As NBA commissioner David Stern stood at the podium in a room at the New York Marriott East Side last week giving a talk on the league's community service and charitable efforts, Adam Silver sat in the front row and watched one of the sporting world's best speakers.

Aside from deputy commissioner Russ Granik, who will step down following the season, no one knows Stern like Silver.

He has been in the room for every important NBA announcement for at least a decade and knows what it will take to be the next commissioner of the NBA.

Although that title won't be his anytime soon -- Stern, who at 63 is the oldest commissioner of the four major sports, has promised the owners he will be at the helm through the 2009-10 season -- Silver is now likely the next in line.

That's if he sticks around. Given his success, he has often been coveted by those who have negotiated with him.

Like Stern, Silver has a vast amount of experience for his age. Stern was working for the NBA for almost 18 years before he became the commissioner at the age of 41. Silver, 43, first started at the NBA in 1992 and became president and chief operating officer of NBA entertainment five years later.

"He studies and understands every issue and his people skills are extraordinary," Stern said.