Hi, this is Mina. We'll bring you our usual in-depth storytelling today, but first, we want to take the time to remember a sports icon.

Longtime NBA Commissioner David Stern passed away on Wednesday after suffering a brain hemorrhage.

He was 77 years old.

Here's Jeremy Schapp, with the remembrance of the man who left an indelible mark on the sport of basketball.

In his 30 years as commissioner, David Stern made it possible for the NBA to scramble

from the brink of bankruptcy and irrelevance to a position of global significance

unthinkable in the dark days of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

When the league was beset by drug problems, teams were going bankrupt, and the finals were on tape

delay.

That stunning reversal of fortune is why Stern will be remembered as perhaps the greatest

leader of any sports league ever.

Of course, the league's rebirth can't be attributed solely

to Stern's savvy and toughness. It wasn't Stern after all who fashioned from Clay the transcendent

Larry Bird Magic Johnson rivalry. It wasn't Stern who imbued Michael Jordan with his gifts either.

But make no mistake, there might be no other sports

executive ever who so adeptly utilized the tools at his disposal, no other commissioner who so

clearly recognized and exploited the resources of his sport. With Stern in charge, the NBA called

itself fantastic.

But it was really a star factory.

The league marketed its stars to the hilt, and no league ever better mastered the art of marketing than David Stern's NBA.

At its inception, years before the advent of the internet, not to mention Twitter or Instagram, the slam dunk contest was a phenomenon, a must-see event created by Stern's lieutenant Rick Welts. People too young to have seen Jordan versus Dominique in the heyday of the competition can hardly fathom how big a deal it was.

Then, in 1992, there was the dream team, the ultimate

...