Larry O'Brien

Lawrence Francis O'Brien ( * July 7, 1917 in Springfield, Massachusetts, † September 27, 1990 in New York City ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party and the third Commissioner of the National Basketball Association.

O'Brien as a politician

Larry O'Brien acted in 1968 and 1970 to 1972 as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and exercised de facto the function of a party leader of the Democrats. He also conducted the presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy ( 1960), Lyndon B. Johnson (1964 ), Robert F. Kennedy ( 1968) and Hubert H. Humphrey (1968). From 1965 to 1968 he served as U.S. Postmaster General in the Cabinet Johnson.

Its role in the Watergate scandal

O'Brien's office at the DNC headquarters was on the night of June 17, 1972 Target object of the failed Watergate burglary. Five men who ultimately acted on behalf of the Committee for the Re-election of President Nixon, were placed there by police while attempting to install a wiretap in O'Brien's office.

President Nixon made Larry O'Brien personally responsible for the exploitation weidliche an investigative report by journalist Jack Anderson by the Kennedy camp in the presidential campaign in 1960. Anderson had revealed that Nixon's brother Donald had received a business loan of $ 205,000 from billionaire Howard Hughes in 1956 and speculated here, this was possibly paid with political consideration of the then Vice President Richard Nixon. The latter looked at those perceived by him as a denunciation representation as one of the main reasons that he had lost the election to John F. Kennedy. From this whole affair resulted in a ( well-documented ) strong personal animosity Nixon against both Anderson and against O'Brien.

As documents from the White House prove Richard Nixon showed during his own term as president repeated interest in O'Brien's business activities and requested in the 1970 and 1972 repeatedly tangible by its employees evidence of him Come to ears ( factual ) rumor O'Brien himself was about his company O'Brien Associates now covered as a paid lobbyist for Howard Hughes acted. Nixon wanted to launch these documents to the media, so O'Brien - to discredit publicly - in an apparent revenge for the election campaign in 1960. The Republicans presented here by mistake both that O'Brien had worked for Hughes at the same time, since he was DNC chairman, as well as that O'Brien had paid no taxes on the obtained for its lobbying money.

A favored by various authors theory therefore sees as an important motive for the Watergate break the (supposedly a direct instruction Nixon's declining ) attempt to, either to document the business relationship Hughes - O'Brien or find out if O'Brien again evidence of an extensive secret donation of Hughes would have for Nixon's campaign fund. Evidence for this theory about the background of the Watergate break there, however.

Commissioner of the NBA Larry O'Brien Trophy and

O'Brien took over the office of the NBA Commissioners in 1975 by Walter Kennedy and kept it until 1984. Under his leadership the NBA merged in 1976 with the American Basketball Association, and was an increase of four teams (Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Nets, San Antonio Spurs ) expanded. With the Dallas Mavericks followed in 1980 a fifth, new team. Overall, the NBA included at the end of O'Brien's tenure of 23 teams. Under his leadership in 1982 a contract was also terminated with a cable TV provider, what the NBA made it a pioneer among U.S. professional leagues. On 13 May 1991 O'Brien was posthumously as " promoters" (English: contributor ) was added to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Larry O'Brien Trophy is the trophy that the winner of the NBA gets the title. Each year a new trophy is made in the year and the name of the winning team will be engraved and remains in the possession of the team.

Sources and Literature

Fred Emery. Watergate: The Corruption of American Politics and the Fall of Richard Nixon. New York: Touchstone, 1990.
Stanley L. Kutler. The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon. New York: Knopf, 1990.
J. Anthony Lukas. Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years. New York: Viking, 1976.

Hubert Humphrey Jack Anderson (columnist) Benjamin Franklin Richard Bache Ebenezer Hazard Samuel Osgood Timothy Pickering Joseph Habersham Gideon Granger John McLean William T. Barry Amos Kendall Francis Granger Charles A. Wickliffe Cave Johnson Jacob Collamer Samuel Dickinson Hubbard James Campbell (Postmaster General) Aaron V. Brown Horatio King Montgomery Blair Alexander Randall James William Marshall Marshall Jewell David M. Key Horace Maynard Walter Q. Gresham Frank Hatton (U.S. politician) Donald M. Dickinson John Wanamaker Wilson S. Bissell William Lyne Wilson James Albert Gary Charles Emory Smith Henry Clay Payne Robert Wynne George von Lengerke Meyer Frank Harris Hitchcock Hubert Work Harry Stewart New Walter Folger Brown Frank Comerford Walker Robert E. Hannegan Jesse M. Donaldson Arthur Summerfield J. Edward Day W. Marvin Watson E. T. Klassen William F. Bolger Paul N. Carlin Albert Vincent Casey Preston Robert Tisch Anthony M. Frank Marvin Travis Runyon William J. Henderson John E. Potter Robert Milligan McLane David Allen Smalley August Belmont Abram Hewitt Calvin S. Brice James Kimbrough Jones Thomas Taggart Homer Stille Cummings George White (Ohio politician) Cordell Hull Edward J. Flynn J. Howard McGrath Henry M. Jackson Fred R. Harris Robert Schwarz Strauss Paul G. Kirk Ron Brown (U.S. politician) David Wilhelm Debra DeLee Terry McAuliffe Howard Dean Debbie Wasserman Schultz Maurice Podoloff David Stern

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