International Notes: German, Italian, VTB Leagues; Nigerian Team
New Nigerian national basketball team head coach Mike Brown, currently an associate head coach for the Warriors, notes that there is a silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic delaying the Tokyo Olympics for a year, according to The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears: more time to develop the talent on his club.
“To have another year to grasp, not only the talent level of the team, but the direction the team needs to go and making sure we are able to put the best Nigerian team out there, it’s a welcomed advantage to have a little bit more time for a new guy like myself,” Brown told Spears.
Current NBA players Al-Farouq Aminu, Chimezie Metu and Josh Okogie all suited up for the 2019 Nigerian World Cup roster.
There’s more from the international basketball world:
- Germany’s EasyCredit BBL basketball league has been suspended until at least April 30 as a result of the rampant coronavirus spread throughout that country, per Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia.
- The top basketball league in Italy, LBA Serie A, hopes to resume team practices by May 16 if its 2019/20 season is to be completed, according to Sportando’s Dario Skerletic. The coronavirus pandemic has hit Italy particularly hard.
- Following a league-wide conference call, the VTB League (comprising teams from Kazakhstan, Estonia, Belarus, Poland, and Russia) has canceled its season, according to Jonathan Givony of Draft Express (Twitter link).
NBA Reducing Salaries For League’s Top Executives
The NBA is temporarily implementing a 20% base salary reduction for approximately 100 of its highest-earning executives around the world, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The move may sound similar to one the Sixers considered earlier this week before they reversed course when met with a PR backlash. However, the key difference here is that the NBA’s cutbacks will only impact top league executives and senior leaders, as Wojnarowski explains. Support and administrative staffers will not see their salaries reduced.
Commissioner Adam Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum are among those affected by the measures, which are expected to continue for as long as the coronavirus crisis lasts, sources tell ESPN. Most of the execs who will have their salaries reduced work in the league’s New York office, Woj adds.
NBA spokesperson Mike Bass didn’t explicitly confirm ESPN’s report, but offered the following statement:
“These are unprecedented times and, like other companies across all industries, we need to take short-term steps to deal with the harsh economic impact on our business and organization.”
Rockets’ Owner Unwilling To Sell Minority Shares?
Tilman Fertitta, the sole owner of the Rockets, won’t consider minority partners “as a matter of pride,” tweets ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
MacMahon’s note on the Rockets owner comes at a time when Fertitta’s companies have furloughed approximately 70% of their employees, according to Davide Scigliuzzo of Bloomberg. Fertitta, who owns a series of casinos, hotels, and restaurants, said he has had to temporarily lay off approximately 40,000 employees as a result of coronavirus-related shutdowns.
Indicating that he wants to “hire every employee back,” Fertitta expressed confidence that his businesses will survive and even talked about possibly buying back some of the Golden Nugget’s debts when things turn around, per Bloomberg’s report.
Fertitta, who is hoping that restaurants and casinos will soon be permitted to operate at least at partial capacity, said he has been talking to banks about raising as much as $200MM in additional liquidity “as a little bit of insurance,” Scigliuzzo writes.
Selling off part of the Rockets to one or more minority stakeholders at any time since he assumed control of the team in 2017 would have helped provide Fertitta with additional liquidity, but he has long been averse to the idea. In October 2017, shortly after he took the reins in Houston, he indicated he might make an exception for pop star Beyoncé, who had previously considered an investment in the franchise. Otherwise though, he said, “I prefer to own 100 percent.”
Fertitta, who has appeared reluctant to pay the luxury tax since taking over as the Rockets’ owner, figures to be hit particularly hard by the NBA’s loss of revenue this season. Houston was believed to be the team with the most partnerships in China prior to Daryl Morey‘s tweet in support of protestors in Hong Kong, which reportedly cost the team many of those business ties.
Christian Wood Reportedly “Fully Recovered” From Coronavirus
MARCH 26: Wood has been cleared, having registered negative test results on Wednesday evening, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
MARCH 25: Christian Wood, who was the only Pistons player known to have contracted the coronavirus, has “fully recovered,” according to his agent, as our own Dana Gauruder writes for The Detroit Free Press.
Wood is one of at least 10 NBA players known to have test positive for COVID-19. Gauruder hears from a source that Wood still has to pass a few medical tests and is expected to be cleared by Thursday.
The Pistons played the Jazz on March 7, just days before the news of Rudy Gobert‘s diagnosis and the NBA’s suspension of the season. Detroit, like other squads in the league, was asked to self-isolate. That period of isolation ended today.
Gauruder adds that 17 members of the Pistons were tested for the virus, including five players.
According to the World Health Organization, the median recovery time for mild cases of coronavirus is about two weeks. For critical or severe cases, it’s about three-to-six weeks.
Coronavirus Notes: NBA Schedule, Workouts, Positive Tests
As NBA observers continue to speculate that the current suspension could inspire the league to experiment with its schedule in 2020/21, Chris Mannix of SI.com explores the pros and cons of an NBA regular season that would run from December to June instead of October to April.
