Believe it or not, it was a simple letter that brought Adam Silver from legal affairs to the eventual leadership of one of the world's most successful sporting empires.

Silver, who worked as a litigation associate at New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore wrote a letter to NBA commissioner David Stern in early 1992 for advice and soon received an invitation to meet the renowned NBA boss, who had also been a lawyer, in Stern's office.

"I remember I was so nervous that the room felt even hotter than this room today," Silver recalled on a warm Friday in Shanghai.