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Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant has entered the NBA’s health and safety protocol.

Durant becomes the eighth Nets player to enter protocols. Forward Paul Millsap entered the protocols Monday, and was followed by forwards LaMarcus Aldridge, James Johnson and DeAndre’ Bembry and guard Jevon Carter on Tuesday morning. They were later joined Tuesday evening by James Harden and Bruce Brown.

The Nets’ COVID-19 concerns and the desire to pare back Durant’s hefty workload has led the Nets to bring back Kyrie Irving though he is still unvaccinated.

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Sporting director Georg Heitz and the Fire have cleaned out much of a bad roster, but keeping designated player Gaston Gimenez has the potential to be a dud decision and a negative turning point this offseason.

By dumping underachieving DP Ignacio Aliseda onto Swiss partner club FC Lugano on Monday, the Fire opened up a DP spot for the second time this offseason (after parting with Robert Beric). Moving Aliseda off the books was a must, and by transferring him to Lugano, the Fire can keep close tabs on him while he stays in the organization.

“After many discussions with Ignacio, we were all in agreement that this was the right time for a new challenge,” Heitz said in a news release. “This move allows Ignacio to continue his development in a competitive European league while providing us with more roster flexibility going into the 2022 MLS season.”

Meanwhile, Heitz is gambling that fellow under-achiever Gimenez returns to form. The Fire could have had the maximum three DP spots but instead chose to keep Gimenez around, handing him a two-year deal Monday.

Even when the decision was announced, the Fire seemed to know the move wouldn’t be met warmly by a fan base waiting for the team to make on-field strides under Heitz and owner Joe Mansueto.

“Gaston is highly motivated to help lead the Fire back into the playoffs,” Heitz said in a news release. “He will benefit from a new start under [new coach] Ezra Hendrickson and will partner with Federico Navarro to form one of the best and hardest working midfields in MLS next season. We have high expectations for Gaston and are confident that he will deliver for the club.”

After a strong 2020 season in which he paired in the midfield with Alvaro Medran, Gimenez regressed in 2021 and, with a 2022 club option, looked like an obvious candidate to depart, especially after being left home for a September match in Montreal. But wisely or not, the Fire are trying to protect their investment in Gimenez, who turns 31 next summer.

By keeping him, the Fire will have one less big-money spot to fill, which actually could be a good thing because it makes an already-busy offseason slightly less hectic. And if Gimenez plays like the player the Fire hoped they were getting, the choice will look smart.

Navarro also could do more of the midfield dirty work, allowing Gimenez to play to his strengths and distribute passes to kick-start the attack.

But if Gimenez continues on his 2021 trajectory, it would be another Heitz error and set the Fire back.

“I’m very grateful and excited to continue representing the Chicago Fire,” Gimenez said in a news release. “The club has shown their confidence in me, and it is a responsibility that I do not take lightly. I look forward to giving the best version of myself for our fans and the city of Chicago.”

NOTES: The Fire announced the addition of Junior Gonzalez to their coaching staff. Gonzalez, 44, has been a coach for more than 20 years, and worked with Hendrickson at the LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders FC 2.

The Fire are also expected to add Ring of Fire member C.J. Brown to the staff. Brown was an assistant with the Fire in 2014 and spent the 2021 season coaching Chicago House in the National Independent Soccer Association.

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It’s been a whirlwind of a year for Chicago Bulls rookie Ayo Dosunmu. At one point during his career at Illinois, he was talked about as a lottery pick.

Then, came the 2021 NBA Draft. Dosunmu failed to hear his name called at all in the first round, which undoubtedly deflating for a guy who took over many games over his time with the Illini. This was supposed to be his moment.

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PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks announced more than two dozen changes to their front office staff Thursday, including the addition of veteran baseball operations executive Jason McLeod.

McLeod’s title is Special Assistant to D-backs Executive Vice President & General Manager Mike Hazen.

McLeod has 26 years of baseball experience, including the past decade with the Chicago Cubs, where he helped build the 2016 World Series champion roster. He previously worked with Hazen and D-backs assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye when all three were with the Boston Red Sox.

