from Nicholas J. Costsonika of NHL.com,
The black NHL All-Star jersey featured the League's old black-and-orange logo on the front. Instead of a last name on the back, it said, "COMMISSIONER." It was No. 1.
Gary Bettman pulled it on 30 years ago, after he was elected the NHL's first commissioner at the Board of Governors meeting at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 11, 1992.
To his left stood Gil Stein, the outgoing NHL president. To his right was Bruce McNall, the owner of the Los Angeles Kings and the chairman of the Board of Governors.
Bettman smiled wide.
He was already an accomplished executive as the senior vice president and general counsel of the NBA. But there were only four leaders of major sports leagues in North America, and now, at just 40 years old, he'd be one of them.
"It was almost like an out-of-body experience," Bettman says now. "It wasn't that I was intimidated or overwhelmed. It was more like … the odds of being selected for a position like that were probably less than the odds of getting struck by lightning."
Gary Bettman, as with any sports commissioner, is simply the shield for fan hatred for the 30 billionaires that own the teams, and the players who support both dripping every penny of revenue from our wallets. If this figurehead wasn't there to hate and boo at games, then we would be left to boo the billionaires behind the curtain. He does the billionaires bidding and provides a face for us to hate, nothing more nothing less.
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