The NBA

[kathyk2]

3 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

ESPN was there. I heard the PA announcement to the for that the game was canceled. There was audible booing. 

They canceled the game because one of the referees had recently worked a Jazz game according to ESPN

[Jx223]

Now Donovan Mitchell has tested positive for the coronavirus. I hope that no other player gets it, but the Jazz team was tested last night. Jazz players have reportedly said that Rudy was careless and touching players and belonging in the locker room. This is unfortunate and irresponsible on the part of Rudy. 

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1238114778167599110

 

 

 

 

[Fukui San]

I think Rudy has just sewn up another Defensive Player of the Year award. He’s preventing thousands of points from being scored. 

[twoods]

This is what happens when people make a joke about communicable diseases. He was already contagious at that time and who knows how many reporters and players he infected with his carelessness. I’m sure the players will be fine because they are healthy, but what about their elderly family members and fans? I’m glad they shut this down quickly so everyone can get tested and self quarantine before it gets worse.

[Ohwell]

Yeah, this shit is not at all funny.

[Ohwell]

So Gobert apologized.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/jazz/2020/03/12/rudy-gobert-apologizes-being-careless-coronavirus-outbreak/5035579002/

[mojoween]

I believe him.  No one wants to have their jackassery broadcast on every media outlet and every third post on Twitter.

And he wasn’t the only not taking it seriously.  See: LeBron James’s comments from the weekend about playing in empty arenas.

[xaxat]

It is absolutely amazing how much Rudy Gobert's positive test changed the sporting landscape. Literally overnight. I still can't believe all that's happened in the last 24 hours.

I really want a 30 for 30.

[Crs97]

Kevin Love continues to impress

(He has pledged $100,000 to arena workers and is calling on the players to join him.)

ETA: And say what you want about Mark Cuban, but apparently he started working on a program for his hourly employees when they started talking about playing games without fans.

“We have to be smart about this”

Edited March 13, 2020 by Crs97

[mojoween]

Zion is also going to pay the workers at the New Orleans arena for a month.  And that’s his endorsement money!  I love him.

Blake Griffin is also paying workers in Detroit.  

So far, I’ve only seen that three owners are doing it.  We’ll probably get to 29 doing it before this is over.  All but Dolan.

[Ohwell]

I'm sure there will be more players stepping up too.

[mojoween]

I neglected to mention Giannis, he is giving $100,000 to workers in Milwaukee.

[catlover79]

On 3/12/2020 at 9:33 PM, xaxat said:

I really want a 30 for 30.

I would totally watch it.

[Sew Sumi]

2 hours ago, Ohwell said:

I'm sure there will be more players stepping up too.

Many of the Warriors are joining with ownership to set up a million dollar fund for the arena employees.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Personally, my heart is not warmed by a 19 year old giving up money when owners should be the ones doing it.  That's ridiculous.

[Ohwell]

I don't see anything wrong with a 19 year old making millions wanting to contribute.  The owners doing it as well. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/03/12/kevin-love-mark-cuban-pledge-help-arena-workers-while-nba-season-is-suspended/?itid=hp_sports-right-4-12_section-latest-feed%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

[Ms Blue Jay]

5 hours ago, Ohwell said:

I don't see anything wrong with a 19 year old making millions wanting to contribute.  The owners doing it as well. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/03/12/kevin-love-mark-cuban-pledge-help-arena-workers-while-nba-season-is-suspended/?itid=hp_sports-right-4-12_section-latest-feed%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

It's the difference between millionaires and billionaires, which is not insubstantial.  

Young athletes have no idea where their career will go.  Billionaires have money that lasts lifetimes.

I do not have a subscription to WaPo but I was able to see this article which mentions "several" owners.  It's definitely not all.  I don't know how the corporate owner of a stadium/team could watch Zion do this and stand idly by.  There's nothing wrong with Zion, it's the society that champions young kids/employees with undetermined futures contributing instead of shaming corporate overlords.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/sports/basketball/nba-arena-workers-coronavirus.html

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ohwell]

23 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

It's the difference between millionaires and billionaires, which is not insubstantial.  

Young athletes have no idea where their career will go.  Billionaires have money that lasts lifetimes.