As Mannix notes, much of the resistance to such a format change over the years has stemmed from the belief that there simply aren’t as many television viewers in the summer months, which could negatively impact the NBA’s playoff ratings. However, Mannix points out that summer programming has never been particularly strong, which contributes to those low viewership numbers. In recent years, high-profile television programs ranging from HBO series to boxing matches have done well in July and August.
Several players told SI.com that they’d be open to a schedule that includes summer games if it results in a revenue increase for the league. With the current Collective Bargaining Agreement set to run through 2024, as Mannix writes, a revamped calendar could be something for the two sides to discuss for the next CBA.
Here are a few more items related to the coronavirus pandemic and the NBA’s hiatus:
- Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald takes his own look at possible NBA schedule changes, suggesting that waiting for the next set of full-fledged CBA negotiations may not even be necessary if both sides are on board with the idea of adjusting the calendar.
- In an interesting story for ESPN.com, Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon explore how the training staffs for NBA teams are trying to make sure their players stay active and in shape while facilities around the league are off-limits.
- East Tennessee State head coach Steve Forbes tweeted on Wednesday night that Maury Hanks is battling the coronavirus. As noted by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), among other reporters, Hanks is a longtime basketball coach and scout who currently works as a college scout for the Pistons.
- A camera operator who worked the Jazz/Pistons game in Detroit on March 7 is in a medically induced coma after being diagnosed with COVID-19, according to Vincent Goodwill and Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports. The man’s friends told Yahoo Sports that he first began feeling ill about a week after that game.
Karl-Anthony Towns’ Father Also Tests Positive For COVID-19
Karl-Anthony Towns recently shared the news about his mother contracting the coronavirus, revealing that she has been hospitalized for the past week and in a coma. Towns’ father also tested positive for the virus, Malika Andrews of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). Karl Sr. is reportedly “recovering well” after a multi-day stay in the hospital, Andrews adds.
“I was told early last week my parents weren’t feeling well,” Towns said (via his Instagram). “My first reaction to her was to go seek medical attention immediately. There’s no reason to wait, just go to the nearest hospital. And after a couple days of not showing any signs of improvement, I was very adamant on the first day to go to a hospital and seek further evaluation.
“Specifically, my sister told her she needs to get checked for corona. I don’t think anyone really understood what it was, with deteriorating condition. She kept getting worse, she kept getting worse, and the hospital was doing everything they can.”
Towns said he was in constant contact with his mother before she was put into the medically induced coma.
“This disease needs to not be taken lightly,” Towns said. “Please protect your families, your loved ones, your friends, yourself. Practice social distancing. Please don’t be in places with a lot of people; it just heightens your chances of getting this disease, and this disease … it’s deadly. It’s deadly. And we’re going to keep fighting on my side, me and my family, we’re going to keep fighting this. We’re going to beat it. We’re going to win.”
Hoops Rumors sends its thoughts and prayers to the Towns family and all those who have been impacted by COVID-19.
Dwight Powell Talks Recovery, Mavs’ Organization
Mavericks big man Dwight Powell, who continues to recover from the torn right Achilles he suffered back in January, tells Callie Caplin of the Dallas Morning News that “everything is on schedule” with regard to his recovery, adding that the coronavirus precautions are not impacting his rehab.
“Luckily it’s nothing I can’t do from home for now,” Powell explained. “I have a couple more months of really not too much, so I have everything I need here. The Mavs set me up with all the equipment, which there isn’t much of, to keep on track, and they’re checking in with me daily, so things are going good.”
Powell added that he remains in contact with the team’s medical staff via FaceTime, checking in every day. He said communication between him and his teammates has been solid.
“I think we’re doing a good job of reaching out on a daily and every-other-day basis with everybody, and we’ve got a group chat that’s pretty active and is light, humorous,” the big man said.
While the Mavericks remain away from their facility, the franchise is doing its best to help the community that is impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Powell credited Dallas’ leadership for how responsive the organization has been.
“That’s something I was taught and shown from Day 1 getting here from Mark [Cuban] and from Coach [Rick] Carlisle and from Dirk [Nowitzki], especially, at that time when he was here,” Powell said of the organization setting a high standard for giving back to the community. “They set the stage for that, so it doesn’t surprise any of us at all to see the leadership role that Mark has taken in this situation, the example that he’s set and the guidance he’s given all of us in how we can help as well.
“…We can’t be out there on the front lines, so those heroes that are doing the real work and the ones that are trying to get us back to normalcy, those are the ones who really need support, and I think that was one area that was being a little bit overlooked.”
Karl-Anthony Towns’ Mother In Coma Due To COVID-19
In a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday evening, Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns provided an emotional account of the health issues his mother Jacqueline Cruz is facing, as she has been hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms.
While Towns didn’t explicitly say in the video that his mother has tested positive for the coronavirus, the Wolves confirmed that diagnosis to ESPN’s Malika Andrews. According to Towns, who had to pause to compose himself throughout the video, his mother is in a medically induced coma and had to be put on a ventilator.
“She’s been in a medically induced coma,” Towns said. “Since that day (when she was put into a coma), I haven’t talked to her, haven’t been able to obviously communicate with her. I’ve just been getting updates on her condition. It’s rough, and day by day we’re just seeing how it goes. We’re being positive; I’m being very positive. So I’m just keeping the strength up for everybody and my family.”
