Barack Obama Joins NBA Africa

 

Former President Barack Obama has plans to take the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) presence in Africa to the next level.

According to an announcement from the NBA, Obama is officially a minority owner and strategic partner in NBA Africa’s business, where he hopes to advance the league’s social responsibility efforts across the continent.

Steph Curry Surpasses Reggie Miller

 

Golden State Warriors‘ superstar guard, Steph Curry has once again found himself making NBA history. This time, he surpasses Hall of Famer, Reggie Miller for the second-most career three-pointers ever made.

During his 18 year NBA career, Reggie Miller made 2,560 three-pointers in 1,389 regular season games. Curry passes Miller in the all-time scoring records early on in his 715th game against the Utah Jazz. In just his 12th year in the NBA, Curry now records 2,561 threes and counting. Holding first place is legendary shooter Ray Allen with 2,973 career threes, which is a little over 400 three-pointers more than Curry’s current record. With a cushion of half a thousand beyond the arc shots, Allen’s title as NBA’s all-time three-point shooter should remain safe during the 2021 season. However, at the pace of Curry’s rise to the all-time leaderboard, Curry will likely surpass Allen in the second half of the 2021-2022 season.

TWUM Hottest Sports Moments

At "The Wrap-Up Magazine" Everyone loves some type of sport from time to time. Some of the hottest sports news, scores, rumors, fantasy games, and more can be found here. This is the latest in national and local sports news covering rumors of all kinds.

 The +Cleveland Cavaliers has just fired their coach +Mike Brown. Brown was fired for the second time in four years by owner Dan Gilbert, who last April brought back the only coach to get the Cavs to the NBA Finals but then dismissed him after the team failed to make the playoffs...More CLICK HERE

 In the final installment of All Access: Mayweather vs. Maidana, follow both fighters backstage and witness the aftermath of an epic battle. This is the Epilogue visual video...More CLICK HERE

 Damian Lillard of the +Portland Trail Blazers hit a buzzer beater over the +Houston Rockets. Damian Lillard drained the incredible three with 0.9 seconds left to send Portland to the 2nd round over Houston. Visit nba.com/video for more highlights...More CLICK HERE

 The +UConn Huskies has taken the national championship for college basketball. In a game featuring the highest combined seeds in the history of the national championship game, the Connecticut Huskies defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 60-54 at AT&T Stadium in North Texas to win the school’s fourth NCAA title...More CLICK HERE

 Former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer won a frenetic bidding war for ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers, with his $2-billion offer setting a record price for an NBA team, The Times has learned. Ballmer, who was chief executive of Microsoft for 14 years, was chosen over competitors that included Los Angeles-based investors Tony Ressler and Steve Karsh and a group that included David Geffen and executives from the Guggenheim Group, the Chicago-based owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers...More CLICK HERE

 Cleveland Cavaliers star member +Andrew Bynum has been suspended for conduct detrimental to the team. Andrew Bynum’s rocky season has continued, as the center has been suspended by the Cleveland Cavaliers...More CLICK HERE

 In Arlington, Texas, the +Oakland Raiders gave up control of the game late in the first half and saw the Dallas Cowboys dominate the second half of a 31-24 Thanksgiving Day loss...More CLICK HERE

 The +New York Knicks has been named the most valuable NBA Franchise. Forbes released its annual list of richest NBA teams, and the Knicks come in first at $1.4 billion. New York is one of three teams in the league that are worth over a billion dollars, with the runners-up on the list being the Los Angeles Lakers ($1.35 billion) and Chicago Bulls ($1 billion). The top five of the list is rounded out by the Boston Celtics ($875 million) and Brooklyn Nets ($780 million)...More CLICK HERE

 The Kings rocketed off the bench and gathered for a huge group hug near the Rangers’ net before the handshake line and the Stanley Cup ceremony featuring captain Dustin Brown’s second chance to take the 35-pound silver trophy from Commissioner Gary Bettman...More CLICK HERE

 Germany became World Cup champion for the fourth time on Sunday night, and the first European team in history to clinch soccer’s greatest prize on South American soil. It did so courtesy of a winner deep into extra time from substitute Mario Gotze, who displayed a brilliant piece of skill to decide a contest of outstanding quality...More CLICK HERE

 Micheal Jordan anniversary for his final +NBA championship games is today. The +Chicago Bulls with coach +Phil Jackson were the best of all times thus far. Today marks the 15th anniversary of one of the greatest shots in NBA history. In Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals...More CLICK HERE

LeBron James May Opt Out

Rumors are that +LeBron James may opt out of his contract with the +Miami HEAT. LeBron James’ agent Rich Paul has informed the Miami Heat that the four-time NBA MVP will exercise his early termination option and become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

Opting out does not mean that James has decided to leave the Heat. James had until June 30 to decide whether to opt out of the final two years of his contract with Miami. He was scheduled to make $20 million next season and had two years and about $42.7 million remaining on his deal.

