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[1/2] U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, is escorted before a court hearing in Khimki outside Moscow, Russia July 27, 2022. Griner arrived at the medical center last Friday after U.S. officials secured her freedom from Russia in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner, 32, was arrested on Feb. 17 at an airport outside Moscow for carrying vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. U.S. officials pressed for the release of both Griner and Whelan, who is being held on what Washington called "sham" espionage charges, a Biden administration official said. "(I) encourage everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home," said Griner.

☆ Boies law firm makes odd moves in FTX case against Tom Brady, celebs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Alison Frankel | Thomson Reuters | Alison Frankel Has Covered High-Stakes Commercial Litigation As A Columnist For Reuters Since A Dartmouth College Graduate | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

That was apparently not what the Boies and Moskowitz firms were hoping. In mid-November, the firms filed the first of their three FTX lawsuits in federal court. On Nov. 21, the Boies and Moskowitz firms filed a second FTX class action, this time on behalf of non-U.S. FTX customers. The day after Bloom’s assignment to the case, the Moskowitz and Boies firms voluntarily dismissed the two previously-filed FTX class actions before Moore and Gayles. “As we got more cases, we filed more cases,” Moskowitz said.

☆ Michael Jordan: The NBA has renamed its MVP trophy after the Bulls great
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Amy Woodyatt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images Jordan poses for a Little League Baseball photo in the late 1970s. Ken Levine/Getty Images Jordan famously shrugs his shoulders after hitting another 3-pointer during the 1992 NBA Finals versus Portland. "There is a reason you call someone the Michael Jordan of ... neurosurgery, or the Michael Jordan of rabbis, or the Michael Jordan of outrigger canoeing. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Jordan continues to promote Nike's Jordan Brand across the world. Jordan Brand/Getty Images Jordan cries at the Kobe Bryant memorial in Los Angeles in February 2020.

☆ Paul Silas, 3-time NBA champion, longtime coach, dies at 79
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Silas, whose son, Stephen Silas, is coach of the Houston Rockets, was 79. “We mourn the passing of former NBA All-Star and head coach Paul Silas,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “Paul’s lasting contributions to the game are seen through the many players and coaches he inspired, including his son, Rockets head coach Stephen Silas. “I coached LeBron for two years, his first two years, and LeBron was unbelievable,” Paul Silas said. “I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Creighton legend Paul Silas,” Bluejays coach Greg McDermott said.

☆ Oregon lawsuit spotlights destruction of Black neighborhoods
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

A home that was a fixture of Bobby Fouther’s childhood is now a parking lot, the two-story, shingle-sided house having been demolished in the 1970s along with many other properties in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. In 1934, Fouther’s great-aunt and her husband bought a house, which he and his sister visited almost daily, in the Albina neighborhood of Portland, according to the lawsuit. A total of 32 business and four church or community organizations were also destroyed, according to the lawsuit. They were not fairly compensated and in some cases not compensated at all, according to the lawsuit. Many of the plaintiffs’ homes, if they had not been destroyed, would have been worth more than $500,000 today, the lawsuit says.

WASHINGTON—Women’s basketball star Brittney Griner has been released from a Russian penal colony and is being returned to the U.S. through a prisoner exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, which culminated on Thursday with a Cold War-style handover on an airport runway in Abu Dhabi. The swap capped a drama that began in February, when Ms. Griner—a 32-year-old two-time Olympian and center for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury—was on her way to a high-paying professional basketball job in Russia during the U.S. offseason. She was detained after landing in Moscow with less than a gram of hashish oil in her luggage, days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ms. Griner was later convicted of drug smuggling and possession and sentenced to nine years in a penal colony.

☆ She’s one of the WNBA’s biggest stars. This is Brittney Griner’s stellar career so far
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Matias Grez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Brittney Griner’s release from detention in Russia ends a nine-month ordeal and allows her the chance to restart her stellar basketball career. In total, Griner is an seven-time WNBA All-Star – only seven players in WNBA history have made more All-Star appearances. For many years, WNBA players have regularly gone overseas during the WNBA’s offseason to make the most of the higher salaries they can earn in international leagues. According to the New York Times, nearly half of the WNBA’s 144 players traveled to play abroad during the last offseason. “But negatively, there is a factor that you will be tired for the new WNBA season and this can cause injuries and, maybe, you’ll be out of the season.

