42 episodes
Sports Explains the World Wondery
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Sports Explains the World unveils some of the wildest and most surprising sports stories you’ve never heard. And they’re all true. From the unemployed history teacher turned CIA agent and Uganda national basketball coach, to the teenager who invented a mythical athlete…then watched him sign a million-dollar deal, these stories will amaze and move you at every turn. From award-winning journalists across the globe, Sports Explains the World reveals the human side of sports in provocative and unusual ways. Whether you’ve ever thrown a spiral or been in one, prepare to experience the action on and off the field from an unexpected – and sometimes shocking – vantage point.
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Two Dreams: China and the NBA | Part III
This episode comes out for free on 05/01, and is available early and ad-free for Wondery+ subscribers.
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When late NBA Commissioner David Stern arrived in Beijing, he came with a lucrative business proposal. Stern pushed for American basketball games to be broadcast on Chinese national television, introducing millions of Chinese people to inspiring NBA narratives of individual glory. As the country’s spirits rose, so did the league’s revenues. In the final installment Two Dreams, reporter Kerry Seed explores the budding partnership between China and the NBA at the turn of the millennium, before the infamous Daryl Morey tweet. -
Two Dreams: China and the NBA | Part II
Former Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey Morey’s ill-fated tweet in support of the 2019 Hong Kong protests sparked an existential showdown between the NBA and China, where, by some estimates, there are more basketball fans than people in the United States. In part two of Two Dreams, reporter Kerry Seed looks back at the crucial time during the 1980s when the NBA and the People’s Republic of China began to form a unique partnership.
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Two Dreams: China and the NBA | Part I
The NBA is considered one of the most socially progressive leagues in all of sports. Yet the league's fortunes are intertwined with China, a country with a complicated history of human rights abuse allegations. The tension between these competing interests exploded into the public discourse in 2019, when then Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey sent a controversial tweet during massive protests in Hong Kong, and the NBA found itself at the center of a storm. In part one of Two Dreams, reporter Kerry Seed tells the story of how sports, politics, and business combined to form a multi-billion dollar tornado.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.