Former NBA commissioner David Stern and nine others entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.
Stern led this year's Hall of Fame class that also included former NBA stars Alonzo Mourning and Mitch Richmond. The former NBA leader, who was at the helm of the league for 30 years before stepping down earlier this year, was ushered in by Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Bill Russell.
"I think the future is incredibly bright," Stern said during the ceremony, via ESPN. "The reason I am here is because of thousands of people over the years who have done so much. The league is in spectacular shape going forward under the extraordinary leadership of Adam Silver."
Stern is largely credited for helping make basketball a global sport. Under his leadership, the NBA became one of the world's fastest rising sports and created icons like Michael Jordan.
"You got to love the game, and everything that we do is always about the game," he added.
Johnson also paid tribute to Stern for helping him during the time when he learned that he had HIV.
"He will go down as the greatest commissioner in sports history. But he will also go down as the man who changed the face of HIV and AIDS and made it acceptable around the world, and you can embrace people, you can talk about it openly and not behind closed doors anymore."
Aside from Stern, Mourning and Richmond, other inductees to the Hall this year were Nolan Richardson, Gary Williams, Bob Leonard, Sarunas Marciulionis, Guy Rodgers, and the Immaculata University AIAW national championships of the '70s.
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