“The last four seasons have been historic, and LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Erik Spoelstra have led the Miami Heat to one of the most unprecedented runs in the history of the NBA. We look forward to sitting down with LeBron and his representatives and talking about our future together. At the moment, we are preparing for the opportunities in the draft and free agency as we continue with our goal of winning NBA championships.”

After Miami’s season-ending loss to the San Antonio Spursin Game 5 of the NBA Finals, James told reporters he would take a vacation with his family before considering his contract options. James indicated that he welcomed the opportunity to become a free agent and have the same level of flexibility he was afforded in 2010, when he signed with Miami after spending his first seven years in Cleveland.

In his four seasons in Miami, the Heat have gone to the NBA Finals four times, winning two championships. James could join Shaquille O’Neal as the only players in league history to lead the NBA Finals in total points scored and then play for a different team to start the following season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. O’Neal played for the 2003-04 Los Angeles Lakers, who lost to the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals, and was traded to the Heat in the offseason.

Shaquille O’Neal And Allen Iverson Nominated For The Hall of Fame

The larger-than-life 7-foot-1 big man and the ultra-quick 6-0 point guard lead the 10-member Class of 2016, which was announced Monday. Much like during their playing careers, there was no stopping Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson when it came to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

O’Neal won four NBA championships and an MVP award and is in the league’s top 10 in career scoring. Iverson won four scoring titles and was the league’s MVP in 2001, when his 48-point performance for the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals handed O’Neal’s Los Angeles Lakers their only loss of the most dominant postseason in NBA history.

Iverson and O’Neal will be enshrined along with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, former Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, former WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Longtime NBA referee Darrell Garretson, coach John McLendon and former stars Zelmo Beaty and Cumberland Posey will be enshrined posthumously.

O’Neal is one of four players to win three Finals MVP awards, joining Michael Jordan (6), Tim Duncan (3) and Magic Johnson (3). He was one vote shy in 1999-2000 of becoming the first unanimous MVP in NBA history as Iverson received the only other first-place vote.

Izzo has reached seven Final Fours and earned 524 career victories since becoming the head coach at Michigan State in 1995. In 2000 he guided the Spartans to the NCAA national championship with an 89-76 win over Florida.

Ming, the No. 1 overall pick by the Rockets in 2002, didn’t have the numbers of some other great centers, but he bridged a path for the NBA to China. The third Chinese player in league history was an eight-time All-Star before injuries shortened his career, as he missed 159 out of a possible 164 games in the last two years in the NBA. Ming was a first-team all-rookie in the 2002-03 season. In his first game against O’Neal, he blocked his first three shot attempts in the first three minutes of the game.

Swoopes was the first player signed by the WNBA. She went on to win three MVP awards and four championships in the league, but it was her 47-point performance in leading Texas Tech to the 1993 NCAA championship that many think of first when talking about one of the greats of women’s basketball.

The NBA’s Highest-Paid Players 2019-20

At $92 million, including salary and endorsements, James is the NBA’s highest-paid player for the sixth straight year. It is a record haul for an active basketball player. Nike is his biggest backer, and the company is naming a new research lab at its Beaverton, Oregon, corporate campus after James.

The four-time NBA MVP added a pair of endorsement deals in 2019 with Rimowa luggage and Walmart, which joined Coca-Cola, Beats By Dre, Blaze Pizza and NBA 2K in his sponsorship stable. He also has a budding digital media company, Uninterrupted, and a production firm, SpringHill Entertainment, which will release a sequel to the 1996 Michael Jordan vehicle Space Jam in conjunction with Warner Bros. in 2021. All of the off-court work is worth an estimated $55 million for James this season.

Stephen Curry comes in at No. 2 on the earnings list this year and is expected to generate $85 million this season, including $45 million off the court. Under Armour represents nearly half of his off-court income.

Curry’s $40.2 million salary from the Golden State Warriors is the highest in the history of the NBA; he’s in the third season of the five-year, $201 million contract he signed in 2017. Curry’s production company, Unanimous Media, has a development deal with Sony Pictures. Unanimous’ first movie, Breakthrough, was released in April, with Curry playing a role in marketing the Christian-oriented film, which grossed $50 million on a $14 million budget.

Durant has the NBA’s second-biggest annual shoe contract after James’ at an estimated $26 million this season. His total earnings from his playing salary and endorsements is $73 million. Nike sells more KD shoes in China than in North America, according to Durant’s business partner Rich Kleiman.

Like James and Curry, Durant has his own production company, which is co-producing a new basketball-themed drama, Swagger, that is inspired by Durant’s youth basketball experience and will air on the Apple TV+ streaming service.

