HOOP: The news just came out that a Russian billionaire is in discussions to purchase majority interest in the New Jersey Nets. What does that mean for the NBA?
STERN:  Well, what it means is that our franchises are attracting international attention now because people are realizing that soccer and basketball are the two international sports. And that’s pretty exciting. We have an interest there, we have another Chinese investor interested in the Cavaliers. We’ve had talks with others, so it’s going to be pretty good.

HOOP: How long until there will be an NBA team located overseas?
STERN: That’s hard to say. I just don’t know. What I’ve been saying is, within the next eight to 10 years, but I don’t know for sure.

HOOP: Your job as NBA Commissioner has allowed you to travel around the world and meet a lot of famous people. Who was the most memorable?
STERN: I think the Chinese Vice Premier Madam Wu, who we met many years ago in this setting where we had these wonderful discussions about energy policy and other things, and you understood that there was this incredibly dedicated and intelligent group of people that were pushing to bring China along in ways that weren’t getting enormous amounts of attention.
You know, I have a load of people that I have met and that enjoyed their company, whether it be Mayor Bloomberg or Tony Blair, people who are doing great jobs, but I was so taken at the time… I had the pleasure of having tea with a group of Chinese women and you got to understand that there was this entire hierarchy there that was really fascinating.

HOOP: If you had never connected with the NBA way back when, would you be in politics today?
STERN: No, I’d be a lawyer. I would be a litigator. I love the law. I wouldn’t have traveled as much, I wouldn’t have gotten to see perhaps as many things on a global scale, but I would have found it to be very fulfilling, but in a different way.

HOOP: With all the good and not-so-good things that you have to deal with in running a sports league over the last 25 years, is there one situation that you look back on with the most pride that might surprise our readers?
STERN: The way we and Magic reacted to the fact that he was HIV positive changed the way that this country, and I dare say the world, began to look at HIV. It calmed them down, got them discussing it, and it ultimately led to an intelligent response. I think we inadvertently, because we didn’t ask for it, played an important role there.
And the second thing, which is more general, is that we were a sport and a league that couldn’t survive allegedly because we were "too black." We didn’t believe that was so, and America proved that. That’s pretty exciting for us, as well.