In his 16th and last year as Team USA managing director, Jerry Colangelo talked extensively about the upcoming Tokyo Olympics with Chris Sheridan of Basketball News.
Colangelo indicated that he is in daily communication with the NBA and FIBA, discussing the Olympics as COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe. The games were originally scheduled to take place during the summer of 2020 before being pushed back a year.
“We have no choice but to proceed on the basis that the Olympics will be played, and so that’s basically what we are doing,” Colangelo told Sheridan. “We are preparing in every way possible until we hear otherwise, officially. I would guess, from what I’ve been told, it’s a go — unless they cancel because some other thing has developed regarding the pandemic, [like a] new strain, depending on how things go in Japan and Tokyo, in particular.”
There’s more from around the basketball world:
- Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated observes that there appears to be growing support around the NBA, among at least some players and coaches, for a potential return to something along the lines of the contained “bubble” campus environment that was such a success last summer for the conclusion of the 2019/20 NBA season. “F— this,” a veteran assistant coach texted Mannix. “I’m ready to go back [to the bubble].”
- After the NBA’s Board of Governors greenlit a plan to allow private equity firms to own portions of NBA teams, the league is striving to lure private equity money, according to Jabari Young of CNBC. Young details the process through which the league can sell stakes in teams to private equity firms.
- Dr. Leroy Sims, the NBA’s senior vice president of medical affairs, recently spoke with Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated about pending COVID-19 vaccinations for players. “We understand that the vaccine is rolling out in such a way that you’re trying to get to the people who are most at risk or most vulnerable first, that includes front-line workers like myself working in the ER [emergency room], because we’re around so many people who could have the virus,” according to Dr. Sims. “After that, we’ll open it up. The vaccine will start to be distributed to others in the community. We recognize that our basketball players are young and healthy, so they will get vaccinated or have the opportunity to get vaccinated when it’s their turn. So we won’t be jumping the line there.”
I feel like the league should go to a temporary bubble format. Something like 6-8 weeks in then teams can return to home markets for say 10-14 days.
Come back obv get tested, maybe start testing a few days before they come back.
Win win, avoid all these postponements etc. players get to see their family once in a while and season gets finished.
Don’t know all the details, but most teams have played 15-20 games so you’d only have to do this 2-3 times to finish season. Then maybe 1 bubble like last year for playoffs.
Again not sure if this would work, just a thought.
Warning: covid talk. Predict: New strains will keep appearing because of all the researchers creating them to base vaccines on. All worldwide pressure is in pushing out vaccines. There has to be handling and developing errors because perfection is unlikely.
Will the MSM cover this?— ha. Well five covid strains have been found. By the time the vaccinations get around to NBA players, it will be time for a new round, and so on. They are already being modified.
Sweet dreams y’all!
Big oooof right here
?”oof”? Vaccines are important like with smallpox. But there must be internal learning also, in order that the body’s defense can stay ahead of mutations without relying on vaccines that take one or two years to develop, possibly with unintended outcomes.
Covid initially was predicted to be a virus that would Not mutate as well as normal viruses based on its makeup and novelty. But here it goes sporting new strains. The system to fight “colds” must be “adapted” to also fight covid.
The relevant test should be for memory-cell learning, not antibody learning as I have read being used. Antibodies are manufactured as if for one use then hang around a while, which is not learning.
“Sell stakes in teams to private equity firms”
Not very inspiring language by a long shot
Why’s that?
Its basically a fancy term for Cash For Homes!
Its not a signal of health in the world of NBA finance, most definitely.
Owners are lookimg to sell non-controlling (assuming) stakes in their teams to drum up some cash?
I’d only sell my stuff if I needed money badly.
Does MPJ wants an injection ?