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Scottie Pippen’s Terrible Bulls Contract

 

Chicago managed to lock him down long-term at a bargain-basement price.

But how? And how did they get away with it for so long?

Michael Jordan or Lebron James?

 

If Michael Jordan was still playing in the NBA, who do you believe would win between him and Lebron James? This is another for fans and viewers to engage on by Fans Favorite.

Inside The NBA With Nicki Minaj Video

Watch this visual video with Ernie, Shaq, Kenny, Grant, and Nicki Minaj as they rap it out on Inside the NBA! So it was that Nicki Minaj added to her memorable and illustrious career by cyphering with the cast of TNT's Inside the NBA. 

Most Valuable NBA Franchise

The +New York Knicks has been named the most valuable NBA Franchise. Forbes released its annual list of richest NBA teams, and the Knicks come in first at $1.4 billion. New York is one of three teams in the league that are worth over a billion dollars, with the runners-up on the list being the Los Angeles Lakers ($1.35 billion) and Chicago Bulls ($1 billion). The top five of the list is rounded out by the Boston Celtics ($875 million) and Brooklyn Nets ($780 million).

A major part of the profitability of the Knicks and Lakers is their television revenue. In addition to being massively popular global brands, both teams essentially control their own television networks, the Knicks’ MSG and the Lakers’ Time Warner Cable SportsNet. Forbes reported that the Lakers have the richest local television agreement in the NBA, worth $3.6 billion over 20 years.

Coming in last on the list are the Milwaukee Bucks, worth an estimated $405 million, well below the league average of $634 million. The two-time defending NBA champions, the Miami Heat, are the seventh-most profitable team in the league at $770 million, and the team with the current best record in the league, the Indiana Pacers, come in at No. 22, with a $475 million total value.

Kobe Bryant Talks Quitting Basketball

Could this be a rumor that +Kobe Bryant may be quitting basketball? The L.A. Lakers’ Kobe Bryant has been contemplating life after basketball since he was 22. Now that he’s 36, out due to injury and close to retirement, he says he’ll play one more season and finish his two-year contract, which will net him $25 million. But his recent experience as the subject and executive producer of the intimate doc Kobe Bryant’s Muse — produced by Gotham Chopra (Deepak‘s son) and airing Feb. 28 on Showtime — has opened up the possibility of a career behind the lens. “There are so many other stories to be told,” he says, adding that he’d like to profile Phil Jackson and Apple designer Jonathan Ive.

Chopra began filming Bryant more than a year ago, before Bryant suffered a devastating Achilles injury — and the film chronicles his recovery efforts. But it also finds him at a crossroads in his life and questioning some of the choices he’s made, including putting so much time and energy into basketball at the expense of the relationships in his life. Bryant sat for nearly 20 interviews with Chopra. The result is a surprisingly revealing introspective film about an NBA star who has been under the microscope almost since the day he entered the NBA straight from high school in 1996. “It was 100 percent therapeutic,” says Bryant. “The goal from the beginning was to make a truthful film.”

You were very candid about the dark periods in your life. Was that difficult?

BRYANT It was very difficult. But there’s beauty in that process.

You were arrested in 2003 on sexual assault charges, but the case was dropped. How difficult was that to revisit?

BRYANT Those were dark days for all of us. We all kind of dreaded that day.

Gotham, what were your conversations with Kobe like before you interviewed him?

CHOPRA We didn’t talk beforehand because we didn’t want it to feel scripted. It had to feel raw and honest. It was not easy for him. It was not easy for us because you feel like you’re prying into someone’s most personal stuff. But his willingness to go there just made it feel like, now we’re doing something special.

BRYANT Probably during my second year [in the NBA]. It takes more time to keep those relationships going. I was just really obsessive about becoming one of the all-time greats. I just loved playing the game so much that everything took a back seat. But I had to make a choice. Once I made that decision, the game became everything to me.

Do you regret that?

BRYANT It depends on what day you ask me. Certain days, when things are going really well, I feel like I have everything. But on days where things are not as good, I question that.

Some of your NBA peers have dabbled in acting. Do you have any interest in a career in front of the camera?

BRYANT No, I don’t enjoy being in films. It makes me uncomfortable.

You went to the NBA directly from high school. What was it like to be thrust into this grown-up world and suddenly making a very grown-up salary? 

BRYANT It’s really hard, especially for a 17-year-old. You’re having all this money thrown at you, all this attention thrown at you. And there are a lot of leeches. It teaches you a lot about focus. What are you focused on? What are you trying to accomplish? All right, let’s weed out everything else that gets in the way of that. But at 20 years old, I was dealing with a lot. It was crazy.

You have never worked with Gotham before, but I understand you had a mutual friend.

