Former NBA commissioner David Stern dies at 77

Stern helped save the NBA. When he took over in 1984, attendance was struggling (averaging just barely 10k per game), many teams were in financial troubles, players had drug issues, and even the NBA Finals games were on tape-delay (that's how low they were on the TV totem pole, that their championship games were not even live).

Now, the NBA is progressive and globalized. The Dream Team popularized basketball to parts of the world that didn't know the sport. He made celebrities out of the star players. Magic, Bird, Jordan, etc. - everybody knows them. He saw that African-Americans can be ambassadors for the league. A foreigner (Yao Ming) became the top draft pick. Foreigners are now regulars on every team, even winning achievement awards. RIP