A calm captain’s hand from Salman Ali Agha and a fiery spell by Haris Rauf ensured Pakistan made a winning start to the T20I tri-series, overcoming Afghanistan by 39 runs at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday night.
But beyond the numbers, this was a contest that reflected Pakistan’s growing maturity in crunch moments, as well as their ability to adapt in tricky conditions at the storied Sharjah Cricket Stadium that have so often tested them in the past.
Salman’s Composed Anchor
After Pakistan opted to bat, early wickets meant the innings could easily have unravelled. At 83 for four, Afghanistan had their tails up. But Salman held his ground, building patiently before accelerating when it mattered. His 53 off 36 balls*, including three sixes, wasn’t just a captain’s innings – it was the glue that held Pakistan together.
His partnership with Mohammad Nawaz (21 off 11) was crucial, adding 53 for the fifth wicket and ensuring Pakistan pushed the total well beyond the par score Salman himself later identified as “150-160.” Posting 182 for seven gave the bowlers a cushion they fully exploited.
Rauf’s fire, Nawaz’s grit
Defending 183, Pakistan faced pressure as Rahmanullah Gurbaz (38) and Rashid Khan (39) looked threatening. At 92 for two, Afghanistan were in control. Then came the collapse – five wickets for just four runs.
Haris Rauf ripped through the middle order with 4 for 31, but it was Nawaz who earned special praise from his captain. Bowling in tough phases against Rashid and Gurbaz, the left-arm spinner returned 2 for 23 and squeezed the chase when it was still alive. Add Shaheen Afridi (2-21) and Sufiyan Muqim (2-25) to the mix, and Pakistan’s attack looked balanced and ruthless.
“Bowling was outstanding, whoever comes in bowled really well. Haris and Shaheen are two of the best in the world. But my pick was Nawaz – he always bowls the tough overs,” Salman said after the game.
Crowd management in focus
This fixture carried more than just cricketing weight. Organisers had put in strict crowd measures – separate enclosures, designated routes, and color-coded tickets for fans – after ugly scenes marred Pakistan’s last close finish against Afghanistan in 2022. Friday’s game passed off without incident, allowing focus to remain firmly on the cricket.
Lessons for both teams
For Pakistan, the takeaways are positive: resilience under pressure, depth in batting down to Faheem Ashraf at No. 8, and a bowling unit that continues to deliver across conditions. For Afghanistan, the collapse from 92 for two to 97 for seven will hurt – once again exposing their middle-order fragility when faced with sustained pressure.
What lies ahead
Pakistan now turn to their second assignment against UAE on Saturday, aiming to consolidate momentum. With this win, they’ve laid down an early marker in the tri-series, showing a mix of composure and firepower that could carry them deep into the competition.
For Salman Ali Agha, still settling into captaincy, it was the perfect start: leading with bat, lifting his bowlers, and steering his team through the noise both on and off the field.
Six tries were a just reward for the ambitious Canadians who, after a slow start, proved dominant in every facet of the game. The world No.2 ranked side will head to the knockouts full of confidence, while Wales are looking at a disappointing early exit.
Story of the match
Wales started brightly, dominating possession and territory early on, but after failing to turn such dominance into points, Canada pounced. With the Welsh defence creaking under a red wave that would become relentless, prop McKinley Hunt powered over for the opening score.
That opened the floodgates. Canada’s famed ruck speed and superb hands taking over. The second effort was arguably the pick of four first-half tries, with just about all 15 red shirts combining from deep before winger Alysha Corrigan scorched over.
Three tries in 10 minutes was soon four in 14, as sevens star Asia Hogan-Rochester secured the bonus point on her RWC debut with a scintillating solo try.
While the North Americans’ attack will rightly take the headlines, their defence will have the world’s best worried too. A further two tries came in the second half – both scored while influential Wales number eight Georgia Evans served 10 minutes on the sideline – but just as crucially for Canada’s future, Wales simply could not find a way through.
A yellow card for replacement Olivia DeMerchant, after a high tackle, was just about the only blot for a team who flexed their muscles ominously.
TAMPERE (Finland) – Germany became the first team to secure their spot in the Round of 16 at FIBA EuroBasket 2025 after winning the unbeaten battle with Lithuania 107-88 in Tampere.