I do not have a subscription to WaPo but I was able to see this article which mentions "several" owners.  It's definitely not all.  I don't know how the corporate owner of a stadium/team could watch Zion do this and stand idly by.  There's nothing wrong with Zion, it's the society that champions young kids/employees with undetermined futures contributing instead of shaming corporate overlords.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/sports/basketball/nba-arena-workers-coronavirus.html

 

Millionaires, billionaires.  It doesn't matter.  It's up to the athletes, no matter how young they are, if they want to contribute.  No one, including the owners, is making them do it.   Also, from the articles we both posted, we only see what some of the owners are doing; we don't know what others might be planning to do. 

[cleo]

Employers should be paying employees. 

[Ohwell]

And we don't know if they aren't.

[cleo]

That's true and if they are getting paid by the owners/employers that's great. MLSE, for example, is indeed making plans to cover all their employees and I was glad to see it.

But I have to assume if they were all getting paid across the league there would not be calls for donations and gofundmes etc.

[Ms Blue Jay]

A billion is 1 thousand millions.  It is a huge difference.

[Mittengirl]

It was just announced that Pistons forward Christian Wood has tested positive for Covid-19.  The Pistons were one of the teams the Jazz played shortly before it all hit the fan.

[Sew Sumi]

Holy crap. Kevin Durant has tested positive, along with 3 other Nets teammates. 

[xaxat]

It was only a week ago that Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus.

It feels like years. 

[mojoween]

I was just thinking that earlier today.  We haven’t watched last week’s SEAL Team and I mentioned to my husband we’ll probably have to watch it on demand because the president was speaking during the beginning  of it - 9:00 on March 11 is when the entire world went to hell.

This week has been the longest decade ever.

[Jx223]

Just like the NFL is offering free access to NFL Game pass, the NBA is offering free access to NBA league pass online. Fans can watch all of the games that aired during this 2019-2020 NBA season and some classic games as well. Fans will have access to this online until April 22.

https://www.nba.com/nba-fan-letter-league-pass-free-preview

 

[shoregirl]

On 3/17/2020 at 5:43 PM, Sew Sumi said:

Holy crap. Kevin Durant has tested positive, along with 3 other Nets teammates. 

 Two Laker Players and three members of the Sixers organization (they aren't saying if they are players) and Marcus Smart also tested positive.

Edited March 20, 2020 by shoregirl

[twoods]

Makes sense. They are all touching the ball, then their mouth guards, then the ball again, then slapping hands and drinking water, etc. It’s so gross and I’m surprised they weren’t all out with the stomach flu or influenza in past seasons. I wonder if they will have hand sanitizer now at the benches.

[Sew Sumi]

Durant hasn't played this season, but he was traveling with the team. Their last stop was LA, which explains the Lakers getting tested.

[Fukui San]

5 hours ago, twoods said:

Makes sense. They are all touching the ball, then their mouth guards, then the ball again, then slapping hands and drinking water, etc. It’s so gross and I’m surprised they weren’t all out with the stomach flu or influenza in past seasons. I wonder if they will have hand sanitizer now at the benches.

Maybe it takes this to get them to stop fist bumping after every single free throw attempt.

[mojoween]

I may be missing something this sounds like some bullshit.

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/jazz/2020/03/18/utah-jazz-arena-employees/

[xaxat]

57 minutes ago, mojoween said:

I may be missing something this sounds like some bullshit.

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/jazz/2020/03/18/utah-jazz-arena-employees/

There was some discussion on the importance of ownership donations vs players earlier. 

This is why it is important for the owners to step up. They are the institution that runs the league. The players may contribute with the best of intentions, but it is the owners that run HR for the employees or, in many cases, know the companies that have subcontracted employees for things like food service, selling beer etc.

 

 

[mojoween]

I was clicking the channels to get to the re-air of last year’s ACC men’s championship game and the first channel I landed on was the UConn women from 2018.  Holly Rowe was doing report and the camera panned to her and WHAT a gut punch because she was standing in front of Kobe, Vanessa and Gianna.  It made me so sad.

