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Tag: Adam Silver

  • Microsoft Scores With NBA Partnership

    Microsoft Scores With NBA Partnership

    Microsoft has announced a multi-year partnership with the NBA, beginning with the 2020-21 season.

    Microsoft’s technology has been a staple on NFL sidelines for years, but the new NBA deal represents a significant expansion into the sports world. With the new deal, the NBA will use Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to broadcast on-demand and live broadcasts.

    The partnership will also heavily utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to improve the customer experience. The technology will be used to help generate a “more personalized fan experience,” based on the NBA’s video archives. AI and ML will also help provide coaches and broadcasters with unique insights.

    “We are thrilled to serve as the official AI partner of the NBA,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “Together, we’ll bring fans closer to the game and players they love with new personalized experiences powered by Microsoft Azure.”

    “This partnership with Microsoft will help us redefine the way our fans experience NBA basketball,” said Adam Silver, NBA commissioner. “Our goal, working with Microsoft, is to create customized content that allows fans — whether they are in an NBA arena or watching from anywhere around the world — to immerse themselves in all aspects of the game and engage directly with our teams and players.”

    The partnership is a big win for Microsoft and the company’s technology will help revolutionize the experience for NBA officials and fans alike.

    Image Credit: Microsoft

  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Sterling GF, Media ‘Caught’ Him

    Former Los Angeles Lakers star and former Clippers assistant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, wrote an op-ed column for Time.com about his take on the Donald Sterling scandal.

    Abdul-Jabbar said while Clippers owner Sterling – who was banned from the NBA for life – should have been held accountable years ago for his bigotry, blame for this latest incident should be shared with the media and his girlfriend, who he contends duped him into revealing his bigotry in an audio recording.

    “And now the poor guy’s girlfriend (undoubtedly ex-girlfriend now) is on tape cajoling him into revealing his racism,” said Abdul-Jabbar. “Man, what a winding road she led him down to get all of that out. She was like a sexy nanny playing “pin the fried chicken on the Sambo.” She blindfolded him and spun him around until he was just blathering all sorts of incoherent racist sound bites that had the news media peeing themselves with glee.

    “They caught big game on a slow news day, so they put his head on a pike, dubbed him Lord of the Flies, and danced around him whooping,” he said. “I don’t blame them. I’m doing some whooping right now.”

    Abdul-Jabber conveyed his relief that Sterling was finally called out, but says evidence of his racism goes way back and should have been exposed long ago.

    “He was discriminating against black and Hispanic families for years, preventing them from getting housing,” Abdul-Jabbar says. “It was public record. We did nothing. Suddenly he says he doesn’t want his girlfriend posing with Magic Johnson on Instagram and we bring out the torches and rope. Shouldn’t we have all called for his resignation back then?”

    After the news broke Monday about Sterling’s lifelong ban, Abdul-Jabar told reporters that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver handled the incident “the right way.”

    In his column, Abdul-Jabber says the Sterling scandal should be a point of inspiration to fight against racism in America.

    “Racists deserve to be paraded around the modern town square of the television screen so that the rest of us who believe in the American ideals of equality can be reminded that racism is still a disease that we haven’t yet licked,” he says. “What bothers me about this whole Donald Sterling affair isn’t just his racism. I’m bothered that everyone acts as if it’s a huge surprise.

    “Let’s use this tawdry incident to remind ourselves of the old saying: ‘Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.’ Instead of being content to punish Sterling and go back to sleep, we need to be inspired to vigilantly seek out, expose, and eliminate racism at its first signs,” he added.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Al Sharpton: Remove Sterling or ‘We March’

    Al Sharpton: Remove Sterling or ‘We March’

    Reverend Al Sharpton is threatening to protest the NBA if L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling is not dealt with immediately for his racist comments.

    “No one should be allowed to own a team if they have in fact engaged in this kind of racial language,” said the civil rights activist to TMZ Sports.

    Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, is calling for the league to make an investigation into Sterling immediately and said, “We are prepared at National Action Network to rally in front of the NBA headquarters if this matter is not immediately dealt with.”

    Sterling is under heavy fire after berating his girlfriend for hanging out with black people in public and telling her not to bring black people to his games after she posted a photo of herself with Magic Johnson on her Instagram. The comments came in a recording taped by his girlfriend.

