And-Ones: Toronto, Seattle, Ramasar, Lakers’ Arena

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.
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