☆ How the NBA’s Sorriest Franchise Built Its Next Great Offense
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Robert O'Connell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

A Sacramento Kings win always ends the same way, with 1,000 watts of RGB lasers converging in a purple column. Installed at the Golden 1 Center before the season, the light shines up from the roof and dissipates somewhere past the Northern California stratosphere. The hope is that every Sacramento resident can see it—along with whatever extraterrestrials are passing by, Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé has joked. Less predictable but equally resplendent, for the “Beam Team,” are the scoring displays that occasion the postgame spectacles. “We played pretty good offensively,” first-year Kings coach Mike Brown said in a room-for-improvement tone after his club heaped 137 points atop the Detroit Pistons in a recent victory.

☆ Nike severs ties with Kyrie Irving after antisemitism controversy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | Jessica Golden | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Nike has officially cut ties with Kyrie Irving, the company said Monday. A Nike spokesperson didn’t immediately make any additional comment about the decision. Representatives for Irving didn’t immediately comment. The decision to sever ties with Irving comes just a month after Nike suspended its agreement with the longtime guard and announced it wouldn’t be releasing the latest version of his sneakers, the Kyrie 8. Nike founder Phil Knight told CNBC in an interview last month that he believed Irving stepped over the line.

☆ LeBron James passes Magic Johnson on NBA’s career assists list
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Amy Woodyatt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —LeBron James moved past Magic Johnson for sixth place on the NBA’s all-time assists list as the Los Angeles Lakers took a hard earned 133-129 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. James added 28 points in a match where the lakers managed to hold off the Milwaukee Bucks, winning 133-129. James finished the match with 11 assists in total, taking his tally to 10,144. “It means a lot, obviously,” James said, of surpassing Johnson’s assists, according to NBA.com. James is now creeping closer to the title of NBA all-time leading scorer, and is currently 936 career points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

☆ FTX: NBA's Miami Heat to terminate relationship with crypto giant, will get new arena name
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Jacob Lev | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —The NBA’s Miami Heat and Miami-Dade County have terminated their relationship with bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX and will search for a new naming rights partner for their arena in downtown Miami. Miami-Dade County and Miami Heat said in a joint statement Friday night that the reports about FTX are “extremely disappointing” and that they will work together to find a new naming rights partner for the arena, which was only renamed as FTX Arena last year. FTX had reportedly inked a reported $135 million, 19-year deal to rename the Miami arena in June 2021. Also, Major League Baseball struck a five-year deal in 2021 to name FTX as its official cryptocurrency exchange. FTX is also the official cryptocurrency exchange partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.

☆ FTX files for bankrupcty as CEO resigns
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

FTX said Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old founder of the exchange, will remain to assist in an orderly transition. Both the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating FTX, The Wall Street Journal reported. Bankman-Fried has been one of the faces of the crypto industry, amassing a fortune once totaling $25 billion that has since vanished. The implosion of FTX was preceded by the decision to lend billions of dollars’ worth of customer assets to fund risky bets by Alameda, the Journal reported on Thursday. Alameda now owes FTX a staggering $10 billion that the exchange had serious trouble raising, the paper said.

☆ The sudden decline of one of the largest crypto exchanges could rattle the sports industry
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN Business —The near collapse this week of FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has sent shockwaves throughout the crypto startup and investment community. Like other crypto companies, FTX has invested heavily in sports sponsorships, including partnerships and naming rights in professional basketball, baseball and Formula One racing. In 2021, FTX inked a reported $135 million, 19-year deal with the NBA’s Miami Heat to rename the American Airlines Arena as FTX Arena. Sports partnership experts say the stadium naming rights are the biggest headache. In a hiring announcement earlier this year, Binance CEO Zhao “CZ” Changpeng said: “It was not easy saying no to Super Bowl ads, stadium naming rights, large sponsor deals a few months ago, but we did.”

