SWEET SIXTEEN

VIBE salutes the people who defined 2014, a year filled with towering highs and unbelievable lows

Writers: John Kennedy, Adelle Platon, Terrence Watson, Shenequa Golding, Mikey Fresh, Jermaine Hall, Iyana Robertson, Keith Murphy

16. Person: Adam Silver

Personality: Class act with a fearless demeanor.

Year in Review: Former NBA Commissioner David Stern's time had come...a while ago. But he was leaving Adam Silver an NBA league in far greater condition than he inherited it. We'd thought Silver would coast into the gig, learn the ropes, make a few medium-impact decisions.

Then quicker than Chris Paul finds Blake Griffin on a break, the Donald Sterling disaster happened. Silver won everyone’s respect, players and fans alike, when he hit Donny with a life time ban. He followed up his zero racism stance by drafting would-be NBA rookie Isaiah Austin, who was diagnosed with Marfan’s syndrome, a disease that ended his playing career, to the NBA family. Rookie jitters? Silver's never heard of it.