Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss fought back tears after learning that former NBA commissioner David Stern had passed away on Wednesday due to complications from a brain hemorrhage that was suffered roughly three weeks ago.

Jeanie and Stern shared a close relationship that goes back to her father's days with the Lakers. As Jeanie was making her way up the ladder in the league, her father, Jerry, reminded her that Stern would always be someone she could lean on for counsel and guidance:

“My dad told me that if I ever needed help in the future that David would be somebody I could count on,” Jeanie Buss told USA TODAY Sports. “He always was there for me.”

Stern changed the NBA for the better in many ways. Over the course of his 30-year stint as commissioner, player salary caps grew from $3.6 million to just under $59 million, and television revenues increased from $22 million to roughly $930 million. According to Forbes, franchise values went from $400 million in his first year on the job (1984) to $19 billion when he retired.

Stern was also close with several players, including Lakers icon Magic Johnson. When Magic publicly announced that he had tested positive for HIV in 1991, Stern was standing by his side in support. Stern later helped Magic make his return to basketball, as Johnson went on to play in the 1992 NBA All-Star Game, the 1992 Olympics, the 1992-93′ season and the 1995-96′ season.

“He stood up when everybody else didn’t know what to do,” Buss said of Stern, via USA Today. “We were all scared, concerned and uninformed because it was all happening in real time. But he didn’t flinch. He stood up and allowed Magic to come back into the league. He squashed the fears of spreading the virus through hugging and shaking hands, He really led us into an area that nobody really knew we were going. But he never blinked an eye. He stayed as a leader.”

Joins us in sending condolences to the Stern family. May his legacy live on in the league he made so popular.