Mike Storen, a former ABA commissioner, one-time Atlanta Hawks president and general manager and the father of ESPN broadcaster Hannah Storm, died Thursday. He was 84. Storm said her father died at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta of complications from cancer.
Storen served as Hawks general manager from Jan. 3 to Sept. 27 of 1977. He oversaw the 1977 NBA draft in which the Hawks, in part, selected Tree Rollins with the 14th overall pick.
“I still have a red, white and blue basketball with his name on it,” Storm said. “All those things the ABA did — the 3-point shot, cheerleaders, the slam-dunk contest — those were right up his alley.”
Storen was also general manager of the Indiana Pacers and Kentucky Colonels. He owned the ABA’s Memphis Sounds with musician Isaac Hayes, worked for the Cincinnati Royals of the NBA
and the Houston Astros, and was commissioner of the Continental Basketball Association.
With the Memphis Grizzlies of the World Football League, he brought in the likes of Paul Warfield and Larry Csonka on the field and Elvis Presley into the seats.
Storen promoted the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston and major indoor tennis tournaments featuring Bjorn Borg in Memphis.
Mike Storen, former Hawks general manager, dies
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