☆ Washington Commanders NFL owner Dan Snyder gets the last laugh
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Will Leitch | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Silver’s powerful statement fortified the NBA’s place as the “progressive” sports league and set in motion the age of athlete activism. To be fair, Washington Commanders fans will benefit if Snyder sells the team and someone less buffoonish and cruel (and incredibly shady) buys it. The NFL will also benefit if Snyder sells the team, as will the employees who alleged they have long suffered under his leadership. Heck, the world will benefit if Snyder sells the team, if just not to have to hear about him anymore. But let there be no doubt about it: If Snyder sells the team, no one on earth will benefit more than Daniel Snyder.

The Brooklyn Nets are once again confronting what has become the NBA’s most familiar problem: What to do about Kyrie Irving? The supremely talented but volatile guard is at the center of another head-spinning saga that began last week with Irving linking on social media to a movie with anti-Semitic themes. The drama took yet another turn overnight when the Nets star apologized after days of refusing to express contrition.

☆ Joshua Primo: Sports psychologist files civil suit accusing former San Antonio Spurs player of exposing himself during therapy sessions
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Rebekah Riess David Close | Rebekah Riess | David Close | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —A sports psychologist, who was under contract with the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, has filed a civil lawsuit against the organization and 19-year-old former Spurs player Joshua Primo. The psychologist alleges the player exposed himself to her during therapy sessions and claimed the organization’s leadership failed to act despite her “numerous complaints about Primo’s improper sexual conduct,” according to a court filing. The Spurs legal team then told Cauthen, a licensed, credentialed clinical psychologist, that the team “had lost trust in her,” Cauthen’s attorney, Tony Buzbee, said during a press conference Thursday. “I would also say that the Spurs conduct and the way they handled this matter was egregious and absolutely unreasonable.”Primo was recently released from the team on October 28. CNN has reached out to the Spurs organization and the NBA for comment.

☆ Kyrie Irving: 'I think the NBA dropped the ball', says Charles Barkley of Brooklyn Nets star
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Cnn Sport Staff | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —NBA analyst and Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley says he thinks the league “dropped the ball” on Kyrie Irving after the Brooklyn Nets star tweeted a documentary deemed to be antisemitic. “I think he [Irving] should have been suspended. I think Adam [Silver, the NBA commissioner] should have suspended him,” Barkley said on TNT Tuesday ahead of the Nets’ game against the Chicago Bulls, in which Irving featured. “You’re going to insult me, you have the right, but I have the right to say no. He would not say whether Irving was a part of those discussions with the ADL.

☆ Kyrie Irving: Brooklyn Nets star defends his tweet about a documentary deemed antisemitic and stands by sharing a video by Alex Jones
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Issy Ronald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving said that he is “not going to stand down on anything I believe in” after he was condemned by the owner of his NBA team for tweeting a link to a documentary deemed to be antisemitic. “I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of anti-semitic disinformation,” Nets owner Joe Tsai tweeted Friday night. Mike Stobe/Getty ImagesIrving said in the press conference that he “respects what Joe [Tsai] said,” but claimed that he had not tweeted something harmful. Irving should clarify now.”Kyrie Irving during the Indiana Pacers game on Saturday. “The Brooklyn Nets strongly condemn and have no tolerance for the promotion of any form of hate speech,” the team said in a statement to CNN.

☆ Yuta Watanabe comically dunks into his own net as Brooklyn Nets’ woes continue
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Aimee Lewis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —The Brooklyn Nets have made a terrible start to the NBA season and on Saturday star forward Yuta Watanabe didn’t make matters any easier by comically scoring in the opposite team’s basket. At the Barclays Centre, the Nets went down 125-116 to the Indiana Pacers to go 1-5 for the season. It was the Nets’ fourth straight loss and one coach Steve Nash called a “disaster.”The night started ominously when, in the first quarter, Watanabe accidentally scored for the Pacers. The comical two-pointer cut the Nets’ lead before the Pacers tied at the end of the first quarter. As the Pacers pulled away from the struggling Nets, rookie Bennedict Mathurin scored a career-high 32 points in a team record 23 three-pointers.