The Germans improve to 3-0 in Group B as they scored 100+ points once again, and handed their opponents a first loss in the tournament.
Turning Point
Both teams were red hot from three-point range to start, shooting a combined 9-for-12 in the early stages of the first quarter. However, Germany made the first move, ending the opening period on a 16-2 run, highlighted by a crazy three-point play from Schroder, to lead 32-20 after one.
Enjoying a lead as big as 15 points going into the third quarter, Germany saw their advantage weakened thanks to Rokas Jokubaitis, as his score narrowed the gap to 55-51. But then, Wagner took over, scoring six points as part of an 8-2 run to regain Germany’s double-digit lead. From there, they never let Lithuania get another look.
TCL Player of the Game
Daniel Theis was faultless all game long, and it was reflected in his stat line. He went 9-for-9 from the floor, 3-for-3 from long range, and 2-for-2 from the line for 23 points. He also pulled down 5 rebounds in 21 minutes on the court.
Adding to Germany’s spectacular display was the dynamic duo of Dennis Schroder and Franz Wagner, who combined for 50 points. Jokubaitis led Lithuania with 20 points.
Stats Don’t Lie
When you shoot 53 percent from the floor, your chances of winning go up significantly. Germany put on a stunning offensive display against a mighty Lithuanian side, but what’s more impressive is that they took care of the ball, only turning it over six times, compared to Lithuania’s 18.
That allowed Germany to score 25 points off those Lithuanian turnovers, while their counterparts only managed seven. Germany also tied the three-point makes record – since 1995 – with 19.
Bottom Line
Germany stamped their ticket to Riga for the Round of 16 with an unbeaten record heading into their final Group Phase games as they play Great Britain next. Lithuania will face the hosts, Finland, in their penultimate Group B game in what could decide second spot in the group.
They Said
For more quotes, tune in to the official post-game press conference!
Lando Norris completed a clean sweep of weekend sessions so far by topping Free Practice 3 at the Dutch Grand Prix, as McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri trailed in second place.
Norris has been the class of the field so far at Zandvoort, and set an impressive marker ahead of Qualifying, with a 1m 08.972s effort, a time 0.701s faster than his pole lap from last year.
Piastri fell 0.242s shy of Norris, while George Russell was the fastest non-McLaren driver 0.866s back. The Mercedes driver will, however, have to visit the stewards, after a near-miss incident with Fernando Alonso at pit entry.
Max Verstappen was fifth fastest, while Ferrari endured a mixed session with Charles Leclerc in sixth and Lewis Hamilton 14th, 1.401s off the pace.
To watch all the action from Free Practice 3 in Zandvoort, hit go on the video player above.
During the eight weeks since the MOWA Heritage Athletics Exhibition Tokyo 25 in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building was opened by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, some 150,000 visitors have viewed the Museum of World Athletics’ (MOWA) latest international displays.
Governor Koike opens MOWA exhibition as Tokyo is awarded Heritage Plaque
The exhibition, which is located on the 2nd and 45th floors of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building No.1, North Tower, contains competition clothing, shoes, equipment and trophies donated by many of the greatest athletes in the sport’s history.
On the 45th observatory deck, MOWA touch screens allow visitors to watch video clips from the Tokyo 1991 edition of the World Athletics Championships. There is also a selection of artefacts from the MOWA Olympic Collection on show, exhibits dating from 1924 to 2024. These include items from Olympic legends such as four-time champions Jesse Owens and Fanny Blankers-Koen, and stars of last year’s Games in Paris such as Nafissatou Thiam and Sifan Hassan.
The main MOWA exhibition space is on the 2nd floor, at which all visitors to the observatory deck must alight from the north tower. Those displays concentrate on the history of the World Athletics Championships from 1983 to 2023, with more than 100 competition artefacts from legends such as Carl Lewis, Usain Bolt, Valerie Adams, Allyson Felix and Jan Zelezny, and this year’s centenary of the Japanese Association of Athletics Federations.
Lewis’s 100m world record captured by Seiko’s photo finish innovation in Tokyo 1991
The MOWA exhibition is located just three stops on the Oedo metro line away from the National Stadium where the World Athletics Championships will be held – click here to download the MOWA Exhibition information.
Ten more MOWA cards to collect – order free of charge
On Friday 12 September, on the eve of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, another 10 athlete cards will be added to the MOWA Collector’s Cards series.
