Magic at Stern memorial: ‘Going to miss my angel’
David Stern was remembered Tuesday as a mentor and a leader, a Little League parent and a loyal friend.
To Magic Johnson, he was an angel. Johnson tearfully recalled Stern’s firm support after the Hall of Fame player learned he had HIV, and how it was the former NBA commissioner allowing him to play in the 1992 All-Star Game despite some players’ fears that kept his spirits up during the darkest time of his life. “That game saved my life,” Johnson said. Johnson was one of the speakers at a 21⁄2-hour memorial service for Stern, who died Jan. 1 at age 77 after suffering a brain hemorrhage a few weeks earlier.
Radio City Music Hall was filled with what Commissioner Adam Silver called one of the greatest collections of basketball talent in one location, from mighty big men Bill Russell and Yao Ming to dazzling distributors such as Johnson and Isiah Thomas.
They listened to stories hailing Stern not only for his brilliance as a businessman, but for his commitment to social responsibility and his love of his family. Speakers, ranging from colleagues in the league to friends from before he arrived there, talked of how Stern would help people arrange doctor’s appointments and score All-Star tickets, and how he loved to offer his assistance — especially, Silver noted, when it hadn’t been asked.
Stern spent 30 years as commissioner, the league’s longest-serving leader, and Silver noted that few people in the room would have had the opportunities they did in life without Stern, whose longtime office at NBA headquarters was just a block away.
“He belongs on this big stage,” Silver said. “He changed the world.”
Mavs’ Powell exits with injury: The Mavericks lost starting center Dwight
Powell to a right Achilles tendon injury during first quarter of Tuesday’s home game against the Clippers.
Powell suffered a non-contact injury and was helped to the locker room putting no weight on his right leg. The team later announced Powell had an Achilles tendon injury and he was out for the game.
Powell averagednearly 10 points and six rebounds in 39 previous games.
Lillard scores 61, sets Blazers record: Damian Lillard set a franchise record with 61 points, including a career-best 11 3pointers, and the short-handed Trail Blazers outlasted the equally depleted Warriors 129-124 in OT on Monday night in Portland, Ore.
Lillard’s previous career high was 60 this season against the Nets. His 11 3s Monday were also a team record.
It was the seventh regular-season game of Lillard’s career with more than 50 points. He also had 10 rebounds for his 10th double-double of the season.