McLeod will help Hazen try to rebuild the Diamondbacks, who had the second-worst record in franchise history in 2021. Arizona finished with a 52-110 mark.

The team’s other front office moves were a variety of promotions, role changes and new hires.

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The Chicago Bulls have been cleared by the NBA to return to practice on Saturday, marking the first time in a week the team will gather for a group activity.

Chicago has not played since last Saturday night against the Miami Heat after a teamwide COVID-19 outbreak put 10 of its players in the league’s health and safety protocols. Amid the outbreak, the NBA postponed the Bulls’ two games this week, but the team is scheduled to host the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night in Chicago.

A few Bulls players have been cleared from health and safety protocols since the team’s hiatus.

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The team announced that star DeMar DeRozan was out of the protocols on Friday afternoon. Coby White and Javonte Green have also moved past their isolation periods and come into the team’s facility for individual workouts this week.

The Bulls were adamant that they wanted to give their players practice time before beginning games again following the hiatus, especially for those limited during the league-mandated 10-day isolation period after entering the protocols.

“We’re dealing with a conditioning factor, we’re dealing with a rhythm and timing situation,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan told reporters on Zoom earlier this week. “We’re dealing with our team, really the last probably 12 days, two weeks it’s been pretty much every day we’ve had somebody that has been in health and safety protocol. Our team has totally changed.”

Although the Bulls are starting to get more whole, they still have seven players in the protocols, including Stanley Johnson, who signed a 10-day contract via hardship exception before being sidelined. Chicago also will still be without Zach LaVine, Derrick Jones Jr., Matt Thomas, Ayo Dosunmu, Troy Brown Jr. and Alize Johnson.

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In the wake of dozens of players being sidelined in the league’s health and safety protocols, and with looming concerns leaguewide about more games being halted, the NBA and National Basketball Players Association are discussing a plan that would require teams decimated by COVID to sign additional replacement players, league sources tell ESPN.

On an NBA Board of Governors call Friday, there was an overwhelming sentiment among NBA owners to do whatever is necessary to avoid postponements and cancellations this season, league sources said. In the backdrop of that view, the outlines of a plan regarding replacement players were approved by the Board of Governors during a meeting Friday, league sources said.

Previously, hardship rules were left up to the purview of teams. Some during the pandemic have declined to add replacement players even while they’ve had several of their own sidelined by COVID.

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The league and the NBPA have to agree to the plan, and those conversations are ongoing.

In the proposed plan, after the first case of COVID, a team would be permitted to add a 10-day player, league sources said, but after a second, third and fourth case, teams would be required to add a 10-day player. Teams would be limited to three replacement players, but the new plan would, overall, require teams to maintain enough depth so that the league wouldn’t be forced to cancel or postpone games because some teams didn’t have the league-required eight healthy players.

Under the plan, the additional replacement players also wouldn’t count against that respective team’s salary cap or luxury tax, league sources said. For example, the Brooklyn Nets would’ve been charged an additional $500,000 toward their luxury tax bill with the signing of Langston Galloway.

The same hardship exception rules criteria would exist under the proposed plan: Just because a player tests positive for COVID wouldn’t automatically allow a team to sign a replacement player. That team would need to have four players sidelined — either by injury or COVID or some combination of the two — and down to only 13 health players for them to add a replacement player. But once a team had five players sidelined, it would then become mandatory for them to sign a replacement player.

Through Friday, 84 players total have entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols this season, including 68 in December. In three of the past four days, there have been double-digit additions of players to the protocols list, with Friday marking a single-day high of 16, followed by 13 on Tuesday and 11 on Thursday.

Team executives believe the numbers will continue to climb in the days and weeks ahead.

Around the league, there remains considerable frustration among some teams facing outbreaks.

“I do know certainly when we were testing as much as we were testing, not every team was testing under the same premise that we were testing under,” Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan told reporters this week as his team reels from 10 different players entering the protocols. “So you could’ve had, for some teams, players that were maybe asymptomatic or guys that were positive that just didn’t really feel a lot of symptoms out there playing. And I think the league is probably looking at those things.”

