David Stern was in Oklahoma City on Sunday before the Thunder hosted the Magic on NBA Opening Day.

Stern was asked how he wants to see Dwight Howard's situation with Orlando play out.

"That's the beauty of the soap opera of basketball," Stern said on Sunday in Oklahoma City. "As in life, it'll play out the way it plays out, and we'll all be observers of it. I just don't know.

"But, to me, I am of the view that when somebody has put in his years so to speak and he has earned his free agency he's free to decide where he'll sign, and he's not under a compunction under our system to re-sign with a team if he doesn't want to. But how it plays out? We'll all wait and see."