David Stern, NBA’s commissioner for 30 years, dead at 77

David Stern, who spent 30 years as the NBA’s commissioner and oversaw its growth into a global power, has died. He was 77.

The league says Stern died Wednesday after suffering a brain hemorrhage Dec. 12.

Stern had been involved with the NBA for nearly two decades before becoming commissioner in 1984.

By the time he left in 2014, a league that had struggled for a foothold had grown into a more than $5 billion a year industry and become perhaps the world’s most popular sport after soccer.