There’s been a lot of developments brewing in the city of Cleveland in the past couple of months, but things weren’t always this way for the place some call the “Forest City”. Before May 22nd 2003, when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the right to the first pick of the NBA draft, Cleveland was a small time team in a small time market most well known for being the background of Michael Jordan’s famous game winners in the Playoffs (The Shot and The Shot II). In fact, the city of Cleveland …

So I was doing my daily roundup of reading basketball news from around the world when I stumbled across this shocking PR release featured on CNN.com. The title reads:
“American Basketball Association (ABA) Joins in $200 Million Global Expansion.”

 
I must admit, I thought that the ABA had died in 1976 when it officially merged with the NBA. When I think of the ABA, I think of the blue/red/white ‘money’ ball (used today in the NBA three point contest), of Julius Erving, and of afros and tight shorts. So I had to …

AEG and NBA formed a partnership back in May of 2008 announcing their plans to build a dozen top of the line stadiums around China. Today, that plan saw its first major victory by selling the naming rights of their soon to be completed Shanghai Arena for around 100 million dollars.
The 18,000 seat arena being built at Shanghai’s World Expo Site is  still underway, being currently jointly built by partners AEG and NBA as well as the Oriental Pearl Group (of the Shanghai Media Group). The $280 million stadium is being constructed around …

It hasn’t been the best year for Yi Jianlian. First, his China team lost embarassingly to Iran on home soil in the FIBA Asian Championships, then he got injured after only 4 games into the 2009-2010 season, and just recently his New Jersey Nets officially got off to the worst start in NBA history by losing their first 18 games.
After 5 weeks of being out with a sprain that bothered  his right knee, Yi was expected to return on Sunday to play against the New York Knicks. However, it seems …