David Stern gathered about eight attorneys in the NBA's offices high above Fifth Avenue in New York. This was in the 1990s, and by then even the most distinguished men and women in the league's employ knew the commissioner was capable of making them feel small when he was in the mood.

Stern was in the mood on this particular day because something had gone wrong. Though he could be a compassionate and generous ruler, Stern often embraced a zero-tolerance policy for subordinates who allowed things to go wrong.

"We've got 26 lawyers," he shouted, "and I've got to do everything. You guys can't do s---. I've got to write everything for you. I've got to do it all!"

Stern did it all in his three decades as commissioner, if only because he felt he had no other choice. I met with him in his Olympic Tower office in the summer of 1998, when Stern was fretting over the labor stoppage to come, a lockout that would reduce the next season to 50 games. He recalled a time when the biggest postseason games were broadcast on tape delay, after the late-night news, and when the NBA was, he said, "written off as too black, too drug infested." The son of a deli owner, Stern was earning a $9 million wage after turning this barely relevant league into a global juggernaut defined by megastars with crossover appeal.

He pulled it off with the unrelenting power of his personality, becoming, at 5-foot-9, a giant in the history of American and international sport. In 1988, four years after he became commissioner, Stern heard fans in the Republic of Georgia rooting for the Atlanta Hawks' 5-7 guard, Spud Webb, to dunk on the hometown Russians after they'd watched Webb's high-flying acrobatics on pirated tapes from Turkey. Holy Moses, Stern said to himself. What do we have here?

Two years later, Stern was touring China when a guide told him she adored Michael Jordan and his "Red Oxen," or Chicago Bulls. The commissioner was already searching for a Yao Ming back then. He would create the Dream Team for the 1992 Olympics to enhance the worldwide hunt for talent and, more importantly, for untapped markets that would produce boys and girls who would, in Stern's words, "start dribbling the ball rather than kicking it."

Even though he became more recognizable than the majority of his players, Stern understood something that his former executive VP of basketball operations, Rod Thorn, said his longtime boss didn't get enough credit for. "David was smart enough to realize it had to be about the players," Thorn said Wednesday evening, a couple of hours after news broke of Stern's death at age 77. "He really cared about the players, and they went from nowhere to the most recognized athletes in the world, other than some soccer stars. David knew that people needed to like our players if we were going to be successful."

Stern needed Jordan and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to be liked; he didn't need to be liked himself. Respected? Yes. Admired? You bet. Feared? Absolutely.

But liked was always optional. In the public view, moving from his office to games to labor negotiations, Stern projected an avuncular vibe that earned him the "Easy Dave" nickname.

Behind closed doors, the visionary berated a long line of owners, executives, staffers, lawyers, coaches and players when he felt they weren't aligned with his, well, vision.

"People who do great things are people who get others to go along with what they feel," said Thorn, the former Bulls and New Jersey Nets executive and a senior Stern lieutenant in the league office for two stints and a combined 16-plus years. "David was amazing at getting people to do what he felt should be done."

Thorn had drafted Jordan for the Bulls in 1984, yet was fired the following spring. When he interviewed with Stern to become the NBA's chief disciplinarian, the commissioner told him, "People say that you're too nice of a guy. In this job, you can't be too nice of a guy."

Thorn cherished his time in the league office. He saw Stern as an incomparable leader who was tough, yet fair-minded.

"There was nothing soft about him," Thorn said. "He expected you to do the job he hired you to do, and if you didn't do it, he certainly would let you know about it. I was on the receiving end of it from time to time, some of the strong language, and in reality, the vast majority of time he was right.

"David had this habit of asking you questions he already knew the answers to. One day I was walking down the hall, and he was walking the other way, and he asked me some innocuous question, and I was hemming and hawing about it. He just said, 'What the hell did I hire you for? You don't know this?' ... David didn't hold a grudge. It wasn't something that lasted for weeks with him, or days, even. He just said what he had to say, and you didn't make that mistake again."

Stern fought so many battles on so many fronts, it was hard to keep count. I was covering the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens when I received a call from a familiar voice -- Stern's. I told him I was watching gymnastics; he told me he wanted to talk basketball. Stern wanted to tell me he agreed with my written criticisms of Team USA's coach, Larry Brown, added some profane observations of his own (he ripped Brown for not giving more minutes to a 19-year-old LeBron James), and told me he was heading to the gym to say some of these very things in a news conference. I assumed he wouldn't actually go through with it, but sure enough, Stern called a stunning halftime presser during Team USA's semifinal loss to Argentina (the Americans' third loss of the tournament) to reprimand Brown for blaming his team's showing on the player selection committee.

