Earlier this year, David Stern stepped down as commissioner of the National Basketball Association, a post he had held since 1984. Stern’s reign was impressive in a certain way: revenues went through the roof, and he expanded the league into a global juggernaut. Basketball is now the second most popular sport on the planet, as league executives consistently remind advertisers.

But Stern left another legacy, one marked by unmistakable racism.

The league was becoming a hard sell in the 1970s, with many white Americans associating it with flamboyant black players, their afros and creativity a far cry from set shots and pre-shot-clock offenses. The television numbers were so low that, in 1980, CBS elected to air the Finals on tape-delay. David Halberstam notes, “[The NBA] was seen as far too black and the majority of its players, it was somehow believed, were on drugs.”