A number of team executives and coaches are eager for the protocols to quickly change to allow asymptomatic players to play in games — or, essentially, for COVID to be treated in the same way as the flu: Only those who are feeling ill are sidelined.

That sentiment has been expressed to the NBA, league sources said.

Yet within the league office and in the NBPA, there remains no willingness to allow asymptomatic players who have tested positive to play in games, league sources said.

Both the NBA and NBPA are mindful, as leading medical agencies and infectious disease experts have roundly stated, that those who are asymptomatic can still spread COVID.

The NBA and NBPA are likewise aware that allowing players who are COVID positive to play in games — even if they’re asymptomatic — could send a troubling signal to the public, league sources said.

While there may be an appetite among some around the league for asymptomatic players to play, a number of team health officials noted that doing so would fly in the face of tragedy that has impacted the world and the NBA community, with Minnesota star Karl-Anthony Towns losing his mother and six other family members to COVID.

Team executives and team health officials have privately believed that altering the protocols to require daily testing of every vaccinated player and staffer could help stem the current surge, but the NBA and NBPA, in accordance with guidance from their respective infectious disease experts, have so far felt that such a move wouldn’t be as impactful.

Team executives and team health officials have also wondered if the protocols could change in such a way to restrict what those who are vaccinated can do outside of a team setting, thus returning to the strict protocols that existed last winter before vaccines were widely available.

While there’s skepticism about buy-in from teams and players for such a move, league sources said there is an understanding and acceptance from all parties that difficult steps may be necessary to salvage the season should the situation become dire in the weeks ahead, especially as the Omicron variant spreads.

“You got a side that’s going to be happy and a side that’s not going to be happy so you just got to live with the decision that’s made,” said Golden State Warriors wing and NBPA executive committee member Andre Iguodala. “And I think as a group we have to continue to understand it’s 450 players and the majority vote wins. So someone’s going to not be happy so you got to make that decision — you sacrifice something.

Whether it’s your check or putting your family in danger. I was talking about it postgame — it’s the machine. It’s the nature of the machine … it’s business over the human element. And you got to be able to decide whether you want to participate in it so it’s just tough.”

On Thursday, the NBA and NBPA agreed upon and informed teams, via a league memo, about updated health and safety protocols centered on increased testing around the holidays along with ramped-up policies regarding facemasks.

Players and staff will be tested on game days except for those who received their booster shot 14-plus days earlier or recently recovered from the virus.

ESPN’s Nick Friedell contributed to this report.

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Jimmy ‘‘The Greek’’ Snyder | AP

Bet on it: The origins of Vegas’ sportsbooks included high taxes and colorful characters

LAS VEGAS — A fuming Lem Banker stomped into Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder’s Hollywood Race and Sports Book downtown in the 1960s. Snyder stood on the other side of the counter.

“Where’s my money?” said Banker.

“Don’t have it,” Snyder said.

Banker, a sports-betting legend and former boxer who trained religiously, moved toward Snyder, who grabbed a baseball bat. Banker hurdled the counter and discarded the weapon. A struggle ensued.

They slipped behind a partition, into an office. Banker left with his loot, maybe $5,000, fellow pro Ron Boyles said.

Eyewitness Harold Kulic, a longtime El Cortez ticket writer known as ‘‘Hungry Hal,’’ relayed those theatrics to Boyles during the inglorious stand-alone era of Vegas sportsbooks.

“Everyone called him Hal and thought that was his name,” Boyles said. “He loved to eat. Never paid for a meal. He’d shop for the best baseball numbers, and everyone comped him meals.”

In those decades, Vegas punters patronized either illegal bookies or stand-alones like Snyder’s. The legal shops continued, barely at times, until less onerous taxes led to wider acceptance and today’s sports-betting bacchanal.

For the first time, Nevada did $1 billion in monthly sports-betting business, the handle, in October, a month after New Jersey became the first state to bust a billion. The profit, or hold, usually hovers around 5%.

Industry experts expect Illinois to soon join that exclusive 10-figure fraternity.

