Ode to Simon Gourdine

He deserves a lasting place in NBA history

Theresa Runstedtler’s latest book, “Black Ball,” devoted a chapter to former NBA deputy commissioner Simon Gourdine, who died in August 2012, at age 72. Gourdine was one of the highest-ranking Black executives in professional sports in the 1970s, and later served as the league players’ union executive director.

As this summer’s sports talk has been dominated by NBA players signing unthinkably huge contracts, one wonders how many really know about Gourdine and what he did decades ago to make such deals possible today.

Simon Gourdine should have been the NBA’s first Black commissioner. Why wasn’t he? 

A former U.S. attorney, the New Jersey native Gourdine was born in 1940. He was brought in by the late NBA commissioner Walter Kennedy, who knew him from his days as a mayor, as an assistant to the commissioner, a high-profile job. He was the first Black hired to such a position in pro sports history. 

Supposedly Kennedy recognized how good Gourdine was and wanted him to succeed him at the league’s top job when he retired. Gourdine worked hard for four years to prove Kennedy right in his choice.

Gourdine “wore many hats in the organization,” Runstedtler explains in her book. He advised Kennedy on all legal matters, reviewed player contracts, did arbitration and grievances, oversaw trades and ran the draft among other things. He also helped negotiate a labor deal that created NBA free agency in 1976, and helped the NBA-ABA merger become a reality.

It would seem natural and expected that he would succeed Kennedy, but he never rose past his second-in-command role as not just one but two White men (Lawrence O’Brien and David Stern) were brought in. One had no sports background, like O’Brien, and the other leapfrogged over Gourdine as Stern did.

“David Stern was on the phone, oh my goodness, so many nights in my home,” recalled Mrs. Patricia Gourdine, Simon’s widow, during a recent phone call. This was when he was employed by the NBA through an outside law firm before he was officially hired by the league. 

After he left the league in the mid-1990s, Gourdine worked as New York City consumer affairs commissioner, then Rockefeller Foundation secretary, then labor relations director for the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He was hired by the NBA Players Association as their executive director.  

Gourdine later negotiated a tentative long-term collective bargaining agreement in 1995 that helped avert a players strike, and the union executive board awarded him a new two-year contract. But the player reps rejected the deal and Gourdine was fired in 1996. He later got nearly $900,000, thanks to an arbitration panel.

He went on to serve as general counsel for the NYC Board of Education, then NYC deputy police commissioner for four years, and then chaired the city’s civil service commission.

In her book, Runstedler suggests that perhaps the main reason why Gourdine never got the NBA commish job was because the league’s all-White team owners couldn’t fathom a Black man at the top. We asked her why the Black players, who were becoming more vocal at that time, for the most part didn’t fight more on Gourdine’s behalf.

“He was part of management,” said the author and American University professor, purporting that the Black players, not all but a significant few, didn’t trust Gourdine despite him looking like them. “He would actually be somebody who would support their interest,” added Runstedler.

Many believe Gourdine should have gotten the job, including her husband, said Mrs. Gourdine. “That was the natural progression.” 

“He’s somebody who should have a place in NBA history,” said Runstedler on Gourdine’s historical significance to the league.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to say he was a first,” added Patricia Gourdine. “He was the deputy commissioner at the NBA, and he was there for 12 years. That is a big legacy.”