"This was a team that was put together by everyone, including the coaching staff," Stern said that day. "And this is a great team, so I don't buy the, 'Well, I'd like to have this, I'd like to have that.' ... It's not about who didn't come. I'll tell you what, we're all in sports. You take your team to the gym and you play what you've got and then you either win or you lose. And this whining and carping is not fair to the young men ... who are representing their country admirably and well."

On further review, I was struck by two thoughts. One, Stern was protecting the players the way Thorn said he always wanted to protect them. Two, as much as he appreciated the sport's growth, Stern hated the fact that NBA players -- his players -- had failed to win Olympic gold for the first time. The commissioner hated to lose to the very global monster he created.

No, David Stern didn't like to lose to anyone, at anything. Most devoted basketball fans have heard the stories of how Jordan tormented Bulls teammates in practice when they crossed him, or didn't meet his standards of greatness. Stern had a lot of Jordan in him, minus the hang time.

He went hard after those who disappointed him. Fordham's dean of law, John Feerick, for sharply reducing the penalties Stern imposed on Latrell Sprewell for choking his Golden State Warriors coach, P.J. Carlesimo. The New York Times, for publishing a study concluding that referees' calls are influenced by the players' skin color. Bryant Gumbel, for accusing the commissioner of acting as a "modern plantation overseer" in governing his largely African American workforce. James Dolan, for playing the fool in the Anucha Browne Sanders sexual harassment case against Madison Square Garden and former Knicks president Isiah Thomas.

Stern didn't create the modern phenomenon that is the NBA by declining to punch back. Only once did I ever personally see Stern look ashen-faced and unable to launch an effective counter: at his 2007 news conference to address the gambling allegations against referee Tim Donaghy. "I can tell you," the commissioner said then, "that this is the most serious situation and worst situation that I have ever experienced either as a fan of the NBA, a lawyer for the NBA or a commissioner of the NBA." For a man who had shepherded the league through Magic Johnson and HIV, the Sprewell attack and the Malice at the Palace, that was saying a mouthful.

But in the final months of his life, Stern stood tall over every staggering thing he had accomplished. Thorn and his wife, Peggy, joined Stern and his wife, Dianne, for dinner a few weeks before the commissioner suffered his December brain hemorrhage at a Manhattan restaurant.

"He seemed in such good spirits and health," Thorn said. "He just had a great look about him. David was always so proud of the league, and of what [his successor] Adam Silver had done. Some of these guys that leave big jobs have a hard time staying away, but I think David did a good job of not trying to take away from what Adam was doing.

"I loved the guy, and I have so many fond memories of him. He cared so much about the players and the fans, and he did everything he possibly could to make the game better."

David Stern built a dynasty almost nobody thought could be built by leading with his chin, fists flying. That's how a man who stood 5-9 became a towering figure in a big man's game.

The Chicago White Sox and top outfield prospect Luis Robert have agreed on a six-year, $50 million contract that includes two club options, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.

Robert will now begin the season with the White Sox, according to Passan.

Robert, 22, played 122 combined games at Single-A, Double-A and Triple-A last season, batting .328 with 32 home runs, 92 RBIs and 36 stolen bases.

The long-term vegan athlete tells Euan Crumley why her running exploits have always been motivated by a greater good

Becoming a runner had never really occurred to Fiona Oakes. Having endured 17 orthopaedic operations and the removal of her right kneecap as a young adult and being told she would not walk properly again meant that putting in the miles wasn’t the first thing which came to her mind.

Yet hers is an internal fire which burns brightly and when looking for a way to promote the cause which drives her everyday existence, a creative solution was found.

“The truth is that I wanted to promote veganism,” says Oakes, who runs the Tower Hill Stable Animal Sanctuary in Essex which has over 500 inhabitants. “I had got the sanctuary, I had a lot of animals and realised that just taking endless amounts in was not the answer. I wanted to promote veganism in a positive way.

“At that time, women’s sport was getting no attention at all and in fact the only sport that was getting any attention for women was marathon running because of Paula Radcliffe due to how well she was doing and setting the world record.

