Former NBA Commissioner Stern Dies at 77

NEW YORK (AP) _ David Stern was a giant in a game of giants.

The former NBA commissioner has died at age 77, less than three weeks after undergoing emergency surgery for a brain hemorrhage. Stern had been involved with the NBA for nearly two decades before he became its fourth commissioner on Feb. 1, 1984. By the time he left his position exactly 30 years later, the league had grown to a more than $5 billion a year industry and made NBA basketball perhaps the world’s most popular sport after soccer.

Before Stern, there was labor strife that threatened to mar the NBA. Some weeknight NBA Finals games were often broadcast after the 11pm news rather than live in prime time.

Stern was in charge while the league turned countless ballplayers into celebrities who were known around the globe by one name: Magic, Michael, Kobe, LeBron, just to name a few. Stern oversaw the birth of seven new franchises and the creation of the WNBA and NBA Development League.

Under Stern, the NBA would play nearly 150 international games and be televised in more than 200 countries and territories, and in more than 40 languages.

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