Prokhorov has also had a short stint in …

President Joe Biden will announce …

President Joe Biden will announce Thursday that he is appointing more than a dozen top education leaders, celebrities and athletes to his board of advisers on historically Black colleges and universities, the White House said. Actress Taraji P. Henson, NBA star Chris Paul, and United Airlines president Brett Hart are among the 18 members of the President’s board of advisers on HBCUs. Paul was until last year the longtime head of the National Basketball Players Association.

Chinese TV broadcasting NBA games again

The first game this year on state TV, …

The first game this year on state TV, according to Global Times, was Tuesday night’s matchup between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Utah Jazz. According to Global Times, the broadcast was the start of a full return of the N.B.A. to China’s airwaves. The league has been almost entirely off the air on Chinese state television since 2019, except for a lone finals game in 2020. Games have been broadcasting on Tencent, a digital streaming platform based in China.

“N.B.A. games have aired in China …

“N.B.A. games have aired in China continuously for nearly 35 years, including this season on a number of other services,” Mike Bass, an N.B.A. spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday. “We believe broadcasting games to our fans in China and more than 200 other countries and territories is consistent with our mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the game of basketball.”

In just hours, Utah lawmakers are set …

In just hours, Utah lawmakers are set to vote on overriding the governor’s veto of a transgender sports bill. The move has sparked outcry and questions over whether next year’s NBA All-Star game could pull out of Salt Lake City. As lawmakers return to the Capitol three weeks after adjourning, Senate President Stuart Adams (R-Layton) said he expects more than 20 of the state’s 29 senators will vote to override the veto issued earlier this week by Gov. Spencer Cox.

KUTV 2News asked Adams if the prospect …

KUTV 2News asked Adams if the prospect of losing an event like the All-Star game is enough to give him pause on pushing ahead with a veto override. “I haven’t heard from the NBA,” Adams said, adding he wasn’t concerned. A Utah Jazz spokesman told KUTV 2News they’re “working closely with the NBA on this matter.” There’s been no firm comment from the league one way or the other.

Adam Silver says NBA has not blackballed Enes Kanter Freedom

Adam Silver, the commissioner of the N.B.A., said in an interview that the league’s position on China had not changed. He also denied that the league had blackballed Freedom, saying that comparisons to Kaepernick were “completely unfounded and …

Adam Silver, the commissioner of the N.B.A., said in an interview that the league’s position on China had not changed. He also denied that the league had blackballed Freedom, saying that comparisons to Kaepernick were “completely unfounded and unfair.” “We spoke directly about his activities this season,” Silver said, “and I made it absolutely clear to him that it was completely within his right to speak out on issues that he was passionate about.”

Source: Sopan Deb @ New York Times

More on this storyline

Jeffrey Ngo, a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist in Washington, said Freedom’s criticism of China “must have at least played a role” in his not playing. “All of a sudden there’s all this attention and people telling him to stop talking about it or there would be consequences,” Ngo said. “And then those consequences came.” -via New York Times / March 24, 2022