Advertisement - scroll for more content
TJ McConnell: Alright … so I’m a 6'1" white guy in his mid-30s. In other words, I’m not exactly stopping traffic as this NBA player people recognize. And that’s just me on a normal day. You can imagine, on a day when I’m wearing a hat? I’m almost definitely not getting recognized. And during COVID, when you added a mask to the mix — nah, forget it. I was pretty much fully anonymous. And all that is to say: It’s not Tyrese’s fault. But on his first day in Indy after he got traded, as he was walking through the facility, he and I crossed paths. And I’ve got my hat on, my mask up … I’m chilling. I’m not even thinking about that, though. So of course I just go right up to him, real excited, and I’m like, “Tyrese!!! What’s up brother. How are you??? Bro, welcome to Indy.” Yeah, Tyrese did not know who I was. He was very friendly, but 1000% thought I was some guy who works on the business side. Then a few awkward seconds passed, until eventually I realized what was going on. I took my hat off, pulled my mask down, and we started laughing so hard. We joke about that story with each other all the time……. and honestly I can’t help but think of it right now, as I kind of look back on the season we had.
And when it comes to speaking your mind, especially on topics that go beyond the game (ehm, COVID vaccines), few have been more consistently outspoken than Kyrie Irving. This time, the Dallas Mavericks star raised an issue that rarely comes up from the players' side, questioning whether it still makes sense for NBA salaries to be fully public. "I find it very interesting that, of course, people will know how much the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies make. They will know different avenues of nine to five, in terms of the contract structure, but when it comes to sports, it's like, you know exactly the pay scale, the details of it and then it gets discussed as though there isn't any real live consequences to that," Irving opined in one of his live streams. "I wonder how much that puts a target on someone's life, where you know what's going on, you see it very causal, but it helps the overall growth of a sport, the sexiness of it, like, 'Oh, guess what Kai, or so and so is making this,' record breaking historic numbers… But I look at it, is it too much information at some point though?" the shifty point guard added. Ryan Wolstat: Raptors will play Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Bruce Brown and the NBa title contending Denver Nuggets in Vancouver on October 6. Marc Stein has also reported Dallas Mavericks will hold training camp in former land of the Grizzlies this year.
To start the week, my colleague Austin Karp has some takes on recent viewership figures: This was the second year that the NBA Draft was a two-day affair, and excluding the pandemic years, it was among the lowest NBA Draft audiences on record (a sharp drop for the first round being the main culprit). The full two nights across ESPN and ABC averaged just under 2.6 million viewers, which is down 5% from last year. Back in 2021, with the draft pushed into mid-July by COVID, it averaged 2.26 million. In 2020, when the draft was in November due to COVID (and without an ABC telecast), it averaged 2.13 million. With records dating back to 2008, no other NBA Draft was under 2.6 million viewers.
The NBA got the finish it needed in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, but it was not enough to keep Pacers-Thunder from opening at a non-COVID low. Thursday’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 1 averaged a 4.7 rating and 8.91 million viewers on ABC, marking the lowest rated and least-watched Game 1 of the Finals of the Nielsen people meter era (1988-present) outside of the two COVID-affected series, Bucks-Suns in July 2021 (4.5, 8.70M) and Heat-Lakers in the “bubble” on the final day of September 2020 (4.1, 7.69M).
Williams said it was during that sophomore year that he began truly believing that the NBA was possible. “Obviously, COVID happened. I had a couple injuries here and there. But mainly during COVID, that summer [going into sophomore year] I was really good,” Williams said.
Advertisement
Let's talk a little bit about this team. You all are incredibly close-knit, but it goes beyond the on-court interviews we all see. Lu Dort lived with you for a little bit, and you and JDub carpool to the airport sometimes. How did that happen? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: So, COVID had happened. We played in the bubble that next season. Lou had lived with me. He had just signed his contract—it was very low—and everything happened so fast. He didn’t have time to get a place. I had a few extra rooms. This was before my wife came out, and I didn’t have a family, obviously. I was young, so I enjoyed the company. So I said, “Just stay.”
Andrei Kirilenko, now ten years into his presidency, said Russia has not played top-level basketball in five years due to Covid and sanctions. “We want to come back. It’s unfair that Russian basketball is absent,” he stated, thanking FIBA for ongoing updates. A key point was the role of CSKA Moscow in EuroLeague politics. “The club votes but cannot play – it’s absurd,” said Kirilenko. He argued that CSKA’s return would facilitate the Federation’s reinstatement by the IOC, which acts more easily when clear cases are presented.
Start with the injuries, because good lord have there been a lot—perhaps even a record number. As of Thursday afternoon, the total player-games lost to injury stood at 6,489, per Jeff Stotts, a certified athletic trainer who tracks the data at InStreetClothes.com. That’s the second highest total in his database, which goes back to the 2005-06 season. But the highest, 7,497 player-games, came in 2021-22, when the Omicron variant of COVID-19 swept through the league; remove all games lost due to COVID, and the figure for that season drops to 6,150. Which makes 2024-25 the worst injury season in about two decades, perhaps ever.
Boston Celtics: Celtics Injury Report Update vs. Washington: Jaylen Brown - Right Knee Posterior Impingement - QUESTIONABLE Kristaps Porzingis - Illness (Non-Covid) - OUT Jayson Tatum - Left Ankle Sprain - OUT
Josh Robbins: Some interesting developments on the latest Wizards-Jazz injury reports for tonight's game. Jordan Poole (right elbow contusion) has been upgraded from doubtful to questionable, and Marcus Smart (non-Covid illness) has been upgraded from out to questionable. Also, Utah's Walker Kessler (rest) has been upgraded from out to available.
Advertisement
Following a 0-2 start in the best-of-seven series opposite the Phoenix Suns, the team coached by Mike Budenholzer bounced back with four straight wins to capture the championship. “Where TA?” Teague recalled the constant by Giannis, “TA make this magical like COVID recovery. I know he still had it. Ain’t no way, bro. It’s 14 days, bro. He’s back in three. He’s back. His energy was like contagious. Like he running in the locker room, COVID, everything he got, yelling, screaming. And I’m like, yeah, he matters. Like, he makes a difference for our team. When he’s not here, something’s not clicking. But when TA was there, he made it. Like he mattered. And then somehow, he’s in the locker room, he does all that. When the parade comes, he has a ride by himself because he got COVID.”
It has been five years since that flashpoint moment, which, to sports followers across the spectrum, signaled the seriousness of the global health crisis that would kill millions and bring society to a halt. Seemingly everybody has a personal, visceral story about where they were and how they spent the ensuing days, weeks, and months defined by uncertainty, isolation, and even fear. “It was a crazy time,” said Sixers big man Guerschon Yabusele, who was playing in the China Basketball Association when the pandemic originated in that country. “And we were all part of this.”
Yabusele signed with ASVEL, a Euroleague club just outside of Lyon, in late February, but played in only five games before the French team also suspended its season. When Yabusele learned that the NBA had done the same, he realized “now this is serious” worldwide. “I was like, ‘What is going on?’” Yabusele said. “Not knowing when it was going to stop. Not knowing when you’re going to be able to go outside. … I’m looking outside of my building and there’s nobody in the street. I’m like, ‘This is the end times.’”
“I was really at the source, I would say,” he told The Inquirer. The source, as in China. After he was released by the Boston Celtics during the 2019 summer league, Yabusele signed with the CBA’s Nanjing Monkey Kings. COVID cases began publicly surfacing as Yabusele approached his 2020 All-Star break, during which he and his pregnant wife had a vacation planned to Thailand.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement