what? How did this happen? Has anyone been following this story? This has been really low key in the press but it is happening. Mav's thumped the Iranians last night 79 to 62. Jazz are up next on the 21st. http://www.nba.com/jazz/Revue/rmr2008_schedule.html Sports events historically have been used to thaw the diplomatic ice. In 1972, "ping pong diplomacy" paved the way for President Nixon’s historic visit China. More recently, North Korea's Tae Kwon Do team performed in the United States, as one of the steps towards improving North Korea-U.S. relations. So is this just “ping-pong diplomacy” with a larger ball? The NBA won’t reveal much. Brian McIntyre, the NBA’s Senior Vice President of Basketball Communications, said the Islamic Republic of Iran Basketball Federation (IRIBF) called to say it was interested in playing its national team in a game or two against an NBA team on the way to Beijing. A summer-league tournament would be fine, the Iranians said. McIntyre said the league called the State Department to ask what to do. After all, the U.S. doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Iran. And recent news reports have suggested Iran may be trying to build nuclear weapons. Then, there are possible plans by the U.S. or Israel to take military action to prevent that from happening. The State Department, which is all in favor of people-to-people (or in this case, player-to-player) relations, encouraged the idea, McIntyre said. And so the NBA approached the Jazz, which sponsors the Rocky Mountain Revue, a summer basketball league for NBA hopefuls, top rookies, other young but unproven players and vets looking for another chance. Jazz owner Larry Miller agreed to the contests. The NBA and State Department understand, McIntyre said, how important "sports diplomacy" is to building relationships between nations. But there are hints that the Jazz may not be fully embracing the love-thy-neighbor concept. On the Utah Jazz website, the team lists the Rocky Mountain Revue participants by name. All except for Iran, which is described simply as "the 2007 FIBA Asian Champion." The word "Iran" is not mentioned on the team's announcement or the schedule. A Jazz official had no comment. Despite the low-key publicity, the Iranians will be playing at 2:15 p.m. on July 19th against Dallas, and at 7 p.m. on July 21st against Utah. U.S. officials believe that the request came from the highest levels in Iran, and is part of an attempt by Iran to tamp down tensions between the two countries. In fact, Iranian officials told NBC News that hardliners in the Islamic Republic opposed the overture. But moderates in the Iranian government prevailed. The Iranian officials said that moderates in the government have been trying to set something like this up for two years. Iranian officials add that the basketball team is already in the U.S. training for the games. And, by the way, he added, so is the Iranian national ping-pong team http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/07/1185592.aspx
Umm. The news wants you to hear what they want you to hear. Some player from Iran could have dropped 73 points and stole Cuban's soul and you wouldn't hear about it.
hmm the under the radar Iranian/NBA goodwill series. Somehow I can see why the NBA doesn't really want to promote it that much and is only giving the state dept. lip service.
Does anyone know if these games are streaming online? I'd like to watch the Nets play since Ramel Bradley is on their roster.
They are naive.Once they find out what the Utah Jazz really stands for they will never go there again.
They lost but gave a fight to both of them. The gap is huge right now but this shows the growing global reach of the game.
I would so root for iran over the Jazz. I dont think i would be the only one either. Salt Lake City and Iran are both pretty evil (one a lot more than the other one "cough utah" ). The jazz clut burned texas flags and spray painted nazi symbols on them. But obviously Iran is the real threat to the US.
