The Breakfast Meeting: Asylum for Assange, and Jay-Z’s Stamp on the Nets

The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday was granted political asylum by Ecuador, whose embassy in London is currently shielding him. Outside the embassy, the scene has become more chaotic with scuffles between the police and supporters of Mr. Assange. Hanging over the Ecuadorean decision is the possibility that the British government could revoke the diplomatic immunity of the embassy and seize Mr. Assange to extradite him to Sweden, William Neuman and Maggy Ayala report, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he sexually assaulted two women. Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, didn’t take kindly to the suggestion that the British might move in: “We are not a British colony.” In his statement on Thursday, The Guardian reported, he said: “We trust the U.K. will offer the necessary guarantees so that both governments can act adequately and properly respect international rights and the right of asylum.”

On paper, Jay-Z is a minor investor in the Nets basketball team — one-fifteenth of 1 percent. But in terms of shaping the image of the franchise, which is moving to Brooklyn this September, he may as well be the owner, David M. Halbfinger writes. He helped design the team logos, picking the unusual black-and-white non-color scheme; he advises on what music to play during timeouts and on how best to interact with its patrons. It is an arrangement with benefits for both sides: Jay-Z (born Shawn Carter and raised in the Marcy housing project not far from where the Nets will play) brings credibility to the team as it courts new fans, while he profits from many tie-ins with the new arena.

• If any part of the NBCUniversal empire was banking on the Olympics to be a “game changer,” it was the NBC Sports Network, which had nearly a million viewers a day, which was a sixfold increase from the four weeks earlier, Richard Sandomir writes. Drawing that audience – including the huge viewership for the women’s soccer final – offered a chance for the public to see it as viable sports channel, perhaps for the first time. But adding mainly studio-based shows, however, is not likely to be enough to retain much of that audience.

A new tablet from Samsung — the Galaxy Note 10.1 — is a compelling competitor to the iPad, David Pogue writes in his review. Its size and weight are roughly the same as the iPad, but it is crammed with many more features as well as a stylus, which offers the ability to write notes that can be converted (not always perfectly) into text. If there is any flaw with the new Samsung tablet, he writes, it is that there are too many features: “It has a higher feature count than any other tablet, but those features are stuffed into a machine with less coherence than any other tablet.”

The crowds began gathering Wednesday night at Graceland to mark the 35^th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death on Aug. 16, 1977. They were greeted for the first time by Elvis’s wife, Priscilla Presley, and daughter, Lisa Marie, The Associated Press reported. “I’ve always avoided this because I felt that it would be too emotional, but I really felt it was important to come down here tonight,” Lisa Marie Presley said. Organizers said about 75,000 people were expected take part in the vigil.

Jay-Z, Jordan, NBA 2K13 Try to Settle Dream Team Debate

You have to hand it to 2K Sports. They’ve had the basketball console gaming court to themselves for the past several years, yet they keep upping the ante.

Two weeks after announcing that 14-time Grammy winner Shawn “Jay Z” Carter would serve as executive producer for NBA 2K13, the game publisher Wednesday unveiled a partnership with USA Basketball that will put both the 2012 gold medal-winning U.S. men’s national basketball team and the original 1992 Olympic “Dream Team” front-and-center in this year’s installment of its game. And they did so with no less than “His Airness,” Michael Jordan, leading a conference call.

“2K Sports has been a true partner in bridging the gaps in the generations of basketball fans,” Jordan told reporters at the top of the call. 2K will shortly offer a transcript of the conference call, and Speakeasy will link to it when it’s available.

In a sense, this week’s announcement has been three years in the making. There’s always a flurry of folderol ahead of a video game launch, but 2K has become one of the best at grabbing headlines with big names. They did it two years ago, announcing they had signed Michael Jordan, bringing his virtual self back into console gaming after a long, long hiatus. MJ both graced the cover and was featured centrally in NBA 2K11’s “Jordan Challenge.” NBA 2K11 came out in the last quarter of 2010, after key rival EA Sports announced it was pausing and rebooting its own crumbling basketball game franchise.

Last year, even without any direct competition, 2K Sports rolled out two of Jordan’s two biggest rivals and “Dream Teammates,” Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird, as cover models for the 2K12 game and included 12 other all-time greats, among them several other 1992 “Dream Team” members, though they were all in their NBA team uniforms inside the game. Dream matchups were a centerpiece in last year’s edition of NBA 2K.

This year, you get the entire, 12-member original “Dream Team,” plus the 2012 version in the game that’s due out for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii PSP and Microsoft Windows PCs in early October and later on the Wii U console. While MJ was the MC of Wednesday’s conference call, neither he nor the other old-timers are cover boys. That honor belongs to up-and-comers Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose. Durant recently picked up a gold medal as a member of the 2012 “Dream Team” at the London Olympics.

Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports, told Speakeasy in a written reply to questions that the constant quest for one-upsmanship over the previous year’s game is likely to continue. Even unopposed, customers like something new and improved.