The individually designed and numbered cards each depict an artefact from a famous athlete that has either been donated or loaned to the museum’s collection.
The 10 new cards will be released at the exhibition, one numbered design per day beginning with card No.61 on Friday 12 September and concluding with No.70 on the final day of the exhibition, Sunday 21 September. Visitors can collect one card per design per person, while stocks last.
In total, there are 70 cards in the collection – click here to view the list – and as well as the new cards available from the exhibition in Tokyo, the whole set can be ordered one by one ‘free of charge’ from the online MOWA platform.
Explore the 3D museum and search for the 70 athletes, open their activation pages and select the card icon on the right-hand side, and place your order. One card per numbered design, per person, while stocks last.
All orders placed online will be dispatched at the beginning of October.
Among the 200 artefacts on display in the MOWA Heritage Athletics Exhibition Tokyo 25, open since 6 July at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) building, visitors can see for the first time the original photo finish of Carl Lewis’s 100m world record set during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on 25 August 1991.
The print on display shows 9.86 seconds and is accompanied by the official ratification form signed by starter Hideo Iijima, a former Japanese sprinter who competed at the Tokyo 1964 Olympics and once came within a tenth of a second of the world record with 10.1.
Innovating timing by video
The print comes from the Seiko Slit-Video 1000 HD, a line-scanning video device that made its debut at the World Championships in Tokyo in 1991. The Seiko system arrived after the IAAF (now World Athletics) Congress in Barcelona in 1989 authorised the use of video devices to determine times and placings.
This innovative method brought a clear advantage: results could be produced and published far more quickly. Previously, photo finish systems relied on film negatives that had to be chemically developed into a visible photograph, or on instant Polaroid prints that still required time to reveal – processes that delayed final decisions.
There was no need to recheck the photo: Lewis won by a very clear, albeit tiny, margin over his US teammates Leroy Burrell, who ran 9.88 – also under his own world record of 9.90 set just two months earlier – and Dennis Mitchell, who ran 9.91.
For the first time in history, six men ran under 10 seconds in this final, which was presented as the fastest race ever.
A visually striking and officially decisive picture
Automatic timing goes back farther than most people realise. A demonstration device was used at the Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity match at Lillie Bridge in West Brompton, London, in 1874: a large clock was triggered by the starter’s pistol and stopped when the winner broke a finishing-line thread. In the 1930s, cinematographic systems that recorded runners and a stopwatch on the same film were used at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932 and Berlin in 1936.
Photo finish cameras began to be used regularly starting with the London 1948 Olympics. In its own way, the photo finish is a fusion of space and time: it produces an image of infinitesimal thickness that unfolds backward, which is why the athletes’ bodies appear stretched and ghostlike. The result is both visually striking and officially decisive.
The MOWA Heritage exhibition in Tokyo
The visual of Lewis’s photo finish is central to the exhibition’s identity, which pays tribute to the major championships hosted by Tokyo.
The red rising sun on a black background references the opening of the official film of the 1964 Games by Kon Ichikawa, a visual also seen on the film’s poster, overlaid with the photo finish of Bob Hayes, the fastest man of 1964.
One can already recognise the highly graphic appearance of Seiko’s photos, with vertical lines marking every hundredth of a second, making it easy to “read” the image.
To make a historical connection with the 1991 World Championships, Lewis replaces Hayes in the image, and the brush-style calligraphy is part of the visual identity of both Tokyo 1991 and 2025.
In the pursuit of saving time
Seiko’s 1991 original documentation explains the leap this machine represented: the Slit-Video 1000 HD replaced film-based cameras by storing images electronically on MOS memory devices, making them “available instantaneously without the need to develop film.”
The system used HDTV line scanning to generate high-definition images, and an automatic time reader that could display times to the hundredth or even thousandth of a second once the cursor was placed on the winner. By removing the need for film development, decisions on close finishes could be made much faster than before.
The same principle will be used in Tokyo in 2025, except now in colour, and the current camera can extract times to 1/10,000 of a second, equivalent to about one millimetre for a sprinter, roughly the thickness of a jersey and bib combined.