CNN —Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving on Saturday tweeted that he “meant no disrespect to anyone’s religious beliefs” after the owner of his NBA team condemned him for tweeting a link to a documentary deemed antisemitic. “I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of anti-semitic disinformation,” Nets owner Joe Tsai wrote on Twitter Friday night. The ‘Anti-Semitic’ label that is being pushed on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth I live in everyday. Irving should clarify now.”The Nets also spoke out against the star guard’s tweet. “If Kyrie Irving or any Black Celebrity needs ‘back up’ to prove that we are the True Israelites … i am available to assist them on or off the camera so that the world can finally see and receive the TRUTH.”

☆ NBA Hires CMO From Paramount as It Pushes Digital Products
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Katie Deighton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +2 min

The National Basketball Association named media executive Tammy Henault to be its chief marketing officer as it sharpens its focus on its direct-to-consumer platforms. Ms. Henault joins the NBA after eight years at Paramount Global, where most recently she was senior vice president overseeing consumer marketing for the media company’s streaming platform, Paramount+, and led marketing strategy for its launch. She previously held marketing posts overseeing digital products at New York Times Co. and Time Inc. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CMO Today CMO Today delivers the most important news of the day for media and marketing professionals. It also added NBA ID, a free membership program, to its roster of direct-to-consumer subscriptions products.

☆ Nuggets vs Lakers: Nikola Jokic leads Denver to win over LA, who falls to 0-4 on the season
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( George Ramsay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

With the game tied at 54-54 at halftime, the Nuggets pulled away in the third quarter of Wednesday’s game as they outscored the Lakers 32-17. “I felt that third quarter was one of our best quarters in a very short season,” Nuggets head coach Mike Malone told reporters after the game. “We got the win, but more importantly, we got the win playing how we need to play,” he added. “We gotta make some shots,” Lakers superstar James said after the game, “Some of it is early season stuff, obviously. The Lakers next play the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday in a bid to turn their season around, while the Nuggets host the Utah Jazz.

CNN —Brittney Griner is appealing her verdict in Russian court Tuesday, nearly three months after the US basketball star was convicted of smuggling drugs into the country and sentenced to nine years in prison. Griner’s appeal will be considered in the Moscow Regional Court in a hearing at which her attorneys are expected to argue the verdict was unfair and unjustified under Russian law, they told CNN. The court hearing the appeal can choose to leave Griner’s verdict in place, overrule it and send it back to the lower court, or reduce Griner’s prison term, they said. “Brittney is very strong person and has a champion’s character,” Blagovolina and Boykov told CNN in a written statement ahead of Griner’s appeal. “However, she of course has her highs and lows as she is severely stressed being separated from her loved ones for over eight months.”“She is very nervous waiting for the appeal hearing,” they added.

☆ Liz Mills: How coach became the first woman to lead a men's basketball team in an international tournament
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Alasdair Howorth | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

But as the first woman to coach a men’s national team at a major FIBA tournament, Liz Mills must think of everything – even what she wears. Like many of us when watching a sports team, Mills thought that she could do better; but unlike most of us, she did something about it. Members of the network have experienced discrimination of all kinds, particularly those working in the men’s game. AS Salé was the first job in men's basketball that Mills was paid for. “I want to be the first woman to coach at the World Cup as a head coach of an African [men’s] team,” she asserts.

☆ The NBA’s Big Winner May Be a Big Loser
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Jason Gay | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The 2022-23 NBA season is here, and you haven’t even figured out if your favorite NFL team is a disaster or not! (If it’s the Carolina Panthers, yes, disaster, sorry.) Let’s address some early basketball questions:Is this finally the year for the Minnesota Timberwolves? This comes from my Wolves-suffering editor, who is prone to excitedly waving his arms and walking up to strangers to ask the same question. The plucky and likable Wolves made the playoffs last season, and this summer traded away beloved imp Pat Beverley and half of the Mall of America to land defensive pillar Rudy Golbert, but don’t start making Minneapolis hotel reservations for June.

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