Stern: We will survive

? David Stern realizes the financial crisis makes growth difficult, so he’ll settle for not losing much.

The NBA commissioner said Saturday that his league was holding steady and would continue to do so, even during a worldwide economic downturn that has put many big businesses in jeopardy.

“I always get into trouble saying this,” Stern said. “I have been concerned for 25 years, and so I always worry about everything. But all I can say is that in a difficult economic environment we are going to maintain our attendance and our revenues, even last year.”

Stern said the league was forecasting more robust growth in September before the markets collapsed. Instead, he predicted the NBA will “be even rather than up because of the overall economic situation.”

“The stock market is down 30 or 40 percent,” he said. “The fact that we may be flat or down a percent or 2, I’d sign up for it now in this environment for a long time because we just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Overall, Stern was in good spirits during his annual state of the league remarks at All-Star weekend. The press conference was highlighted by an emotional moment when he announced the NBA finals MVP award would be named for Bill Russell — who never won one because the league didn’t start giving them out until the Boston Celtics great had already claimed almost all of his 11 NBA titles.

Also:

• Stern said the Sunday night games during the NBA finals would begin at 7 p.m. CST, an hour earlier than the other start times.

• Stern and players’ union director Billy Hunter said they have had ongoing discussions about reopening the collective bargaining agreement, which is set to expire after the 2010-11 season — though the league has an option to extend it an additional year.

• Stern is comfortable with the league’s drug testing procedures and doesn’t see a need to increase from the four random tests a year.

“Could we improve it? Sure, you could make it six times,” he said. “You could hound your players completely, but you do something that you think is rational compared to where you are, and I think we’re almost at the right place.”