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Utah lawmakers have approved a bill that paves the way for a new arena in downtown Salt Lake City that could be the home of the Utah Jazz and a potential National Hockey League team. Utah senators voted 22-4 Friday to concur with changes that the House of Representatives made to SB272 Thursday night before it voted 50-20 to approve the measure. The bill now heads to Gov. Spencer Cox's desk for final approval.
Silas should have no trouble with ballhandling and half-court execution with names like Porter, Green and House on the floor together — Tate and Wood aren’t scrubs in that department, either. House also improved defensively last season even while taking a step back offensively (statistically speaking). He already has the upper hand heading into camp. Recently, he’s been developing on-court chemistry with Green. The Rockets have been hosting intra-roster scrimmages for the past few weeks, and sources say the Green-House-Sengun-Lamb team has been dominating. Green and House have played well off each other, which bodes well for the weeks ahead.
The Floyd bill is the coalition’s first major test. Named for Floyd, who was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in April, the bill passed the House of Representatives in May. (The former officer, Derek Chauvin, is set to be sentenced on Friday; he is facing up to 40 years in prison.)
Liz Mullen: The National Basketball Social Justice Coalition, made up of NBA players, NBA executives, NBPA executives & NBA coaches, issued a statement calling on the U.S. Senate to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. It has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives. pic.twitter.com/0OGb7vanjy
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Danny Green is promoting an initiative he joined between the NBA players’ union and the company Dove. The initiative seeks to change the way Black men are represented in advertising and other forms of media as well as show support for policies that promote public safety and voting rights. One piece of legislation for which they advocate is the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a comprehensive police reform legislation that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June and is headed to the Senate.
Jonathan Feigen: Clint Capela and Danuel House Jr. both upgraded to probable for the Rockets against the Trail Blazers on Monday. Capela (concussion) missed the past two games and House (bruised back) the past three games.
Current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was waiting outside the Warriors locker room postgame, greeting all the players as they exited the arena. The current political landscape — Pelosi is in a very public battle with President Donald Trump right now about the government shutdown over border security policy — created an interesting scene. A few of the players stopped to encourage Pelosi, flipping the typical script of fan rooting an athlete. “Stay strong. We’re pulling for you,” one player told her.
“I think the president is more of a problem than a solution because he keeps pointing to why we should fear each other,” Abdul-Jabbar said, “and we need people who are going to point to how we can co-operate and solve the problems that need to be solved.” Abdul-Jabbar said he was encouraged by the midterm elections that gave Democrats control of the House of Representatives: “It seems that people understand what’s at stake — and they’re doing what they can to preserve our democracy.”
Billionaire Seahawks owner and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen this year has made his largest-ever foray into congressional politics, donating $100,000 to a group aiming to keep Republicans in control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The June 14 donation, disclosed in mid-July, went to Protect the House, a committee headed by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. It’s the biggest check Allen has ever sent to a federal political candidate or committee, according to a review of Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.
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Andray Blatche has never been to the Philippines. He has no Filipino roots. Blatche is from Syracuse, N.Y., about 8,000 miles from Quezon City, where the Philippine basketball team normally trains. But Blatche, a 27-year-old reserve center for the Nets, is on the verge of becoming a Filipino citizen and a member of the national basketball team. The Philippine team contacted Blatche in January, and a few days later, the country’s House of Representatives introduced a bill to grant Blatche citizenship.
The House of Representatives has approved the naturalization of NBA big man Andray Blatche on the third reading. Congressman Robbie Puno filed the bill seeking Blatche’s naturalization on January 29, saying the 6-foot-11 forward/center will be a major boost to the Philippine national team when they play in the FIBA World Cup later this year. Blatche is seen as a back-up in case Marcus Douthit, another naturalized player for Gilas Pilipinas, gets injured. Only one naturalized player per team is allowed by FIBA.
Andray Blatche moved a step closer to becoming eligible to play for the Philippines national team, which is reportedly competing in the FIBA World Cup in Spain this summer. On Monday, the nation’s House of Representatives approved the naturalization of Blatche, according to a report by ABS-CBN, a Filipino media company. A bill granting Blatche citizenship is still pending in the Senate, the report said. ... Paul Pierce became just the fifth player in NBA history to reach 1,900 3-pointers on Monday.
Shawn Bradley wasn’t about to disappear when he retired from the NBA eight years ago. When you’re 7-6, there’s no such thing as fading into the background. Most of Bradley’s focus is on wife Annette and their six children in Murray, Utah. But he’s also found time to run for the state House of Representatives, dabble in real estate, ride his custom-made bicycle in a few 100-mile rides, take an active role in several charities, chair the board of a school for at-risk teens, work on his family’s ranch near Roosevelt in central Utah and even play guitar in a YouTube video promoting Jimmer Fredette. “That was not one of my better moments,” Bradley says of the video. “When the right guy calls, you do something like that. I felt ridiculous (he was wearing a BYU letter jacket and a wig that looked as if it was borrowed from a mop). When we first got there, I said, ‘If (former BYU football coach) LaVell Edwards is not walking through those doors, I’m gone.’ But he showed up and if he was willing to do that, so was I. Luckily, my teenage daughters were not embarrassed by it. To them, it was just dad being dad.”
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