Hello and welcome to the Evening News.
As the playoffs continue, we’ll keep you updated every evening. What’s happening today?
Here’s the latest news from around the league:
Dennis Rodman rips Barack Obama
According to TMZ, Dennis Rodman plans to go to North Korea on August 1st to reopen political dialogue with Kim Jong-un. 
Tensions between the United States and North Korea have escalated in recent weeks after American Kenneth Bae was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government.
Rodman was candid with his displeasure with Barack Obama when he told reporters, “We got a black president [who] can’t even go talk to [Jong-un] … Obama can’t do s**t, I don’t know why he won’t go talk to him.”
Jong-un and Rodman have become close friends in recent months. The dictator hosted Rodman in North Korea for three days in March much to the chagrin of the American government. Jong-un appears to have made an impact on Rodman’s opinion of Obama. When asked about Obama, Rodman responded to reporters by saying, “Obama? F**k him!”
Hinkie tabbed as 76ers new general manager
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Philadelphia 76ers have hired Rockets’ executive Sam Hinkie to become their new general manager.
76ers owner Joshua Harris has expressed interest in utilizing more sabermetric statistical analysis in building his team. Hinkie has had extensive experience in learning advanced statistics under Darryl Morey in Houston. Hinkie has been the vice president of basketball operations with the Rockets since 2010 and will now have complete control of basketball operations in Philadelphia.
Hinkie’s first big move with the 76ers figures to be what he decides to do with Andrew Bynum. Harris has previously stated that he wants to try to re-sign Bynum in free agency and that he has no regrets about trading Andre Iguodala and Nikola Vucevic (among others) for Bynum last summer.
Bynum did not play a single game for Philadelphia all season due to knee problems and was spotted last week dancing actively on vacation in Spain. With Bynum being an unrestricted free agent, Hinkie will have to properly assess what Bynum’s value for the long run will be.
Seattle group raised bid for Kings
According to Chris Daniels of King5.com, Chris Hansen has raised his bid for the Kings by $75 million. This new valuation puts Hansen’s bid at $625 million. This is the third time that Hansen has raised his bid to buy the Kings. 
“In an effort to further demonstrate the extent of our commitment to bring basketball back to Seattle, we have elected to voluntarily increase our proposed purchase price for the Sacramento Kings NBA Franchise by $75 million,” wrote Hansen. “While we appreciate that this is a very difficult decision for the league and owners, we hope it is understood that we really believe the time is now to bring the NBA back to Seattle, and that it is paramount that we do everything we can to put Seattle’s best foot forward in this process.”
The league’s relocation committee unanimously denied the proposal to move the Kings from Sacramento at the end of April. NBA owners are scheduled to vote on the proposal on May 15. Seattle only needs a simple majority of 16 owners to approve the move from Sacramento.
