NBC NEWS is reporting that the Iranian national basketball team has requested and received permission from the NBA and the State Department to play at least two games against NBA players in Summer League competition in Salt Lake City, UT, in July as part of their Olympic preparation.

(Like NBA players, Iranians also deny traveling ever existed)

The Rocky Mountain Revue will host a game between Iran’s team and Dallas’ summer league team July 19th and then pit the Iran national team against Utah’s team on the 21st. However, fans may not have realized that since the Utah Jazz have chosen to refer to the Iranian national team as the “FIBA ‘07 Asian Champion” on their Web site.

Once can certainly understand Jazz owner (and Revue host) Larry Miller’s reservations about hosting the team. While the Jazz have been coy about their summer league roster to this point, their first round pick will likely attend. Kosta Koufos is an American of Greek descent; Greece has had their disagreements with Iran recently.

Ronnie Seibutis, a Lithuanian, will be on Dallas’ squad. Lithuania has been at the center of tensions between Russia and the United States as they have been identified as a hosting site for a missile defense system to protect against Iranian missile strikes; Russia feels threatened by the move and has hinted at military action if this occurs.

There’s also a Senegalese player and a Russian player on the Dallas roster; both countries have had controversially close ties to Iran in the last decade.

On the other hand, Miller could be more concerned with the home crowd. He’s spoken out before to protect his business interests by decrying changes in entertainment in Utah that he apparently felt might offend a significant portion of his customers, including an uptick in minority programming on his UPN station and gay themes in his theaters.

NBC NEWS notes that the Utah Jazz have declined comment on this matter.