Stern improved NBA

David Stern remembers the days when an NBA staff that numbered about two dozen was just trying to keep some teams in existence long enough to get them on national TV. Now the former commissioner looks at a league that has games televised around the world, whose players average more than $5 million a year in salary as the highest-paid team athletes in sports. “All you can do is focus on small chunks of it, but it’s great fun to contemplate how the NBA family has pulled together to be at a place where our players are now at the top of the celebrity period. Pretty, pretty amazing and great,” Stern said. He will be enshrined Friday in the Hall of Fame, along with former players Alonzo Mourning and Mitch Richmond, along with NCAA coaches Nolan Richardson and Gary Williams. – Associated Press