Edited March 21, 2020 by mojoween

[Lamb18]

Karl-Anthony Towns' (MN Timberwolves) parents have Covid 19. His dad is recovering, but is mom is in a medically induced coma and on a respirator. 

[xaxat]

Harlem Globetrotters legend Fred 'Curly' Neal dies at 77

Back in the seventies, when I first started watching basketball, it wasn't the NBA or college, it was the Globetrotters on the Wide World of Sports. I saw the Trotters live several times in the seventies. I didn't live in an NBA town, so seeing Neal and Meadowlark Lemon was the greatest basketball talent I saw for decades. 

(That's if you don't include the time I was in the stands for the filming of The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh.  Curly Neal, Meadowlark Lemon, Norm Nixon, Connie Hawkins, Doctor J and Kareem. And Jerry Tarkanian was one of the coaches.)

Edited March 26, 2020 by xaxat

[mojoween]

The ‘rona got Doris Burke.  Now it has gone TOO FAR.

[Sew Sumi]

Thankfully her symptoms were mild (crushing fatigue and a headache for a couple of days), and she's better now. She got sick around the time Gobert was outed, so she didn't get it from him although she was doing that particular game.

[xaxat]

ESPN has changed the air date for the '98 Bulls documentary, The Last Dance, to April 19th. 

I really want to like this documentary, but ten episodes feels too damn long. I also wonder if they had to give up some editorial control to get Jordan's participation.

[Mean Machine]

ESPN aired a replay tonight of game seven of the 2016 Finals.  Kinda cool.  I set the DVR. 

Not so cool?  Someone decided to leave Kyrie's game-winning three at the end on the cutting room floor.  Now, I realize these replays are always edited down for length, but that sequence really seemed like a pretty key part of that game if I remember correctly.

Edited April 2, 2020 by Mean Machine

[AimingforYoko]

Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett lead the 2020 NBA Hall of Fame class.

[Mean Machine]

Great, more Kobe tributes in the offing.

[catlover79]

On 4/2/2020 at 1:28 AM, Mean Machine said:

ESPN aired a replay tonight of game seven of the 2016 Finals.  Kinda cool.  I set the DVR. 

Not so cool?  Someone decided to leave Kyrie's game-winning three at the end on the cutting room floor.  Now, I realize these replays are always edited down for length, but that sequence really seemed like a pretty key part of that game if I remember correctly.

Uh...yeah, ESPN!! That was the game-changer. It was all over then. How could they cut that moment of all moments??? 😡😠

[BuckeyeLou]

8 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett lead the 2020 NBA Hall of Fame class.

And Tamika Catchings of the WNBA Fever is in the 2020 Hall of Fame Class, and she is a class act

[irisheyes]

22 minutes ago, catlover79 said:

Uh...yeah, ESPN!! That was the game-changer. It was all over then. How could they cut that moment of all moments??? 😡😠

My husband and I talked about that. Why are they editing anything?  What else do they have to show right now?  Let us just enjoy the whole game as it unfolded. 

[Ohwell]

Yesterday I watched the 2010 championship game between the Lakers and Celtics.  While I expected to be sad watching Kobe and Gianna celebrate, it was also sad seeing David Stern and Stuart Scott who are no longer with us. 

[mojoween]

I feel like this is a safe space here and I can share that I had an incredibly strange dream where I was hanging out for an entire day with Kendrick Perkins (part of it on a bus going to my incredibly small rural college alma mater) and he was ostracized and hated by everyone but by the end of the day I had fallen in love with him and was doing everything I could to get him to feel the same.  🤷‍♀️ 

[xaxat]

 

On 4/11/2020 at 7:33 AM, mojoween said:

I had an incredibly strange dream where I was hanging out for an entire day with Kendrick Perkins

Perk seems like he would be a cool dude to hang out with. No judgement.

[AimingforYoko]

Karl-Anthony Towns' mother died from coronavirus.

His dad also got it, but has since recovered. Condolences to the family.

[Magog]

Did anybody even bother watching that NBA HORSE competition on ESPN a few days ago? I found it to be boring & nap-inducing. I'm surprised that ESPN didn't find a way to get Stephen Curry on this competition. So that he can make those shots like its nothing & them finding even more ways to gush about him like they always do.