Larry O'Brien

 Larry O'Brien was an American lawyer and political strategist who served as the 3rd commissioner of the NBA. He was one of the head strategists for the Democratic Party for over 20 years and served as Postmaster General in the Cabinet of Lyndon B. Johnson.

In 1975, O'Brien was appointed by the NBA's board of directors to be the league's next Commissioner. As commissioner, he oversaw the merger between the NBA and the ABA, negotiated a television broadcast with CBS, and saw attendance at NBA games rise significantly. At the time however, the reputation of the NBA was not good among the American public, who believed that many black players were drug users and criminals, among other stereotypes. To combat this, O'Brien introduced recreational drug testing to the NBA and rules to punish players who got in legal trouble off the court.

Despite O'Brien's success as commissioner, many who worked in the NBA at the time say that his right hand man, then NBA Vice President David Stern made most of the major decisions during O'Brien's tenure.

In 1984, the year of his retirement, the NBA renamed the trophy awarded to the NBA Champions the "Larry O'Brien Trophy" in his honour.