Briner was the first Western sports executive to enter China after the Cultural Revolution and introduced National Basketball Association games to Chinese television.
[1] He developed major tennis tournaments in several countries including Israel, Cuba, South Africa and the Soviet Union.
Briner earned a bachelor's degree in business and English from Greenville College.
Briner was also a prolific writer, regularly contributing to the New York Times and Sports Illustrated.
Briner was a devout evangelical Christian and in 2003 was posthumously inducted into the Indiana Wesleyan University Society of World Changers as its first member.