BRYANT Yeah. He knew Michael [Jackson] very well. And Michael is one of my mentors. When I was 18, he introduced me to his muses. I had never seen a Fred Astaire film.

You watched Fred Astaire movies with him?

BRYANT Yeah, I wanted to know how he sold 50 million albums, so he walked me through how he prepares, how he trains, how he writes, how he studies.

What was the most important lesson you learned from Michael Jackson?

BRYANT That everything is connected. Whether you’re a writer, an actor, a singer, a composer or an athlete, the common thread is there. Everything around us is an opportunity to be inspired.

Latrell Sprewell or Penny Hardaway

 

Fans Favorite is back to hear what fans have to say about there top NBA player. This time there matching up Latrell Sprewell with Penny Hardaway.

In this article, The Wrap Up Magazine would like to know who do you think is the better player out of Latrell Sprewell or Penny Hardaway?

Former Microsoft CEO To Buy Clippers For $2 Billion

Former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer won a frenetic bidding war for ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers, with his $2-billion offer setting a record price for an NBA team, The Times has learned. Ballmer, who was chief executive of Microsoft for 14 years, was chosen over competitors that included Los Angeles-based investors Tony Ressler and Steve Karsh and a group that included David Geffen and executives from the Guggenheim Group, the Chicago-based owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The sale price is almost four times the highest previous NBA franchise sale price — the $550 million paid earlier this month for the Milwaukee Bucks. It is second only to the Dodgers’ 2012 sale for $2.1 billion as the highest price for any sports team in North America. The prospective sale by Clippers co-owner Shelly Sterling comes five days ahead of an NBA hearing to oust her family from ownership following a controversy in which Donald Sterling insulted African-Americans in a secret audio recording.

The tentative deal still must receive the blessing of her husband, Donald Sterling, who has waxed and waned on the question of whether he would allow his wife to sell the team he has controlled for more than three decades. The deal also needs the eventual approval of 29 other NBA owners, but is expected to clear that hurdle as long as Ballmer reaffirms his pledge to keep the team in Los Angeles and not move it to Seattle, where he lives.

New Nike NBA “City Edition” Jerseys

The fourth edition of Nike’s new NBA jerseys have been revealed. So far we’ve seen the league’s Association, Icon, and Statement jerseys. Now, we’re getting the City edition. The Houston Rockets, Miami Heat, New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors will unveil their City Edition uniforms soon.

LeBron James Breaks More Records

Last night, on a jump shot over Knicks guard Courtney Lee at Madison Square Garden, LeBron James, 32, became the youngest player in NBA history to reach the 28,000 point milestone. James' history-making shot came in the second quarter of what would turn out to be a narrow Cavs victory against the Knicks.

James is currently sitting at number 8 on the all-time NBA scoring list. Shaquille O'Neal is next on the list at number 7, with 28,596 points.

With this basket, #LeBronJames became the youngest player to reach 28,000 career points! Congrats, King.#DefendTheLand #NBAonABC pic.twitter.com/SE2qL7Iw5b

— NBA (@NBA) February 5, 2017

#MusicVideo NBA YoungBoy - Purge Me

 

NBA YoungBoy shows private moments with his family in the video to his new single, “Purge Me”.

Directed by Isaac Garcia, the elusive rapper vents throughout the lush grounds of his lush pad and spending quality time with his children and his expecting fiancé, Jazlyn Mychelle. This is NBA’s ninth child and the couple’s second together.

NBA Youngboy Sued

 

NBA Youngboy has been staying out of trouble, but his past may be returning to haunt him. Reports surfaced noting the rapper is now facing a lawsuit from an incident that allegedly went down in 2019 at one of his shows. 

LeBron James Becomes 1st Active NBA Billionaire

 

LeBron James just became the first active NBA player to reach billionaire status while still playing. It was reported by Forbes that James' net worth surpassed the $1 billion mark after he earned $121.2 million in 2021.

The Akron, OH native has amassed immense wealth during his nearly two-decade playing career that has opened up many more opportunities off the court. LeBron has tallied $385 million in on-court earnings in addition to $900 million in off the court ventures. 

NBA YoungBoy New #MusicVideo “Holy”

 

After securing another bag earlier this week, NBA YoungBoy tones it down with “Holy”, his second release this week.

Accompanied by his girlfriend and mother of his child, YoungBoy Never Broke Again reflects on their love and their relationship.

How Many Enemies Does NBA YoungBoy Have?

 

NBA YoungBoy has an extensive list of enemies over the years and some of these beefs even turned deadly so today we look into all of the enemies of NBA YoungBoy. Including TBG, King Von, Lil Durk, JayDaYoungan, Kodak Black, Gee Money, Fredo Bang, NLE Choppa, Drake and more.