To close the exhibition story, Seiko has generously lent two important pieces to MOWA Heritage Tokyo 2025: the countdown clock that marks the time until the opening of the World Athletics Championships, and the last lap bell used for middle-distance races. These objects continue the link between timing technology and the drama of competition, a fitting tribute to moments like Lewis’s 9.86, when precision and poetry meet at the finish line.
You can find the 1991 printout in the virtual 3D museum among other iconic photo finishes and pictures in the gallery of the 1984-1999 era of the Timeline Tunnel.
The latest Liam Delap injury news could well shape how Chelsea act in the final days of the transfer window, as the young English forward hobbled off against Fulham on Saturday.
Delap, 22, held his right hamstring as he raced onto a ball over the top in the first half.
He went down and stayed down as he was subbed off.
Liam Delap injury news latest
Speaking after the game Enzo Maresca confirmed it was a hamstring injury and is concerned Delap could be out for up to two months.
“Hamstring. Was full speed. Hopefully it is not long but this kind of injury is always can be six to eight weeks,” Maresca told TNT Sports in the UK.
Chelsea will be sweating on the fitness of Delap as they have a whole bunch of wingers and attacking midfielders, but Delap and Joao Pedro are their only proper center forwards in the squad.
Who will start up front for Chelsea?
Christopher Nkunku was sold AC Milan, while Nicolas Jackson is due to join Bayern Munich on loan. That means Chelsea are down a couple of forwards, plus Cole Palmer is also out injured.
With Palmer and now Delap out injured early in the season, it does beg the question: are Chelsea’s players suffering injuries due to a lack of time off this summer as they played in, and won, the FIFA Club World Cup?
Tyrique George, 19, came on for Delap to play up front, but long-term Joao Pedro could play up top if Delap is out for a while.
Alejandro Garnacho is expected to join Chelsea, so they will have another attacking option.
From all the latest team news to the most interesting things the coaches and captains are saying via where to watch on TV, our previews have everything you need to know for all eight week two matches.
Check them out now.
And if you are lucky enough to be heading to a match in person, don’t forget to consult our venue guides, where a famous rugby star shares their top tips for making the most of your match-day experiences.
2. Rugby explainers: for all
Rugby is game for everyone, so please do not let any of the well-worn terms or intricacies put you, or anyone you know.
We have put together a series of Rugby Explainers to make the game as simple and understandable as possible. Have a look and show your friends and family!
3. Record viewing figures in UK already
As RWC 2025 gears up for round two, the news is in that the viewing figures across the BBC for the opening weekend surpassed the entire reach of the 2021 tournament.
In total, 4.6 million viewers tuned in to live coverage of round one, with a peak of 2.4 million for England’s dominant win over USA last Friday night.
Check out the full story here and if you have missed anything from last weekend, here’s a quick reminder of what happened:
4. Play Fantasy Women’s Rugby World Cup
Do not take our word for it, do not even just be tempted by the fact it is free and there are great prizes on offer – plus you can join the global leaderboard or set up your own private league with friends and family – simply listen to all-time England great Rocky Clark and Play Fantasy Women’s Rugby World Cup now!
The RWC 2014 winner has chosen her Fantasy Team of the Week ahead of kick-off on Saturday, what do you think of her picks?
5. Come inside the England camp
Ever wondered how the world No.1 ranked women’s rugby team refuels during the biggest tournament of their lives?
Thanks to England’s nutritionist, Aimee O’Keefe, wonder no more:
But it is not all energy gels and brutal workouts for the tournament favourites, with comedian Chabuddy G ensuring there are plenty of laughs around:
6. Australians astonished by RWC 2025 crowds
It is not often an Aussie sportsperson compliments the English, but Wallaroos assistant coach Chris Delooze could not help it, at a press conference ahead of his side’s crucial Pool A clash v USA.
“It’s amazing the way that the English fans have jumped on board. Last week there might have been 12,000 people, although 11,500 were against us when we started wrapping up the score,” Delooze said with a smile.
“But at the same time it’s what the girls in every nation deserve, to turn up and see the support that’s given to this sport in particular is inspiring. It’s been an incredible event so far and the support we’re getting from home is amazing.”
7. Ruby Tui returns the favour to Fiji’s Stolz
The 19-year-old Michella’e Stolz has long been a fan of RWC and Olympic Games winner Ruby Tui and now it appears the feeling is mutual.
Just a few days after Stolz’s uplifting message to her team went viral, and just a day before Stolz makes her RWC debut, the New Zealander sprung a surprise on one of her biggest fans.