Towns, who made a $100K donation to the Mayo Clinic to aid the coronavirus response and testing process even before his mother got sick, explained that he shared his story because he feels it’s important that “everyone understands the severity of what’s happening in the world right now with the coronavirus.” He also expressed hope that his mother will recover.
“Dominican women are strong. I know they are,” Towns said. “My mother is one of the strongest women I know and I know she’ll beat this. We’re going to rejoice when she does.”
We wish Towns and his family the best in this difficult time.
How Olympic Postponement May Impact NBA, Team USA
Tokyo and the International Olympic Committee announced on Tuesday that the 2020 Olympics have been postponed until sometime in 2021. As a result, the NBA no longer has to consider the possibility of overlapping with the Games if the league resume its 2019/20 season this summer.
However, the potential dates for the 2020/21 NBA season and the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics remain very much up in the air. As such, there’s no guarantee that we’ll see the ’20/21 campaign end in June and the Olympics begin on July 24, which was the plan for this year before the coronavirus crisis worsened.
Here’s what we know so far about the impact the Olympic postponement might have on the NBA and Team USA specifically:
- USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo and head coach Gregg Popovich had only been committed to the program through 2020, but that commitment will now extend to 2021, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst confirms. “We’re all-in and we’re committed,” Colangelo said. “It’s important to deal with the unknowns and this virus. This too shall pass, and we’ll be back for everyone’s well-being.”
- Within that Windhorst story, Colangelo says USA Basketball will adjust if NBA players aren’t available for the rescheduled Olympics, but points out that changing the window for the NBA season or the Olympics would be a significant undertaking. “Changing the window for the NBA is easier said than done. There’s a lot of logistics and contracts to deal with,” Colangelo said. “Same for the Olympics. You have to assume it will be around the same dates (in 2021).”
- As Windhorst and Tim Bontemps of ESPN note in a Q&A on the rescheduled Olympics, it’s possible Team USA will no longer be able to send its top players as a result of the postponement. However, it’s also possible that players like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving – who may not have been ready to go for the 2020 Games – will be healthy and available to participate by the time USA Basketball finalizes its roster in 2021.
- Joe Ingles, who will represent Australia in the Tokyo Olympics, said he’d be disappointed if a schedule conflict prevent him from playing for the Boomers, as Joe Vardon of The Athletic relays. “I do understand that the NBA and the Utah Jazz pay my salary and it’s really good money and I’m obviously obligated to be here (in the NBA),” Ingles said. “I absolutely love playing for Australia and would do anything to keep playing for Australia, representing my country. We obviously don’t really know what that looks like yet. I hope (the NBA season and the Olympics) don’t clash.”
Draft Notes: Anthony, Scrubb, Hunt, Edwards
North Carolina freshman point guard Cole Anthony is viewed as a surefire lottery pick for the 2020 NBA draft, but he’s not yet ready to commit to actually declaring for the draft and leaving UNC, as Myron Medcalf of ESPN writes. Anthony said on Instagram that he’s currently focused on the coronavirus pandemic and relief efforts in New York.
“Living in New York City, the coronavirus hits hard,” Anthony said. “My family and I know many people directly affected by the coronavirus — many hospitalized, a few in critical condition, and one person who has died. … So, my biggest concern right now is trying to figure out how I can help during this crisis.”
While Anthony has yet to officially put his name in the 2020 draft pool, UNC head coach Roy Williams expected the young guard to do so, as he tells Evan Daniels of 247Sports. Asked if he expects any of his players to leave school for the NBA, Williams replied, “I don’t think there is any doubt in my mind that Cole will be leaving.”
Here are a few more draft-related notes:
- Kentucky head coach John Calipari said on Tuesday that he expects the NBA to move back both the combine and the draft due to the coronavirus situation (Twitter link via Ian Begley of SNY.tv). Calipari hopes that – in that scenario – the date for college players to make final decisions about their draft eligibility would be pushed back too.
- Junior college star and Louisville commit Jay Scrubb is entering the 2020 draft without forgoing his college eligibility, his father Jason Scrubb tells Evan Daniels of 247Sports. “Jay’s focus right now is trying to be a pro player, and we want the NBA to take him seriously,” the elder Scrubb said. “Some execs aren’t sure if he’s going to go to school or try for the NBA. With the timeline we don’t know when we would hear from the NBA. He wants to be a pro athlete, but he does love Louisville.”
- SMU sophomore forward Feron Hunt is testing the draft waters this spring, he announced on Twitter. Hunt is coming off a 2019/20 campaign in which he averaged 11.0 PPG and 6.7 RPG in 30 games (28.2 MPG) for the Mustangs.
- Toledo junior guard Marreon Jackson recently announced on Twitter that he’s entering the 2020 draft pool while retaining his college eligibility. He averaged 19.8 PPG and 5.4 APG in 32 games (35.3 MPG) in 2019/20.
- Jeremy Woo of SI.com takes a closer look at Anthony Edwards, exploring why the Georgia guard has emerged as the leading candidate to be the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA draft and what question marks still surround him.