“There’s an old saying, good is the enemy of great, a theme that we hold close at 2K Sports. As mentioned before, we have an extremely talented development team, and we’re never truly satisfied. – There have been lots of long nights debating what if or what could we do to make the game better from last year. This attitude is contagious across the company and is what’s pushed us to produce what we feel is the best basketball game on the market today. Our goal at the start of each development cycle is not a sales figure, it’s to surpass what we’ve previously done and what anyone else has done and so far that mentality has worked out extremely well for us. Sticking with this philosophy, we feel we’ll fare well in this, and future markets,” Argent wrote.

Argent said fans have responded positively to the addition of big names and new features, with the last two NBA 2K titles selling over a combined 9.5 million copies since release.

Argent said improvements in this year’s game include introduction of the control stick – which lets gamers use the right controller stick for dribbling, shooting and passing – and a dynamic shot generator, which will “help dynamically branch shots in real time.” 2K Sports also offers an All-Star pre-order bonus so fans can participate in the event’s three point-shootout and dunk contests. Players in the game are modeled from real-life players, including signature moves.

In addition to the refined and enhanced gameplay 2K Sports promises every year, the wholly owned unit of New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., released NBA 2K13’s hot soundtrack with its Jay Z announcement earlier this month. 2K said Jay Z handpicked the 24 songs, which include six that feature him (“Pump it Up,” “Run This Town,” “The Bounce,” “On to the Next One,” “Public Service Announcement” and an instrumental version of “H.A.M.”). Other artists on the track include Too Short, Phoenix, Puff Daddy and the Family, Kanye West, Mobb Deep, Justice, Coldplay, Roy Ayers, Meek Mill, Daft Punk Eric B. and Rakim, the Hours, the Dirty Projectors and Santigold.

Beside handpicking songs, Jay Z has been extremely active and hands-on in his role as executive producer, Argent wrote. It has been that way since 2K first approached the musical artist, who also owns a small piece of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and designed the team’s logo.

“Meeting with him in New York, his first comment was that he didn’t want to stand on the sidelines – he wanted to play a legitimate role in NBA 2K13′s development,” Argent said. “As a result, the Dream Team, Charles Barkley, and the USAB license wouldn’t be here without him – bringing the two Olympic teams was a direct mandate by him to do so, and even he even went as far as giving Charles a personal call to help secure him for the 2012 roster. Beyond that, Jay Z’s deep knowledge of music, art and culture will have a distinct impact on this year’s title, details of which we’ll reveal in a few weeks.”

As an aside, the conference call with Jordan was interesting, with the retired star and owner of the Charlotte Bobcats not backing off at all from his assertion that the 1992 “Dream Team” was better than Kobe Bryant’s 2012 version. It was Bryant who started the debate ahead of the Olympics by saying his team would have beaten the original. In response to a reporter’s question, Jordan ran through his reasoning on the call, though acknowledging both teams, good in their own way, came away with gold.

“Well, I knew that was going to be a debate. It is a debate. We’ll never know, but let’s talk about it if you want to talk about it. I know Kobe said some things early on, and I responded. The 92 Dream team was, I felt, a more well-rounded basketball team. He thought we were a little old…So, I think the team, itself, would have been well-rounded defensively, offensively, inside, outside. I just felt like we had enough size that we could contend with the 2012 team. One of the things the 2012 team lacked was size. We probably would have attacked them from inside and then outside. Our defense would have been pretty much solidified with the shot blockers as well as perimeter defensive players,” Jordan said. “I don’t think we would have had any problems with them.”

Jordan speculated that the ability to play the two teams head-to-head in NBA 2K13 would probably generate more debate – not less — about which team reigns supreme.

“I think it’s going to be great. The stats are going to illustrate the kind of talent we had in 1992,” he said. “The best part is that fans get to experience that, and enter into the game either from the 1992 ‘Dream Team’ or the 2012.”

Jay-Z, Jordan, NBA 2K13 Try to Settle Dream Team Debate

You have to hand it to 2K Sports. They’ve had the basketball console gaming court to themselves for the past several years, yet they keep upping the ante.

Two weeks after announcing that 14-time Grammy winner Shawn “Jay Z” Carter would serve as executive producer for NBA 2K13, the game publisher Wednesday unveiled a partnership with USA Basketball that will put both the 2012 gold medal-winning U.S. men’s national basketball team and the original 1992 Olympic “Dream Team” front-and-center in this year’s installment of its game. And they did so with no less than “His Airness,” Michael Jordan, leading a conference call.

“2K Sports has been a true partner in bridging the gaps in the generations of basketball fans,” Jordan told reporters at the top of the call. 2K will shortly offer a transcript of the conference call, and Speakeasy will link to it when it’s available.

In a sense, this week’s announcement has been three years in the making. There’s always a flurry of folderol ahead of a video game launch, but 2K has become one of the best at grabbing headlines with big names. They did it two years ago, announcing they had signed Michael Jordan, bringing his virtual self back into console gaming after a long, long hiatus. MJ both graced the cover and was featured centrally in NBA 2K11’s “Jordan Challenge.” NBA 2K11 came out in the last quarter of 2010, after key rival EA Sports announced it was pausing and rebooting its own crumbling basketball game franchise.

