Players talking Covid.
I.O.C. and Japan Agree to Postpone Tokyo Olympics – The New York Times
A week ago, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, were promoting the Summer Olympics in Tokyo as the balm the world needed to show victory over the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, the virus won out.
Bach and Abe bowed to a groundswell of resistance — from athletes, from sports federations, from national Olympic committees, from health experts — and formally postponed the Games, which had been scheduled to begin in late July, until 2021.
The decision brought both a sense of relief and impending chaos to international sports.
Abe broke the news after a phone call with Bach, when complaints that the I.O.C. was not moving quickly enough to adjust to the coronavirus pandemic became too loud to ignore.
The decision — which organizers in Japan resisted the longest, according to people involved with the process — became all but inevitable after the national Olympic committee in Canada announced on Sunday that it was withdrawing from the Games, and Australia’s committee told its athletes that it was not possible to train under the widespread restrictions in place to control the virus. Brazil and Germany, too, called for postponing the Games. And the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, after initially declining to take a stand, joined the fray Monday night, urging the I.O.C. to postpone.
NBA stars are using social media to educate about COVID-19 – Sports Illustrated
“I don’t feel any of the symptoms, but I can’t stress enough practicing social distancing and really keeping yourself away from a large group of people,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said.
Per a league spokesperson, as of Monday morning, it had already shared 23 PSAs featuring NBA, former NBA and WNBA players across its social media platforms. Many of the players who recorded videos did so on their own volition, giving up their own time by volunteering to participate in an attempt to make a difference. By the end of this past weekend, the league’s first wave of PSAs had already totaled more than 45 million views. That number will presumably only grow with time.
More players and coaches are expected to continue recording videos in the coming days and weeks. And in general, the PSAs seem to both combine basic tips in combating COVID-19 with more personal sentiments.
Two-time NBA champion Pau Gasol thanked essential medical personnel, saying, “Coming from a medical family, I just want to make sure we all take the time to thank the doctors, nurses and first responders who work every day to help us fight this virus.”
Cavaliers forward Kevin Love discussed his PSA on the TODAY Show, focusing on mental wellness.
“Now more than ever, we have to practice compassion,” Love said. “We have to be kind. We have to be mindful of our words, our actions and really practice a sense of community.”
But in addition to strictly social efforts, almost immediately following the league’s suspension, the NBA built a micro-site which has been publishing updated information regarding COVID-19. As part of a new “NBA Together” campaign, the league also says its committed to contribute $50 million to support those impacted by the coronavirus, including more than $35 million already made by teams and players.
The coronavirus pandemic shut the NBA’s doors – here’s how the league is determining its next steps
The league’s top basketball executives found themselves in an unfamiliar crisis yet still working amid a familiar middle ground between the owners and players and between the league’s establishment of guidelines and front offices’ execution of them within organizations.
As games stopped and a restless country moved closer to the full wrath of the coronavirus pandemic, silos of executives with contenders and non-contenders, big market and small market, huddled close together.
“There’s an overwhelming sense of fraternity,” Connelly told ESPN. “It isn’t about competition right now but what’s best for the NBA.”
Front offices pooled details on team quarantines, player and staff coronavirus testing, facility protocols and consultations with infectious disease specialists. Team executives had been studying the data the NBA had shared on the virus’ outbreak in Asia and Europe, talking to its doctors and experts, and were bracing for its impact several weeks before the White House acknowledged its threat to the American public.
In a world spinning with unknowns, this has been a test rooted in the most basic responsibility attached to the GM’s job: How do we best protect, prepare and manage the finest basketball players in the world? Between now and the resumption of play, organizations are facing the most pressing crisis in the sport’s history.
“We are seeking answers that no one knows,” said Myers, the Warriors’ president of basketball operations. “In a lot of ways, it’s simply, ‘What’s the least worst thing to do?’ It’s hard to find the best thing, but it isn’t stopping us all from trying.”
Leroux: Breaking down the 2020 big man free-agent market – The Athletic
Absolutely the hardest group to define as of now, particularly because so few teams will use cap space this offseason. If Andre Drummond (27) declines his $28.8 million player option, it will presumably be because the Cavs or someone else offered him a substantial contract in this range but the weak market makes that unlikely.
His situation is a good lead-in for this group because many of them will rely on Bird rights with their current team to either re-sign or generate leverage for a stronger payday. The Nuggets gave up a first round pick for Jerami Grant (26), who has a $9.3 million player option he is likely to decline, but they have Full Bird rights on Paul Millsap (35) too. Millsap fits better with Nikola Jokic defensively, though that age difference makes Tim Connelly’s decision much tougher. It also will be hard to retain both of them if Nuggets ownership is not willing to pay the luxury tax, especially with Jamal Murray’s max extension kicking in and other pending free agents.
The Pelicans’ defense was best with Derrick Favors (29) on the floor but he lost a lot of leverage when his hometown Hawks traded for both Clint Capela and Dewayne Dedmon at the deadline. To stay in New Orleans, Favors may have to choose between a shorter contract with a higher salary or a longer pact for less money per season because David Griffin and the Pelicans front office have a lot of other young players in line for raises and still need to figure out the best fits around Zion Williamson.
Another group of teammates create a challenging decision for their team, but not in the same way as Millsap and Grant. Serge Ibaka (31) and Marc Gasol (36) were both integral parts of the Raptors’ 2019 championship team but they are getting older and multi-season contracts at significant salaries would get in the way of any of Masai Ujiri’s 2021 aspirations. What may happen is both try the open market first and leave if any other suitor makes a worthwhile offer with a fallback of returning to Toronto on a lucrative one-year deal if nothing materializes. Considering the team’s success and a much more wide-open 2021 free agency, do not rule out a return for either champion.
