The NBA sent out a memo to its teams on Tuesday updating them on the changes to the cross-border travel rules that the Canadian government announced last month and confirming that unvaccinated players won’t be permitted to play in Toronto.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), a player who misses a game in Toronto due to his vaccination status would be subject to a salary reduction for that game. The amount of that reduction would presumably be 1/91.6th of the player’s salary, as reported in October.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Most NBA insiders view it as a “mere formality” that if and when the NBA expands, Seattle will get a team, writes John Hollinger of The Athletic. Hollinger adds that most people he has talked to believe that Climate Pledge Arena – a renovated version of the SuperSonics’ Key Arena – would be the home of Seattle’s eventual expansion team. The arena is already hosting the NHL’s Seattle Kraken.
- In an interesting piece for The Athletic, Mike Vornukov spoke to veteran agent Todd Ramasar about what his job entails beyond negotiating contracts, how he navigates the draft and free agency, and what impact the new NIL rules for NCAA players will have on his recruiting process.
- Steven Kalifowitz, the chief marketing officer for Crypto.com, talked to Bill Shea of The Athletic about why the company was willing to pay $700MM for the naming rights to the Lakers‘ arena despite the fact that he knows many fans will keep calling it the Staples Center.
- Over 60% of the NBA players eligible for booster vaccines have received them, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, who tweets that there will be a push to get that number higher before the holidays.
What’s with the Canadians?
Are they gonna keep closing down their borders for years to come?
Unbelievable!
Why do YOU care? You trying to plan a vacation to Canada anytime soon? JFC.
I mean you blame us for wanting to keep those shady ameticans at bay?
El Don is a troll who likes his own posts immediately after posting them and blocks anyone who disagrees with him. All he does is post anti-vax nonsense and downplays the effects of COVID. He is constantly posting rock-stupid stuff like #FreeKyrie to get a rise out of people. Don’t worry about him.
El don is just a opinionated troll that doesn’t want anybody to disagree with him. I was wondering who would thumb up that post must be his burner chief account
El Don should stick to his simple #FreeSimmons and #LetKyriePlay posts. Once he gets too wordy it starts getting very cringe.
I got the vax because the risks seemed low and the consequences of not doing it could have been terrible as both of my parents are still alive in their late 80s, but since they smoked as young adults they are both susceptible to lung diseases (my mom has advanced COPD).
For the same reason I got the booster as soon as it was available to me.
If I was also being paid like an NBA player it would have been an even bigger $$$ reason to get the vax.
What exactly are people’s fear about the vax? Or is it just that no one likes being told they have to do it?
I think everyone does have a choice. But you don’t have a right to ignore the vax and then insist that you can go wherever you want without restrictions.
I don’t think it is a fear per se. It’s more of not jumping into something that nobody really has a firm grasp on. The closest thing I tried to compare it to is buying electronics; You wait for the new thing and a lot of people wait a bit to see if there are issues with the new thing. And then another new thing comes out.
It would be a lot easier to talk people into getting it if there was only one vax and it didn’t require a booster, or another booster, or maybe even another one. It’s just a very poor sell. Why buy now when you know another new thing is just around the corner that *could* be better?
Because it is the responsible adult thing to do for yourself, your family, and your community?
Crypto.com can pay $700 million for publicity because they have billions of dollars in their own crypto. It’s in their best interest to increase their holdings value, through advertising.
I’ve used the skills learned from geeking out on stats to make money in crypto. I think it’s a smart market for them to recruit.
I’m a stat geek who invested in them early though, so I’m biased in a couple ways.
I am sure crypto-com will provide a legal incentive to make tv announcers use the words they paid the Lakers for them to use.
I got the vax because I want to hang out with my grandparents, and parents for that matter, some more before they are dead. I live in Canada. If not having the vax keeps folks like El Don out of my country I’m definitely down for that lol.
The $700 million naming rights have already paid for themselves, to be honest. The cost of a single crypto.com token went from $0.15 before this naming rights announcement, to almost $1 per token after the rights were announced. Sitting at around $0.60 as we speak. Brilliant move by crypto.com, and honestly, $700 million was a paltry sum to pay for 20 years of naming rights.