LONDON -- As the U.S. women's basketball team dominated France in Saturday's gold-medal game to extend its Olympic winning streaks to five consecutive golds, 41 straight victories and a 16-year period of perfection, NBA commissioner David Stern sat perched at center court beaming like a proud parent.

"Terrific, wasn't it?" he gushed following the 86-50 win. "You just watched the best athletes in the world in their sport."

Although Stern is not the WNBA's commissioner, make no mistake: The league was his baby, carefully nurtured over a decade of research and planning. It was his vision and stubborn steadfastness that has kept the women's professional basketball league afloat.

U.S. swimmer Missy Franklin won four gold medals and one bronze at the London Olympics. Rob Schumacher/USA TODAY Sports

The WNBA is finally close to an overall break-even point, although some individual franchises still lose money. Stern fended off critics in the league's infancy who claimed women's professional basketball would never stick with one word: patience.

"We [the NBA] had the incentive to do this because we think basketball fans are fans of great competition, and the women's potential and the potential of their fans is extraordinary," Stern said in a late-night phone interview Saturday. "We also always believed there was catching up to do. Men control the remote. But over time, given Title IX and the incredible amount of increase in team sports for women, we saw room for growth.

"Not that long ago, there were no sports for women. Girls had no choices. They became cheerleaders. That's obviously changed."

But has it changed enough? It is the age-old question following each Olympic Games, but these in particular.

U.S. women dominated in London, garnering 29 of the country's 44 gold medals through Saturday night. Plug the women into the medal standings all on their own, without the tallies of their male countrymen, and their gold-medal haul would have been the third best, trailing only the U.S. and China (after Sunday's action, they'd be tied for third with Great Britain).

Track and field star Allyson Felix, swimming sensation Missy Franklin and gymnastics individual all-around gold-medalist Gabby Douglas were the darlings, yet their specific sports are cyclical. The Olympics are their big moment, until the next Games.

Franklin isn't lamenting over a lack of a professional swimming league to extend her opportunities; she's just looking forward to finishing her senior year of high school and deciding whether (or not) college swimming makes sense.