CBS later used a new contract to move around, show on tape-delayed coverage (most famously Game 6 of the 1980 NBA Finals), or simply ignore NBA postseason games. O'Brien was also generally pushed by his staff into many of his good decisions, including the expanded All-Star Weekend, most notably by his successor NBA David Stern. Many consider Stern the driving force behind expanded (and non-haphazard) TV contracts with CBS and cable networks and the rise in game attendance, as well as several crucial issues that predicated the rise of the NBA in the early 1980s. O'Brien was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located at his birthplace, Springfield, Massachusetts. O'Brien died of cancer after surgery in Manhattan, New York, on September 28, 1990, at the age of 73, and was interred in St. Michaels Cemetery in Springfield, Massachusetts.