Larry O'Brien
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Larry O'Brien | |
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3rd Commissioner of the NBA | |
In office June 1, 1975 – January 31, 1984 | |
Preceded by | J. Walter Kennedy |
Succeeded by | David Stern |
Chair of the Democratic National Committee | |
In office March 5, 1970 – July 14, 1972 | |
Preceded by | Fred R. Harris |
Succeeded by | Jean Westwood |
In office August 30, 1968 – January 14, 1969 | |
Preceded by | John Moran Bailey |
Succeeded by | Fred R. Harris |
57th United States Postmaster General | |
In office November 3, 1965 – April 10, 1968 | |
President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
Preceded by | John A. Gronouski |
Succeeded by | W. Marvin Watson |
White House Director of Legislative Affairs | |
In office January 20, 1961 – November 3, 1965 | |
President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
Preceded by | Bryce Harlow |
Succeeded by | Barefoot Sanders (1967) |
Personal details | |
Born | Lawrence Francis O'Brien Jr. July 7, 1917 Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Died | September 28, 1990 New York City, U.S. | (aged 73)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Elva Brassard (m. 1945) |
Children | 1 |
Education | Northeastern University (LLB) |
Lawrence Francis O'Brien Jr. (July 7, 1917 – September 28, 1990) was an American politician and basketball commissioner. He was one of the
O'Brien, son of Irish immigrants, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. When he was not working in politics, O'Brien managed his family's real estate and worked in public relations.
Early life and politics
O'Brien was born on July 7, 1917, in
He was appointed in 1946, 1948, and 1950 by his friend Foster Furcolo to serve locally as the director of his U.S. House of Representatives election campaigns. O'Brien was appointed in 1952 by John F. Kennedy to serve in Massachusetts as the director of his successful U.S. Senate election campaign and, in 1958, to serve in Massachusetts as the director of his successful reelection campaign. Kennedy's elections were largely attributed to O'Brien's recruitment, his use of volunteers, and his insistence upon reaching voters in every corner of every state.
In 1959, he built the foundation for Kennedy's
In 1960, he was appointed by President-elect Kennedy to recruit staff for his administration and subsequently took on the job 1961 as the special assistant to the president for congressional relations and personnel. O'Brien also had a major role in awarding patronage as one of President Kennedy's inner circle of trusted advisers.
O'Brien's grassroots campaign strategies eventually inspired a new trend in Democratic party primary and general election processes, employing his "statewide strategy" as an update to traditional reliance on major city "political machines". As DNC chair he established a control structure for communications with state delegates and "dignitaries" which exists to this day; an achievement which cemented his role as perennial party leadership candidate.
O'Brien accompanied President Kennedy and
O'Brien was appointed as President Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign director in 1964. A newly elected Johnson appointed O'Brien to serve as special assistant to the president for congressional relations and personnel which continued through 1965 when O'Brien was appointed U.S. Postmaster General.
Then in 1968 after Johnson refused to seek the Democratic nomination again, O'Brien reclaimed a position as Senator Robert F. Kennedy's campaign advisor. After RFK was assassinated, Vice President Hubert Humphrey hired O'Brien to serve as his national presidential campaign director.
O'Brien was also elected as national DNC chairman in 1968 on the tails of his Humphrey campaign job. He became infamous during the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago by engineering a series of party convention rule changes which served to exclude Eugene McCarthy delegates from certain roles in the convention and disallowed commentary on Humphrey's Vietnam War involvement. After re-election as chair in 1970, it was in this role that he became a central figure in both the Watergate scandal and the "Eagleton Affair" in 1972.
The DNC Lawrence O'Brien Award was created in 1992 by his family and the Democratic Party leaders to acknowledge the many years of service he gave to the party, his belief in the importance of volunteer contribution, and his role as counter-fixer to Cohn, Stone, and Mitchell et al. In his varied roles during the 1960s and early 1970s, O'Brien defined the role that we now recognize as the modern Democratic Party "Insider": someone who strategically inter-connects national and state party campaign fund-raising and is rewarded with governmental roles in which he then funnels favors back to those funders (not a new concept, but a modern iteration made more challenging by slowly evolving campaign finance laws.)
Government
His first post in Washington was in 1948 as Rep. Foster Furcolo's administrative assistant.
He lobbied successfully during President Kennedy's first year for the expansion of the U.S. House of Representatives
During his tenure as Postmaster General, in September 1967, the Post Office Department cancelled many "mail by rail" contracts, electing to move First Class mail via air and road transport.[1] This had a devastating effect on passenger train revenues and led directly to the end of many passenger rail routes which had relied on mail contracts to supplement their income (see: Railway post office).
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery was named and opened in 2004 in his memory.
NBA commissioner
Appointed commissioner in 1975, O'Brien oversaw the ABA–NBA merger and negotiated a broadcast agreement with CBS Television while seeing game attendance significantly increase. In response to public relations issues after the merger, O'Brien pushed for an anti-drug agreement with the NBA Players Association to improve the league's image. And, although the merger and expansion had solidified the NBA brand and games were broadcast live on weekend days, it still did not have the TV exposure of other pro sports. In the late 70s, and even into 1980 season, CBS was showing only tape-delayed broadcasts of weekday NBA playoff and Finals games after the late news. CBS would ultimately become synonymous with the great NBA Finals battles of the 1980s.
After retirement (1984), in honor of his service to the sport, the NBA Championship Trophy was renamed as the Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy. [2]
O'Brien was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991, located at his birthplace, Springfield, Massachusetts.
NBA career highlights
- Negotiated the New York Nets joined the league and the Kentucky Colonels and Spirits of St. Louis were bought out and Virginia Squires folded[3]
- League grew from 18 to 23 teams (the four ABA teams and the expansion Dallas Mavericks)[3]
- Coordinated the NBA's richest TV contract to date (1982)
- Brought the NBA to cable television (ESPN and USA) in 1982, establishing the league as a pioneer of cable TV
- Negotiated two landmark collective bargaining agreements (1976, 1983)[3]
- Modified the college draft and restored peace to a league in the midst of legal turmoil (1976)
- Introduced salary cap (1983)
- Orchestrated the 1976 settlement of the Oscar Robertson suit, creating a fair and equitable system of free agencyfor veterans
- Annual NBA attendance reached 10 million during his tenure
- Gate receipts doubled and television revenue tripled during his time as commissioner[3]
- Established NBA College Scholarship program (1980)
- Reached a stringent anti-drug agreement with the
- Oversaw the adoption of the three-point field goal in the NBA (1979)[3]
Death
O'Brien died of
References
- ^ RailsWest Railroad Museum - A Teacher's Guide to "A Railway Mail Service"
- ISBN 978-0-7679-0444-5.
- ^ a b c d e f Hubbard, Jan (November 10, 1983). "NBA lawyer likely to succeed O'Brien". The Dallas Morning News. p. 6B.