As the long-time strength and conditioning coach with the Raptors, Jon Lee works with some of the most highly motivated and fit athletes imaginable. Finding a way to keep them engaged, working and in shape during a couple of weeks of forced isolation hasn’t been difficult.
But Lee also has some advice for the normal folks trying to maintain fitness in these abnormal times.
“The best advice is to start doing the workouts,” Lee said in a telephone interview. “There’s a reason why you get a gym pass, so you have to go somewhere to go work out.
“(But) just get started at home. Whether it’s doing five pushups, five squats and five burpees, for example, and then you add another one to it. You go to six pushups, six squats, six burpees and so on.
“Create goals for yourself, challenge yourself, do something that makes you sweat. Whether it’s for five minutes, or 10 minutes or 30 minutes, just get off the couch and actually try to do something.”
Lee hasn’t had to prod the Raptors into keeping up their fitness as well as they can during a 14-day self-isolation period that ends this week. Members of the team’s travelling party — more than 50 people, including players, coaches, support staff and broadcasters — have been quarantined after an early-March western road trip ended with a game in Salt Lake City. Two members of the Utah Jazz, Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, eventually tested positive for COVID-19 and, while the entire Raptors party tested negative, they were told to go into isolation.
Q&A: Raptors producer ‘Danny G’ on team’s mentality vs. Magic in Game 5 – Sportsnet.ca
“Rack it up Danny G!”
If you’ve watched a Toronto Raptors television broadcast within the last decade you’ve almost certainly heard Jack Armstrong yell that out in only the exuberant way he can when he wants a good Raptors highlight replayed at least a few hundred times.
Despite hearing his name for all these years, there’s a good chance you don’t know who Danny G is.
The Raptors broadcast producer from 2009-2019 with a history in television around the Raptors that extends even longer before that, Dan Gladman has been there for many, many moments in Raptors history and helping bring them to you from the television broadcast truck.
Among these moments, of course, was last year’s epic championship run.
Sportsnet and TSN are re-airing the entire run every night right up until the Raptors raise the Larry O’Brien Trophy, and as someone who helped us all bear witness to these games we’re taking in again, we recently caught up with Gladman to reminisce about some of his favourite moments from the run and why he and the truck made some of the decisions they made in regards to certain shots.
With Toronto closing out the Magic in Game 5 Tuesday night, here’s what Gladman had to say about that game and the end of that Magic series in general.
Oshae Brissett Has Joined TikTok And The Raptor’s First Videos Are A Gift To Us All – Narcity
For athletes who are unable to do anything but workout and stay indoors right now, it must be a pretty boring time. But Toronto Raptors’ Oshae Brissett has taken full advantage of his time off by expanding his social media presence. The 21-year-old has joined TikTok and although he’s only shared two videos so far, we hope there’s more where that came from.
With the NBA season still under suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Raptors like Brissett are making sure they try to keep themselves as entertained as they can.
From cooking classes and video workouts to live-stream gaming, the 6ix ballers have been getting creative.
And Brissett, who has spent most of his time in Toronto so far with the team’s G-League affiliate, the Raptors 905, is no different.
Although he has barely more than 300 followers on his new TikTok account, “Obrissy” has already shared two videos and they’re just too good.
In the first one, Oshae joins in on the trend of sharing his dance skills at home. “We’re brotherrsss,” read the caption on the video of Brissett and another man doing a dance pretty similar to Rondae Hollis-Jefferson’s last week.
Damon Stoudamire…here to save the day
He might be diminutive in stature, but the heart of Toronto’s outstanding rookie is immeasurable.
After scoring 14 points in the first half, the 22-year-old that has affectionately come to be known as Mighty Mouse would finish with a career-high 30 points (on 11-for-21 shooting), 11 assists and four rebounds, all while dealing with the defence of Jordan.
“I just try to go out there and do what I do best,” Stoudamire said after the game. “And that’s penetrate, kick, try to make things happen.”
It’s almost as if Stoudamire lives for these specific moments. Where other rookies might be intimidated by the Bulls, Stoudamire finishes the season averaging 24.5 points, 11.5 assists and 5.3 rebounds over four games against Chicago.
Toronto Raptors: Who is the team’s third-best player?
We all know Pascal Siakam ranks first, but who should be considered the third-best player on the Toronto Raptors right now?
The Toronto Raptors are Pascal Siakam‘s team. That wasn’t the case during the 2018-19 season, but it’s the case now and should be for at least the next half-decade, if not longer. That fact is no longer up for debate.
More contentious is the idea of how the pecking order falls below Siakam. An argument can be made for sliding Kyle Lowry into the bronze position of the Raptors, but he’s still much too valuable for that role. Perhaps by next year, he’ll be there, but for now, he remains the second-best player on the roster.
So who’s third? Let’s start by eliminating some people off the list. For starters, it has to be someone who sees the court for at least a quarter of any given game, meaning it can’t be Matt Thomas or Stanley Johnson. Chris Boucher has emerged as a revelation, but with no starts to his name this season, let’s cross him off as well.
Scoring isn’t everything in basketball, but it’s the most important thing a player can do. If you can’t score at least ten points per game, you can’t be the third-best player on your team. That knocks off Patrick McCaw, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Terence Davis (though let’s ask him again in two to three years) and the rapidly declining Marc Gasol. That leaves just four choices and a more subjective discussion.
The first person to get rid of is Norman Powell. His role as a bucket-getter off the bench is invaluable to the team and can be one of the most important on a roster – just ask Lou Williams of the LA Clippers. But his defensive shortcomings ensure he can’t be the team’s third-best player.
