Former NBA commissioner David Stern prefers to look at the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers for a record $2 billion and not the decades of Donald Sterling's "interesting" ownership that came before it.

Speaking on Thursday before he is to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Stern said the unprecedented offer from former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to buy the troubled franchise "is an exclamation point on the health of the league".

Stern said the price being paid for the Clippers "is just the next step" in a process that has brought stability to franchises like the New Orleans Hornets, who were seized by the league in 2010 when owner George Shinn could not pay his debts.