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NBA Names In The News: Bill Clinton, Jay Z, Rihanna Among Celebs At All-Star Game

During last night's NBA All-Star Game at MSG, President BILL CLINTON "sang along during the national anthem," singer RIHANNA "sat in the front row and posed for selfies with young fans," and Cavaliers F LEBRON JAMES caught up with Roc Nation Owner JAY Z at halftime (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/16). Fans in attendance "erupted" when Clinton was shown on the video board (NJ.com, 2/15)....Other celebrities sitting courtside included Jay Z, singer BEYONCE, rapper P. DIDDY, boxer FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR., director SPIKE LEE, and actors CHRIS TUCKER, BEN STILLER and ETHAN HAWKE (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 2/16)....ARIANA GRANDE's 11-minute halftime set during last night's game "wasn't a slam dunk, but more like a layup" (AP, 2/15)....Celebrities in attendance for All-Star Saturday Night at Barclays Center included Rihanna, rappers LUDACRIS and NICKI MINAJ, actress JULIANNE MOORE, actor KEVIN HART and tennis HOFer JOHN MCENROE (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 2/15).

DAVID IS GOLIATH? Former NBA Commissioner DAVID STERN, the league’s "longest-tenured top executive," still works as a consultant for NBA Commissioner ADAM SILVER and "approximately a dozen other companies and charges a hefty fee for speaking engagements." Stern "rents an office on the top floor of a building" in N.Y. (SACBEE.com, 2/13). Stern was present at Friday’s NBA All-Star Technology Summit at the Waldorf Astoria, and for Thursday evening's Tech Summit reception at Lavo Restaurant (THE DAILY).

NBA NAMES: Five direct-elect Basketball HOFers were announced Saturday: Former NBAer LOUIE DAMPIER, former Australian Olympic player and coach LINDSAY GAZE, late NBLer JOHN ISAACS from the Early African-American Pioneers Committee, Nike Global Basketball Dir and former college coach GEORGE RAVELING as a contributor, and former NBA coach TOM HEINSOHN, who had previously been voted in as a player (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 2/15)....Former NBA ref DICK BAVETTA and former NBAer KEVIN JOHNSON were also finalists. Meanwhile, NBA President of Basketball Operations ROD THORN will receive the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 2/15)....ESPN NBA senior writers MARC STEIN and RAMONA SHELBURNE “were recognized as first-place winners” in the ’14 PBWA Best Writing Contest at the NBA’s All-Star Weekend (ESPN.com, 2/15)....LeBron James “was spotted holding court” with his manager, LRMR Management Founder MAVERICK CARTER, at Avenue lounge in Chelsea on Friday night (NYPOST.com, 2/16).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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