200 percent income growth and the tripling of attendance were not abstract metrics; they represented cities, arenas, coaches, and players who now had stable employment in a league that might otherwise have collapsed. Kennedy served on the Board of Trustees of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for 13 years, two of which he spent as the Hall's President, and he worked to bring an annual NBA game to Springfield to benefit the institution.

• 6. Community and Legacy

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  Kennedy's public service extended well beyond basketball. He was involved with the Special Olympics, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and Boys' Town of Italy. The NBA created the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in his honor, presented annually to a player or coach for outstanding community service. Past recipients named by the league include Julius Erving, Earvin Johnson, Bob Lanier, Reggie Miller, and Glenn Rivers. Kennedy was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1981. In Stamford, Westhill High School's sports complex carries his name as the J. Walter Kennedy Sports Complex. He died on the 26th of June 1977, shortly after his 65th birthday, of liver failure following a brief bout with cancer. Howard Cosell delivered his eulogy, and mourners at the funeral included the Governor of Connecticut Ella Grasso, Willis Reed, NBA commissioner Larry O'Brien, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. He is buried at St. John's Cemetery in the Springdale section of Stamford, the city where his story began.