Former NBA Commissioner David Stern on Friday night will be enshrined in the Basketball HOF along with 10 others. This will mark the "first official basketball function" Stern has attended since stepping down from the league in February. He has "remained busy advising some communications companies and technology startups, giving speeches and traveling on behalf of the league." Stern "calls his induction a group award, citing the efforts of owners, players, referees and league employees" (AP, 8/4). Stern and Michael Jordan have been credited with "turning the NBA into a thriving, worldwide enterprise" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/7).
Meanwhile, Stern this week "expressed his support" or current Commissioner Adam Silver. In his first public comments on the recent Donald Sterling scandal, said that before controversial recordings of the banned Clippers Owner surfaced, "there was little legal ground for the NBA to stand on." Stern: "People now say, 'There was this litigation or that litigation,' but the fact is that those litigations – one was terminated in favor of Mr. Sterling, and the others the justice department settled" (MASSLIVE.com, 8/7).