On Dec. 9, Maryland became the 31st U.S. jurisdiction (30 states, plus Washington, D.C.) to legalize sports betting. Sixteen additional states are discussing legislation.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court let states pursue their own sports-gambling ambitions, in 2018, more than $82 billion in business has been generated nationally, according to industry watchdog SportsHandle.

For decades, a legal single-game sports bet could be placed only in Nevada, which had a 1974 handle of $8 million.

At times, there were only three stand-alones in Las Vegas.

SAWDUST JOINTS

Herbie Hoops, Dick the Pick, Bobby the Tower, Hunchback Bobby, Crazy Louie, Jolly Joe, Fat Dave, Michael the Weasel and Fast Eddie were some of the eccentrics of that unglamorous period.

“Characters,” Boyles said, “who made those holes-in-the-wall interesting.”

They’d frequent the Rose Bowl, Derby, Saratoga, Santa Anita, Hollywood or other books, either on the Strip or downtown. Longtime handicapper Dave Cokin recalls veritable melees at outside pay phones.

Nevada legalized gambling in 1931. Sports betting, however, was not popular due to reported fixes, allegations of nefarious activities and thorny taxes.

In 1951, a 10% federal tax on sports betting at once provided regulation and shuttered businesses. In 1974, that was cut to 2%; in 1983, to its current ¼ of 1%.

The Union Plaza, in 1975, became the first hotel-casino to incorporate a book on its premises. A year later at the Stardust, Chicago native Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal — who had run the Rose Bowl — developed the “theater-style” setting that became de rigueur.

Those stand-alones kept the business afloat between the early 1950s, when politicos nearly twice outlawed bookmaking, and the mid-70s.

“Very inhospitable places,” Rosenthal said in “Casino,” Nicholas Pileggi’s 1995 book. “Sawdust joints. I had spent my life in those places and knew what they needed.”

RUNYONESQUE

In June 1976, at Bill Dark’s Del Mar in North Las Vegas, well-known Vegas hothead Cryin’ Kenny had bet on Game 5 of the Suns–Celtics NBA championship series to finish Under its projected total.

The triple-overtime game sailed Over. Before it ended, the wild-eyed Texan had left and returned with a revolver, blasting six bullets into the Zenith television hanging from the ceiling.

Kenny returned the next day, South Point sportsbook director Chris Andrews wrote in his “Then One Day . . .” book — and apologized to Dark who, after making Kenny pay for the TV, took Kenny’s bets. Business as usual.

South Point sports marketing director and Vegas institution Jimmy Vaccaro said the last of the stand-alones were Little Caesar’s and Churchill Downs, at opposite ends of a simple mall.

In the late 1990s, that Strip stretch became Paris Las Vegas.

Tommy Lorenzo, a 49-year-old Southern California resident, slipped into Little Caesar’s, out of curiosity, when he was 19. The casino books all carded him. But at LC, he bought a beer in a 16-ounce Dixie cup for a dollar.

“The characters mulling around,” Lorenzo said, “could have inspired the cantina scene from ‘Star Wars.’ I didn’t get carded and felt like a king in that place, which was very much a dive.”

Boyles called it ambience.

“Runyonesque characters in every corner. At the Rose Bowl, they faked a robbery; they had lost all kinds of money and couldn’t pay people. Handwritten tickets. Could make a movie about them.”

The Rose Bowl, under Gary Austin, never reopened. Horse races were recreated, after the fact, from disseminator Joe Deluca reading ticker-tape over speakers.

“Straight out of ‘The Sting.’ He’d come on the microphone,” Boyles said, “with this old race-track voice and give the call. Tremendous.”

Vegas pillar Michael “Roxy” Roxborough frequented the Santa Anita. In an email, he called the stand-alones pigpens. You would never bring a lady to one of those.

He lauded casinos operating books.

“They had little tolerance for the insalubrious characters that were the old joints’ habitué. In plain language, you couldn’t stand on the chairs and throw beer bottles at the TV anymore.”

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The Chicago Bears are an atrocious team. It has been mostly bad from pretty much everyone and that is why they are going into this weekend with a 4-9 record. The coach is probably going to get fired and it would also be smart to fire the GM as well. Things are pretty much all […]

Robert Quinn should set the Chicago Bears sacks record soon – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More

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