“My idea was ‘okay, I’d better get good at marathon running and then I might be able to get on the back of the positive press that she’s getting’.

“The logic was that if I could compete in a marathon and complete one, then it would show that you could do pretty much anything on a vegan diet. It just grew from there.”

Oakes did get good. Despite the pain brought about by the absence of that kneecap, and the enormous daily physical demands placed on her by the upkeep of the sanctuary, she has achieved top 20 finishes at the London and Berlin marathons, won marathons in both the Arctic and Antarctic and has four world records to her name.

She has been part of countless elite marathon fields but, as if to underline that the vegan lifestyle she has adhered to since she was six does not hinder her in any way, the woman who co-founded Vegan Runners in 2004 went further.

The retained firefighter who is also the patron of several charities is a three-time finisher of and the first female vegan to complete the Marathon des Sables, the six-stage race which covers a total of 156 miles across the Sahara desert, and was a stage winner during the Atacama Crossing last year.

Someone who likes to keep things simple, the self sufficient nature of these ultra challenges was something which appealed to Oakes greatly.

“You suddenly roll up somewhere – in the Sahara desert, for example – and you are stripped of everything you have normally in the civilian world,” she says.

“You’ve got this backpack which you become absolutely obsessed with for the whole week. You sit in your tent at night counting painkillers and boiled sweets, while I’ve seen grown men fighting over toilet paper!

“It does bring you back to that point of ‘how would it be if you couldn’t turn the tap on?’ ‘What would life be if you only had a tent to come home to every night and nothing else, to have all of your possessions in one backpack’.

“Everything becomes so precious. Every item in that pack is like gold because you can’t replace it. It’s not really life or death of course – and it would be insulting to those who have been displaced from their homes and who have nothing to say otherwise – but to people who really want to achieve and get through these races then failure is not an option.

“It teaches you a lot about what the body is capable of, what the mind is capable of and also how rotten life must be for some people and how to be grateful for what you have when you return.”

Things have changed markedly since Oakes found herself as “the only vegan in the village” when she first started out. Athletes following a plant-based diet are becoming increasingly common, while many of the world’s top ultra runners extol the virtues of living meat-free.

Oakes, subject of the film Running For Good, is not someone to force her views on others but to those who may be sceptical of the idea she adds: “I would say ‘give it a shot’. I don’t think you will look back – I certainly never have.

“But you’ve got to be balanced and you’ve got to manage it. A vegan diet can be very unhealthy (unless it’s balanced) and now there’s a lot of vegan junk food so just transitioning from one kind of junk to another … it’s got to be a healthy plant-based diet and I think for an athlete – someone who is asking the absolute maximum from their body – it’s got to be transitioned gradually and managed carefully to sustain it and give it validity.

“It’s up to you to work out what your goals are, what your motivators are mentally and physically and whether or not you want to give it a shot.

“If you do, it’s certainly there and available and there’s no reason you can’t perform very, very well on it. It’s not going to be detrimental to your performance level if it’s managed properly, like any diet.”

She adds: “I have a normal digital watch, I don’t have a GPS watch or anything like that, because I’ve learned to listen to what my body was telling me.

“There isn’t one diet fits all, even within a vegan diet. You’ve got to tweak it to what suits you and you’ve got to listen to stimulators and motivators within your own body. Read the messages your body is sending you. It’s telling you if you need more of this or less of that. That’s what I think is very important.”

Worcester Warriors lock Justin Clegg has signed a contract to remain with the Premiership side for a further two years.

The 22-year-old came through the club's academy and joined the senior squad during last season but missed most of the campaign with a back injury.

"It's a club I have been at for five years and, growing up in the area, it's a club I always supported," Clegg said.

"It's a club that I want to succeed and to help as much as I possibly can."

Premiership club Leicester Tigers have signed Scotland international Rory Hughes on loan from Glasgow Warriors until the end of the season.

The 26-year-old, who can play on the wing or at full-back, has won four international caps.

"Rory adds a different dimension to our side and vital depth as we go into the second half of the season." Tigers head coach Geordan Murphy said.

"We're excited to see what he can bring to our group."

Hughes joined the Warriors before the 2013-14 season, having featured for Scotland at Under-17 and Under-18 level and played rugby sevens for his country.

Pro14 side Glasgow have the right to recall Hughes from his loan spell at Welford Road.