Check out the video below and read the full story here.
When Enes Kanter Freedom appeared on a basketball court in his Boston Celtics jersey and a pair of trainers emblazoned with the slogan “Free Uyghur”, the reaction from Beijing was swift.
“Literally at the half-time, they cancelled every Celtics game on television [in China] for the rest of the year,” the basketball player tells the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and the Guardian. That game, in October 2021, marked a turning point in his career. “That’s when the NBA got really angry at me,” says Freedom.
Freedom, who has long been an outspoken critic of the Turkish government, had researched the issue after the concerned father of a fan challenged his silence on China’s treatment of Muslim minorities.
In Xinjiang, China’s westernmost region, President Xi Jinping’s “war on terrorism” has involved oppression and detentions as a means of forcing ethnic minorities to assimilate into the dominant Chinese culture. Uyghurs and other minorities have been imprisoned in reeducation camps and pressured into forced labor at factories across the country.
Freedom was already used to making statements in unconventional ways; he’d changed his surname from Kanter on becoming an American citizen. And as he dug deeper, he found it hard to believe that people weren’t more aware of what was happening in Xinjiang. So he decided to do something about it.
“I reached out to these artists around the world, and I told them to put all their struggles on the shoe,” he says. “And I’m gonna go out there and play basketball.”
That was the 11th year of Freedom’s NBA career. It would be his last.
Teammates began to warn him, he later testified in front of Congress, that he’d never play in the league again. Shortly afterwards, he was released from his contract – a move the NBA says had nothing to do with his activism.
The cancelled Celtics broadcasts weren’t the first time Beijing had punished the NBA: in 2019, Chinese state media pulled games from its schedule after NBA commissioner Adam Silver defended the actions of Daryl Morey, then a Houston Rockets executive, who had tweeted support for protesters in Hong Kong. The affair cost the NBA hundreds of millions of dollars.
China is a multibillion-dollar market for the NBA, with more basketball fans than the US has people. Freedom says the league is beholden to Chinese interests.
It’s also a huge platform for Chinese brands to advertise themselves to the world. The Chinese sportswear brand Li-Ning has been using NBA players to promote its footwear for over a decade, ever since Dwyane Wade ended his contract with Nike’s Jordan subsidiary and signed with the Chinese company in 2012.
Li-Ning and other Chinese brands like Anta and 361 Degrees now compete with legacy American companies for lucrative sponsorship deals. Over a dozen NBA players had deals with the three brands in 2022, according to analysis from ESPN.
Li-Ning has deals with the Golden State Warriors’ Jimmy Butler – also lured from Jordan in 2020 for a huge deal that includes various signature shoe lines – and the Houston Rockets’ Fred VanVleet, also president of the National Basketball Players Association. Anta sponsors stars including Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving, while 361 Degrees’ roster includes the Serbian legend Nikola Jokić. (These sponsorship deals are made with the players directly and are not subject to NBA approval.)
None of these players’ representatives responded to requests for comment.
Now, TBIJ and the Guardian can reveal that all three brands are linked to the oppression Freedom highlighted on his trainers. And so is Nike.
Leveraging forced labor
Earlier this year a major investigation by TBIJ, the New York Times and Der Spiegel connected more than 100 global brands to the Xinjiang labor transfer scheme that moves ethnic minorities thousands of miles across China to work in eastern factories. The transfer scheme is a central pillar of the Chinese government’s systematic destruction of the Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz communities of Xinjiang.
Anta, Li-Ning and 361 Degrees are among the brands that directly own production sites linked to these human rights abuses. And those labels are also supplied by other companies participating in the labor transfer program.
A 361 Degrees factory in Fujian has taken Xinjiang workers for at least a decade: a “collective wedding” of Kazakh workers at the factory in 2015 referred to nearly 400 workers. Social media content from Xinjiang workers showing the factory compound was uploaded as recently as last year.
At least three factories supplying Li-Ning have used workers from the labor transfer scheme. One clip uploaded by a Uyghur worker shows a pair of black and silver Li-Ning trainers on a conveyor belt at a factory in Hubei.
