The NBA is in talks with The Walt Disney Company on a single-site scenario for a resumption of play in Central Florida in late July.
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NBA Basketball News
The untold story of what fuels Michael Jordan's legendary fire
May 19, 2020
YEARS AGO, AFTER a bad hurricane hit Wilmington, North Carolina, Michael Jordan came back to help the recovery effort. Jordan doesn’t go home very often, but he had some friends with him on that trip and wanted to show them where he’d grown up while they were in town. The house, a middle-class split-level, is at 4647 Gordon Road, near U.S. Highway 117. It’s the address where Dean Smith sent recruiting letters. Out front, Jordan seemed sentimental. One of the friends with him said later they didn’t feel comfortable describing the scene. It felt private. “How do most people feel when they go back to see their childhood home?” the person explained. “MJ is human.”
Someone suggested ringing the doorbell, but they worried about disturbing the current occupants, so his friends just stood there a moment with him, watching Michael Jordan look at the house
NBA stars and Jazz legends react to death of Jerry Sloan
May 22, 2020
Jerry Sloan, a player known as “The Original Bull” in Chicago before becoming a legendary head coach of the Utah Jazz, died Friday. He was 78.
Many in the NBA community took to social media to pay tribute to Sloan, who retired in 2011 as the longest-tenured head coach with one franchise in any major professional sport.
“Jerry Sloan was among the NBA’s most respected and admired legends,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “He was the first coach to win 1,000 games with the same organization, which came to embody the qualities that made Jerry a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer: persistence, discipline, drive and selflessness.”
Current Jazz head coach Quin Snyder, now in his sixth season with Utah, spoke fondly about his time with Sloan and what it means to follow in his footsteps.
“The clear identity that he established
The NBA in a bubble: The blueprint for how the league could finish the 2019-20 season
12:59 PM ET
Tim Bontemps
Brian Windhorst
Close ESPN Senior Writer ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010 Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years Author of two books
After 10 weeks of suspension of the NBA season due to the coronavirus pandemic, the idea of a bubble site where games could be played has taken the next step.
The league has entered into exploratory conversations with The Walt Disney Company about finishing the remainder of its season at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida, in late July, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said Saturday.
“The NBA, in conjunction with the National Basketball Players Association, is engaged in exploratory conversations with The Walt Disney Company about restarting the 2019-20 NBA season in late July at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida as a single site for an NBA campus for games,
Giannis unsure of 'Greek Freak' roots but loves it
May 21, 2020
Eric WoodyardESPN
Coming to America from Greece as a teenager was not always the smoothest transition for Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. Before “Giannis” became a household name, those who couldn’t pronounce his last name often called the NBA’s reigning MVP the “Greek Freak,” because of his rare, freakish athletic ability and ballhandling skills for someone 6-foot-11.
But as popular as the nickname has become, Antetokounmpo can’t recall the first person to use it.
“First of all, the nickname is really good. I like it,” Antetokounmpo said during his Thursday morning appearance on Capture Sports Marketing’s Athletes Doing Good Radiothon with his teammate Pat Connaughton on ESPN Wisconsin.
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“I don’t remember the first time I heard about it — it was probably my rookie year — but I really don’t know who came up with it,”
Cavs' Love: Mental health vital during COVID-19
May 22, 2020
Kevin Love is fretting about COVID-19.
He’s not spending a lot of energy worrying whether he’ll get it, or grieving the death of someone close to him who contracted the coronavirus. He frets because he knows what can happen if people experience the loss of a loved one, become consumed with the loneliness of isolation, experience job insecurity and financial difficulty, and then internalize that stress instead of getting help by reaching out and talking to a health professional.
“Listen, I don’t have all the answers — and likely never will,” the Cleveland Cavaliers power forward said. “But speaking from experience, I can tell you there are resources out there that can help you.
“It’s really scary what’s going on in the world right now. But you don’t have to suffer through it alone. Take it from someone who did that for far too long.”
Sources: NBA teams seek guidance on return
May 22, 2020
Among marketplaces where governmental restrictions are keeping practice facilities shuttered, teams are asking the NBA whether players can bypass returns to those cities and report directly to the league’s proposed campus environment for the start of training camps, sources told ESPN.
Most teams in regions still adhering to stay-at-home policies amid the coronavirus pandemic have an abundance of players who left their marketplace during the shutdown and would need to quarantine for an extended period — perhaps as many as 14 days — prior to joining workouts in team facilities. Teams want to avoid having to quarantine significant portions of their rosters twice — once upon returning to more restrictive markets, and again, at the bubble site.
In anticipation of the league’s expectation of restarting the season, the NBA has told those teams that it plans to work with them on solutions that possibly include
Lowe’s five NBA things: The end of Jordan’s Bulls, a mystery team and a player in the MVP conversation
This week we spotlight the end of the Michael Jordan-era Bulls and the panic in trying to stop Damian Lillard.
NBA says it is talking with Disney about resuming season
The NBA is in talks with The Walt Disney Company on a single-site scenario for a resumption of play in Central Florida in late July, the clearest sign yet that the league believes the season can continue amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The National Basketball Players Association is also part of the talks with Disney, the league said Saturday. Games would be held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, a massive campus on the Disney property near Orlando.
NBA spokesman Mike Bass said the conversations were still “exploratory,” and that the Disney site would be used for practices and housing as well.
“Our priority continues to be the health and safety of all involved, and we are working with public health experts and government officials on a comprehensive set of guidelines to ensure that appropriate medical protocols and protections are in place,” Bass said.
The ESPN Wide World of
Could LeBron James have been an NFL superstar back in 2011?
Over the past 20 years, LeBron James has gone from high school basketball phenom to global icon and one of the most accomplished NBA players of all-time.
But is it possible he could have found the same or greater levels of success on the gridiron instead the hardwood?
LeBron James the #DallasCowboy? 👀@KingJames joined @uninterrupted & said “the thoughts came into mind” about playing football in 2011.
🗞: https://t.co/8Rla0uLb1M
📷: @brkicks pic.twitter.com/ZJKzPm0b2P
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) May 19, 2020
In a recent sit-down with UNINTERRUPTED, James detailed how he was close to signing with the Dallas Cowboys during the 2011 NBA lockout.
“I had no idea how long the lockout was going to be and me and my trainer, Mike Mancias, we started to train to be a football player. Mike kept saying it would be great to go Irving, Texas. He’s from Texas. We are both Cowboys fans. The