LEBANON, Pa. – Bobby Gerhart won’t be in the field when the ARCA Menards Series begins the season at Daytona Int’l Speedway on Feb. 8.

Gerhart, an eight-time winner of the ARCA opener at Daytona, recently suffered a heart attack. As a result, the 61-year-old Gerhart won’t be racing at Daytona after making 32-straight starts at the track.

“I guess you could say I got the greatest Christmas gift of all,” Gerhart told arcaracing.com. “I was at home and wasn’t feeling well and drove myself to the doctor. When I got there they said I had a pretty serious heart attack. It could have been a matter of five minutes or five hours, but had I waited, it’s pretty likely it would not have ended up as well as it did. I still have a very long road to go but I have been given a second chance here and for that I am very lucky and very grateful.”

During Gerhart’s lengthy racing career, which also included starts all three of NASCAR’s national divisions, he scored nine ARCA Menards Series wins, Eight of them came at Daytona, with his only other ARCA victory coming at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway in 2001.

Gerhart has run the full ARCA schedule three times during his career, with his best championship finish coming in 2006 when he finished second in the standings behind Frank Kimmel.

“I guess we can say I am stepping out of the seat immediately due to health issues,” Gerhart said. “It’s maybe not the way I envisioned it but at the same time I feel like I was given a gift with the way it all went down. I travel all over the country, not just with racing but buying and selling big rigs for work. Had that happened when I was away from home, who knows if I would have decided to drive myself to the nearest hospital and get checked out.

“I never felt any symptoms. I don’t eat fried foods and I don’t eat a lot of red meat. I’ve never had high blood pressure. I just won the genetic lottery I suppose. But with the way it all went down versus the way it could have I got really, really lucky.”

Gerhart still plans to be at Daytona Int’l Speedway for the ARCA opener. He said he’s hoping to find someone to drive his familiar No. 5 when the season begins with the Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire.

“It’s awfully late in the going, we know that,” he said. “But we have really great equipment ready to go. All we need is a driver to plug in and we can go win Daytona. We’ve done programs like this in the past with drivers like Kyle Krisiloff and Blake Feese. We have a great record of success at Daytona and working with other drivers so we’re hoping even with just a few weeks to go we can find someone who wants to go race. We’ll look at any opportunity, from one-race deals to partial season deals to a full season deal. We know we can be an asset to someone who is looking to go and run up front at Daytona. We are going to work hard to keep these race team going.”

TULSA, Okla. – KICKER Performance Audio has proud announced continuance of their title sponsorship of the AMA Arenacross Series.

“We are thrilled to have KICKER back on as the title sponsor for another year,” said Promoter Tod Hammock. “Our longstanding partnership with KICKER is one we deeply value and feel is the perfect fit for our racing series.”

In 1973, KICKER’s Livin’ Loud legacy began as a two-man operation, hand-building professional-speaker systems in a narrow one-car garage. As a continually evolving brand, KICKER reached new heights 35 years later with the development of lifestyle home and personal products for digital media devices, which include Bluetooth speaker systems, high-performance headphones and noise-isolating in-ear headsets.

“The KICKER Livin’ Loud mantra is not a call to turn up the music. It’s a call to turn up your life, to push, to achieve more with everything you do in life. Live it to the fullest,” said Kevin Campbell, Director of Marketing at KICKER. “The athletes, their teams and families that support them are vivid examples of Livin’ Loud!, and KICKER is proud to be a part of the 2020 AMA Arenacross Series.”

The 12-round series will kick off on the weekend of Jan. 3-4 in Loveland, Colo. There will be seven tour stops and 12 rounds with the AMA National Championship Round taking place on March 7 in Amarillo, Texas.

Entering the final weekend of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Championship season, Minnesota’s Jacob Goede had an outside shot at winning the title.

He was one of five drivers — including Mike Looney, Keith Rocco, Philip Morris and Nick Panitzke — who were mathematically eligible to claim the crown heading into the season finale.

Goede, who started the weekend tied for second with Panitzke and 10 points behind championship leader Looney, knew he was going to need some help from the racing Gods if he was going to get the job done.

“If Mike Looney or Nick Panitzke, who I was racing with, got another top-three, I was pretty much mathematically eliminated at that point,” Goede recalled. “I thought it was pretty unlikely going into the last night.”

Looney, who enjoyed the best season of his career, was racing at Virginia’s Langley Speedway. He only needed to add 12 points to his season-long total to clinch the title.