“Life is too hard, but I don’t want to admit defeat,” reads the title of a video from a worker at a different Li-Ning supplier. “This guy is really ordering people to work a lot,” says the accompanying voiceover in Uyghur, referring to a Han Chinese supervisor who stands nearby, hands on hips. “If I don’t get out of here I know I’m gonna work myself to death.”
Enes Kanter Freedom’s sneakers are seen before a 2021 game in Boston. Photograph: Omar Rawlings/Getty Images
361 Degrees’ sponsorships stretch beyond the NBA to World Aquatics events and Olympic runners. Li-Ning’s partnerships, meanwhile, include China’s Olympic delegation and a clutch of young badminton pros in the UK. The brand has also made a point of supporting Beijing’s approach to Xinjiang.
When global businesses began to remove Xinjiang cotton from their supply chains after concerns about forced labor in the fields, Li-Ning kept “made with Xinjiang cotton” on its clothing labels. While Nike and other global brands faced furious backlash from Chinese consumers for ceasing to use Xinjiang cotton – amplified by state media campaigns – Li-Ning’s sales and share price surged.
Sporting partnerships of this sort allow these companies to bolster China’s soft power. When the Houston Rockets executive Morey made his statement in support of Hong Kong, Li-Ning and Anta both announced they would be halting their partnerships with the team.
Li-Ning told us it “strictly opposes and prohibits any form of forced labor” in its supply chain and regularly audits its suppliers, with a “zero-tolerance” policy enforced. It added that the company “always upholds human rights and the legal rights of labor”.
361 Degrees and Anta did not respond to requests for comment.
Mike Bass, an NBA spokesperson, said: “We have always supported and will continue to support every member of the NBA family, including Enes Freedom, expressing their personal views on social and political issues. We will continue to follow US government guidance and policy regarding operating in China and more than 200 other countries and territories around the world where we engage fans.”
Freedom isn’t surprised to hear that half a dozen factories in the supply chains of Li-Ning, Anta and 361 Degrees are tied to Xinjiang forced labor. But there’s one brand above all that he has questions for – and he has been asking them for the last four years.
‘Selective activism’
“Who makes your shoes in China? Do you even know?” Freedom demanded of Nike in a video posted to Twitter (now X) in 2021.
Nike has been a major commercial partner of the NBA since 1992 and last year signed on to be the league’s outfitting, merchandising, marketing and content partner until 2037 – a deal reportedly worth well over $1bn.
Freedom’s questions came after Nike had been connected to a sneaker factory in Shandong province that had taken Uyghur transfer workers. Nike maintained that the supplier had stopped hiring workers from Xinjiang and that inspections had confirmed this.
“Our ongoing diligence has not found evidence of employment of Uyghurs, or other ethnic minorities from [Xinjiang], elsewhere in our supply chain in China,” it said at the time.
But TBIJ has found sources that link Nike to Fulgent Sun, a footwear manufacturer in Fujian province that has long absorbed workers from Xinjiang. The factory started working with the government to bring Uyghur and Kyrgyz people to Fujian in 2013.
When approached with TBIJ’s findings, a Nike spokesperson said that the company had ended its relationship with the Fujian factory in 2015. They did acknowledge that Nike had sourced from an affiliated site in central China for its label Converse in recent years.
However, various sources – from industry press and academic articles to Fulgent Sun’s own corporate materials – point to Nike being an important customer over the past decade.
TBIJ pulled export records that showed multiple shipments from the Fujian factory to Nike in the US after 2015, including as recently as November 2022. The shipments were all delivered via one of the brand’s main logistics partners in the region.
After seeing some of TBIJ’s evidence, Nike said its records “contradicted [TBIJ’s] claims”, and maintained it hadn’t purchased anything from the implicated factory since 2015. It added that it “remains committed to ethical and responsible manufacturing”.
Fulgent Sun didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Freedom – who wore a pair of shoes emblazoned with “Nike Hypocrite”, “Made with slave labor” and “No more excuses” in one of his final NBA games – claims it was criticism of both China and Nike that cost him his career.
He’s saddened by what he calls selective activism from Nike, which has been a proud supporter of US-focused social justice movements like Black Lives Matter. “You stand up for things unless it hits your pocket, hurts you financially,” he says.
“Stand up for what’s right,” he adds. Speaking to the NBA players sponsored by brands linked to human rights violations, he said: “Put yourself in their shoes. Imagine it was your sister or daughter. Would you still be silent?”