    “I’m totally outraged that they are stalling on this,” Sharpton said in a telephone interview to Bloomberg. “It does not take an investigation. Either he is the man on the tape or not. And he has not said unequivocally that he is not.”

    NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement that everyone should be allowed due process.

    “All members of the NBA family should be afforded due process and a fair opportunity to present their side of any controversy. The core of the investigation is understanding whether the tape is authentic, interviewing Mr. Sterling and interviewing the woman as well and understanding the context in which it was recorded,” said Silver in the statement.

    An outpouring of disgust over Sterling’s comments is rampant on social media.

    Image via YouTube

  • Donald Sterling Being Probed By NBA

    Donald Sterling Being Probed By NBA

    If TMZ’s shocking audio release is indeed of Donald Sterling making racist statements about blacks, he may be in hot water with the NBA.

    NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced on Saturday that there would be a probe launched into a recording that allegedly features Sterling insisting that his biracial girlfriend stop using her Instagram account to draw attention to the fact that minorities have anything to do with his sports team.

    “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people,” said the man thought to be Sterling.

    It’s important to remember that the NBA team owner’s girlfriend V. Stiviano is herself half-black.

    The fact that Sterling could make such comments about minorities and date a woman of color is quite the disconnect.

    It’s possible that following this scandal, Stiviano may move on from the controversial sports figure.

    In truth, accusations of racism are not new to the Los Angeles Clippers owner. Sterling has been sued multiple times for racial discrimination. In addition to reportedly making negative comments about blacks, Sterling is also said to have made negative comments about latinos and Koreans.

    In the now viral audio recording, it’s thought Sterling even dissed NBA legend Magic Johnson.

    What’s most unfortunate is that the Los Angeles Clippers, a team that has been laughably bad for some time, actually have had a brilliant season.

    Some fear that the team that has worked so hard will be made to suffer due to the ignorance and hate of the owner.

    Having an actual recording available means it’s for Sterling harder to deny the racist allegations made against him in this situation.

    It also means that continuing to have a man like Sterling visibly associated with modern professional basketball could be bad for the entire sport.

    Image via YouTube

  • NBA Finals Format Changes For 2014 Season

    NBA Finals Format Changes For 2014 Season

    Previously, the team with the home court advantage would get the first two and potentially, the last two games played at home, and play at the opposing teams home court for games 3, 4, and 5. Now, the team with home-court advantage still gets the first two games of the Finals at home, the next two away and then the teams with alternate cities of the last three games, if played. Clearly, if four games are won by either team by game 4 or beyond, the finals will be done.

    NBA owners voted today to restore the NBA Finals format to 2-2-1-1-1, starting this season, and unanimously replaced the previous 2-3-2 format used since 1985.

    Not just the playoffs, but the first three rounds of the playoffs follow the 2-2-1-1-1 format. Another change is that if the Finals goes seven games, there will be an extra day between Games 6 and 7. For example, if Game 6 is on a Monday, Game 7 will be on Thursday.

    “There has been an abiding sense amongst our teams,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said, “and they’ve stated two things: One, in a 2-2 series, it’s sort of not fair for the team with the better record to be away. And two, it’s difficult for the team — the better team in terms of record to spend as many as eight days on the road away from home. So for all those considerations and many others, the Competition Committee voted, it was explained to the owners, and they voted to make the change.”

    Stern is stepping aside on February 1 after 30 years, this being the final meeting with owners as commissioner was able to announce the changes on Wednesday.

    The concern of the owners translated by the committee was the team with home-court advantage playing Game 5 on the road. Statistics show that the Finals have been tied 2-2 11 times since 1985, and the winner of Game 5 has won the championship eight times.

    But the home-court advantage is 21-8, since 1985. It could just be that these teams were ACTUALLY better teams regardless of where they play, but NBA owners want to keep it fair.

    Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, who will take over for Stern in February, said that it was unfair that a team didn’t have home-court advantage for Game 5. The format won’t likely change the outcome, but Game 5 at home has a significant edge, and could extend the length of the series. When it comes down to it, extending a series puts more money in the owners pockets and is good for business.

    “You’re more likely in a 2-2-1-1-1 format to get a Game 7,” Silver said, “but you’re not more likely to get a different outcome.”

    Images (via) Youtube