That meant Goede, who was racing at Minnesota’s Elko Speedway, had to sweep twin late model features if he had any hope of being champion.

NASCAR uses a driver’s best 18 finishes from any sanctioned track within a given state to determine the state champion and the best 18 finishes from any sanctioned track in North America to determine the national champion.

Drivers receive two points for every competitor they finish ahead of, up to 16 cars. They can also receive two bonus points for winning from starting positions five through eight, and four points for winning from ninth or further back.

Goede, who has been the man to beat at Elko Speedway for the better part of six seasons, won both features on the final night of racing.

Meanwhile, Looney finished 10th and 12th at Langley, giving the title to Goede by eight points.

“We did everything we could do, and it ended up working out for us,” Goede said.

Goede ended his season with 10 NASCAR-sanctioned wins, most of which came at Elko Speedway. He earned 30 top-five finishes and 37 top-10 results, with some of those finishes registered at Wisconsin’s La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway and Madison Int’l Speedway.

But it all came down to that final night at Elko.

“I didn’t quite know how to play that last night,” Goede explained. “We were watching Mike on our RaceMonitor apps and we were like, crap, he set fast time in qualifying and he’s starting on the pole. Now what?

“We set fast time and right before I went out for my first feature, we knew Mike didn’t run that good (in his first race). The traffic worked out. I won the first one,” Goede continued. “Then the pressure set in for the second feature because we knew we had a really good shot at that point.”

He had to start deep in the field for the second feature, a rule at Elko that dictates the feature winner of the first race start in the back of the second feature. No one had won both features in a single night all season at Elko, but Goede was determined.

“I had to win, and I could win the whole thing. It came down to one race,” Goede said.

The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Championship was a culmination of years of hard work for Goede, who is a mechanical engineer by trade.

Much like his father, who spent time racing stock cars on dirt, Goede caught the racing bug when he was 7 years old. He began racing quarter midgets along with his brothers, Matt and Alex.

The Montreal Canadiens lost their third straight game Tuesday but more importantly lost second-leading scorer Brendan Gallagher to injury.

Coach Claude Julien said Thursday that Gallagher has been placed on injured reserve with a concussion. In the 3-1 loss to the Hurricanes on Tuesday, Gallagher left at 16:55 of the second period when he hit his head on teammate Ben Chiarot's knee after falling backward from a check by Carolina's Jordan Staal.

"He's a heart-and-soul guy for our team, and it's tough to see him go down like that," Chiarot said after the game. "He's not a guy that lays on the ice unless he's really hurt, so hopefully he's not doing too bad."

Gallagher, 27, has 15 goals and 17 assists this season and leads the Canadiens in shots on goal. He scored a career-high 33 goals last season.

The Canadiens, who are currently seven points out of the second wild card, have already been playing without injured forwards Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has said he doesn't "even think about that possibility" of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leaving the club in January.

Recent reports had suggested the former Borussia Dortmund forward is hoping to depart the Emirates in this transfer window.

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However, after sealing his first win as Arsenal manger following their 2-0 success over Manchester United, Arteta has said he won't entertain the thought of the club captain moving on.

"I don't even think about that possibility [of him leaving] with Auba," Arteta said in a news conference ahead of the FA Cup third round clash with Leeds on Monday. "I want him here."

Another player rumoured to be leaving in January is former captain Granit Xhaka. Sources have told ESPN the Switzerland international is keen to join Hertha Berlin, with Xhaka's agent later claiming terms over a move had been agreed with the Bundesliga side.

However, Arteta said he has spoken to the 27-year-old, who was stripped of the captaincy following a clash with Arsenal supporters, to understand why he was considering leaving the club.

"I had a conversation with him and I wanted to understand his feelings first, the reason why he was thinking here probably wasn't the right place to continue his career," Arteta said. "I gave him my opinion, my perspective, and I told him that I was ready to support him from the club perspective.

"I wanted his teammates to get his back and help him to change his mind because we need him. I believe that if we were able to do that the fans would respond in a positive way.

"I've seen him act every day, how he trains, how he lives his profession and the quality of the player. He could be a really important player for the club."

Pushed on whether, regardless, a move to Hertha could still happen, Arteta added: "I hope [not]. I don't want him [to leave]. I said to the club no and I said to him no. After in life I cannot control what happens."