Last year, even without any direct competition, 2K Sports rolled out two of Jordan’s two biggest rivals and “Dream Teammates,” Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird, as cover models for the 2K12 game and included 12 other all-time greats, among them several other 1992 “Dream Team” members, though they were all in their NBA team uniforms inside the game. Dream matchups were a centerpiece in last year’s edition of NBA 2K.

This year, you get the entire, 12-member original “Dream Team,” plus the 2012 version in the game that’s due out for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii PSP and Microsoft Windows PCs in early October and later on the Wii U console. While MJ was the MC of Wednesday’s conference call, neither he nor the other old-timers are cover boys. That honor belongs to up-and-comers Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose. Durant recently picked up a gold medal as a member of the 2012 “Dream Team” at the London Olympics.

Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports, told Speakeasy in a written reply to questions that the constant quest for one-upsmanship over the previous year’s game is likely to continue. Even unopposed, customers like something new and improved.

“There’s an old saying, good is the enemy of great, a theme that we hold close at 2K Sports. As mentioned before, we have an extremely talented development team, and we’re never truly satisfied. – There have been lots of long nights debating what if or what could we do to make the game better from last year. This attitude is contagious across the company and is what’s pushed us to produce what we feel is the best basketball game on the market today. Our goal at the start of each development cycle is not a sales figure, it’s to surpass what we’ve previously done and what anyone else has done and so far that mentality has worked out extremely well for us. Sticking with this philosophy, we feel we’ll fare well in this, and future markets,” Argent wrote.

Argent said fans have responded positively to the addition of big names and new features, with the last two NBA 2K titles selling over a combined 9.5 million copies since release.

Argent said improvements in this year’s game include introduction of the control stick – which lets gamers use the right controller stick for dribbling, shooting and passing – and a dynamic shot generator, which will “help dynamically branch shots in real time.” 2K Sports also offers an All-Star pre-order bonus so fans can participate in the event’s three point-shootout and dunk contests. Players in the game are modeled from real-life players, including signature moves.

In addition to the refined and enhanced gameplay 2K Sports promises every year, the wholly owned unit of New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., released NBA 2K13’s hot soundtrack with its Jay Z announcement earlier this month. 2K said Jay Z handpicked the 24 songs, which include six that feature him (“Pump it Up,” “Run This Town,” “The Bounce,” “On to the Next One,” “Public Service Announcement” and an instrumental version of “H.A.M.”). Other artists on the track include Too Short, Phoenix, Puff Daddy and the Family, Kanye West, Mobb Deep, Justice, Coldplay, Roy Ayers, Meek Mill, Daft Punk Eric B. and Rakim, the Hours, the Dirty Projectors and Santigold.

Beside handpicking songs, Jay Z has been extremely active and hands-on in his role as executive producer, Argent wrote. It has been that way since 2K first approached the musical artist, who also owns a small piece of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and designed the team’s logo.

“Meeting with him in New York, his first comment was that he didn’t want to stand on the sidelines – he wanted to play a legitimate role in NBA 2K13′s development,” Argent said. “As a result, the Dream Team, Charles Barkley, and the USAB license wouldn’t be here without him – bringing the two Olympic teams was a direct mandate by him to do so, and even he even went as far as giving Charles a personal call to help secure him for the 2012 roster. Beyond that, Jay Z’s deep knowledge of music, art and culture will have a distinct impact on this year’s title, details of which we’ll reveal in a few weeks.”

As an aside, the conference call with Jordan was interesting, with the retired star and owner of the Charlotte Bobcats not backing off at all from his assertion that the 1992 “Dream Team” was better than Kobe Bryant’s 2012 version. It was Bryant who started the debate ahead of the Olympics by saying his team would have beaten the original. In response to a reporter’s question, Jordan ran through his reasoning on the call, though acknowledging both teams, good in their own way, came away with gold.

“Well, I knew that was going to be a debate. It is a debate. We’ll never know, but let’s talk about it if you want to talk about it. I know Kobe said some things early on, and I responded. The 92 Dream team was, I felt, a more well-rounded basketball team. He thought we were a little old…So, I think the team, itself, would have been well-rounded defensively, offensively, inside, outside. I just felt like we had enough size that we could contend with the 2012 team. One of the things the 2012 team lacked was size. We probably would have attacked them from inside and then outside. Our defense would have been pretty much solidified with the shot blockers as well as perimeter defensive players,” Jordan said. “I don’t think we would have had any problems with them.”

Jordan speculated that the ability to play the two teams head-to-head in NBA 2K13 would probably generate more debate – not less — about which team reigns supreme.

“I think it’s going to be great. The stats are going to illustrate the kind of talent we had in 1992,” he said. “The best part is that fans get to experience that, and enter into the game either from the 1992 ‘Dream Team’ or the 2012.”