Bones Hyland signs deal with Under Armour

As the U.S. and other countries grow more vocal in denouncing China’s actions in Xinjiang, Congress has repeatedly called upon NBA stars to drop their deals. Those stars include Wade, who initially signed a 10-year, $75 million contract with Li-Ning in 2012 that was later converted into a lifetime agreement in 2018, ahead of Wade’s final season. Warriors sharpshooter Klay Thompson signed with Anta Sports in 2014 and re-upped in 2017 on a reported 10-year, $80 million deal. Trail Blazers guard and players’ association president CJ McCollum left Nike in 2017 for a richer, five-year agreement with Li-Ning, while the Hornets’ Gordon Hayward joined Anta in 2018 on a four-year deal. In 2020, Warriors swingman Andrew Wiggins struck a multiyear deal with Peak, and Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon agreed to a contract with 361 Degrees, making him what the company called “the new face” of its basketball division. -via ESPN / January 28, 2022

Roberts said the union would share lawmakers’ concerns with affected players, but several agents representing those with Chinese shoe deals told ESPN the union never alerted them to the request from Washington. Asked about that discrepancy, a union spokesman insisted the information had been passed along. “The National Basketball Players Association has previously had an impressive track record of using their voice for social change, and I would like to see them do more to raise awareness about the ongoing genocide in Xinjiang and to help their members understand the risks of partnering with companies that promote products made with forced labor,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, told ESPN. “These sponsorship deals need to end.” -via ESPN / January 28, 2022

Another speaker at the Washington event was Kalbinur Gheni, a Uyghur whose 39-year-old sister was taken to a Chinese “reeducation” camp in 2018 and later sent to a prison. Gheni said her sister, an art teacher with two children, has been sentenced to 17 years for observing religious rites and for keeping religious books and loaning them to others. Gheni, who studied in Malaysia before moving to the U.S. in 2019, said her sister is among a dozen family members who have been detained in China over the past four years. “They are using our loved ones in the camp as slave labor,” Gheni later told ESPN. “And they are profiting off them. “When you talk about this NBA business, they should be supportive. It is not because I am a Uyghur, but as a human being. If they keep silent no matter what the Chinese government does, that means they are going to lose for long term their dignity and humanity.” -via ESPN / January 28, 2022