Not to pile on but Silver has consistently hit home run after home run between handling the difficult Sterling situation right out of the gate to the IST and everything else in between. Where do you feel his deficiencies are?
The job of a commissioner is to do 3 things
1. Grow revenue and make the owners happy
2. Increase popularity and reach of the game
3. Help push the game forward and make the game enjoyable for fans
Goodell has absolutely done all of these things. Although the quality of play suffered this year due to quarterback injuries, the NFL remains a monster.
I don't follow baseball but from afar it seems like they are doing a good job of improving the rules to make a better TV product. It's also continues to be ad a successful regional sport.
The NBA's last rule changes to improve the action started when Stern was commissioner. Silver has done nothing to fix issues with the 4th quarter, replay, timeouts, and bad refs.
The All Star changes have been a disaster and have killed what was once a signature event.
The other signature event was the Christmas games, and he was powerless from stopping the NFL from taking it.
The NBA, outside of maybe Los Angeles, is the 3rd or 4th most popular team in the big markets. Their regional ratings are not good.
National TV ratings, like all TV, is trending down. The IST ratings have been flat with last year's regular season games. Less than a million people watched the Kings-Pelicans game. Maybe it's successful over time, but it's very niche right now.
I also think putting the players needs over the fans (player movement, sitting out games, etc) was not a good long-term decision. The league has not created a new megastar since Steph. ANT and Melo sell shoes but they aren't crossover stars. The best player in the league acts like he hates the sport.
The league probably has one more big TV contract before the Saudi money comes in.
