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Zach LaVine might not deliver this team to the post-season, but at least one teammates feels he has emerged as a leader, not only for this year but beyond.

Zach LaVine has always said the right things.

Credit his upbringing or his make-up, there are seldom verbal missteps coming from the Bulls guard.

This year, however, he’s finally doing the right things.

There are actions behind his words. That’s why he’s emerged as a true leader for this group this season, and hopefully beyond.

The latest evidence of that was on Thursday at the United Center, as the Bulls were facing a completely undermanned Toronto roster in what was still a must-win situation for the home team, and while LaVine wasn’t looking to score 40, he was looking to play a complete game on both ends of the floor.

Thanks to LaVine’s efficient 24-point night and solid defense, the Bulls beat the Raptors 114-102, staying alive for the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference with two games left.

The problem is that those two games might not mean a thing.

The Bulls (30-40) are off until Saturday afternoon, but with Washington playing the Cavaliers on Friday, it could be wrapped up by the Wizards with a win.

Obviously, a massive gut-punch to LaVine & Co. if it happens, especially with how much they talked about wanting to be a playoff team this season.

What it won’t take away, however, is the leadership role LaVine established with this group this season. A far cry from last year, when he was passed over as a captain in a team vote.

“I think this year was definitely a growth year for Zach from the simple fact of he was more vocal than anything, he always voiced his opinion,’’ veteran forward Thad Young said. “He helped guys out through the course of games, he went out there and got after it defensively. Offensively, we all know what he can do. He led by example each and every day. I just think that this year was really a big period of growth for him and I think he can lead this franchise and take this franchise to the next level.’’

There’s been a reminder of that since his return in the last week alone.

LaVine missed 11 games after testing positive for the coronavirus back on April 15, as the Bulls went from holding a play-in spot when he went down to losing it in his absence.

He’s now returned for the last five games, and the Bulls are 4-1 since he’s been back.

What’s impressed key voices in the locker room like Young’s is LaVine’s acceptance to try and be a more consistent two-way player this season, and then come back from a long layoff with that same mentality – play both ends of the floor.

“I think that was one of the most important parts, the most important keys,’’ Young said. “Me, I’ve been staying on him all season long. Billy [Donovan] and the coaches have been staying on him all season long, and telling him that’s the next level of growth for him. He has to be a two-way guy. He can’t just play one side of the basketball because it’s not going to help you win games. I think he’s taken on that challenge.’’

Not the only challenge, either.

By going 3-for-7 from three-point range in the win over Toronto, LaVine became the first Bulls player in franchise history to record 200 threes in a single season.

Just another sign of his evolution, both on and off the court.

“Winning is important to him,’’ Donovan said after the latest win of LaVine. “I think he’s figuring out the mental side of what goes into that.’’

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The 34-year-old was shot Thursday night in the 400 block of East 48th Street.

A 34-year-old man was fatally shot Thursday night in Bronzeville on the South Side.

The man was standing on the sidewalk about 9 p.m. in the 400 block of East 48th Street when someone fired shots Chicago police said.

He was shot in the face and leg and was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office hasn’t released his identity.

Witnesses told officers they saw the shots fired from inside a silver-colored vehicle that fled west on 48th Street, according to police.

No one is in custody as Area One detectives investigate.

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An 8-year-old boy was wounded in a shooting Thursday in Lawndale on the West Side.

The boy was in the street about 6 p.m. in the 1800 block of South Kildare Avenue when someone began firing shots, Chicago police said.

He was shot in the knee and was taken in stable condition to Mount Sinai Hospital by citizens at the scene, police said.

The boy was not the intended target, according to police.

Police tape cordoned off a light-blue Buick on 18th Street. About 30 shell casing markers dotted the road around the car.

A man and woman who live on the block with their three children said they were in their home when they heard “a lot of shots.”

The couple said they had seen the boy playing before the gunfire rang out.

“It’s dangerous here,” said the man, who declined to give his name. “We want to sell our house and move, but it’s hard.”

Family of the boy who gathered outside of Mount Sinai said he was “ok” but declined to comment further.

Community activist Andrew Holmes told reporters outside of the hospital that the gun violence plaguing the city should be treated as a health crisis.

“That’s the pandemic, discharging that weapon, and the pain that this baby is going through,” Holmes said, adding that he is concerned about the long-lasting effects of the gunshot wound on the boy’s body.

“Is he gonna come out limping? Is he gonna come out still in pain? The family want him back the way he was before he came here,” he said.

Holmes urged the community to cooperate with investigators and turn in the gunmen responsible, before another child is marked by gun violence.

“I’m asking the community let’s do what we got to do before the next one gets shot and we gonna be at another hospital. Stop staying I ain’t seen nothing, stop saying I don’t know. Cause guess what? Somebody out there know.”

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The boy was shot Thursday in the 1800 block of South Kildare Avenue.

An 8-year-old boy was wounded in a shooting Thursday in Lawndale on the West Side.

The boy was in the street about 6 p.m. in the 1800 block of South Kildare Avenue when someone began firing shots, Chicago police said.

He was shot in the knee and was taken in stable condition to Mount Sinai Hospital by citizens at the scene, police said.

The boy was not the intended target, according to police.

Police tape cordoned off a light-blue Buick on 18th Street. About 30 shell casing markers dotted the road around the car.

A man and woman who live on the block with their three children said they were in their home when they heard “a lot of shots.”

The couple said they had seen the boy playing before the gunfire rang out.

“It’s dangerous here,” said the man, who declined to give his name. “We want to sell our house and move, but it’s hard.”

Family of the boy who gathered outside of Mount Sinai said he was “ok” but declined to comment further.

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The biggest summer music festival in Chicago will once again be a reality this year, according to an exclusive report by Variety.

The publication’s website reported Thursday the festival is scheduled to return as a live, in-person event July 29-Aug. 1 in Grant Park. Variety said Lolla has the city’s OK to operate at near- or -full-capacity, and that a schedule and lineup announcement is expected to come next week.

Lollapalooza fell victim to the COVID pandemic’s mandatory shut-down of all indoor/outdoor venues and mass gatherings last year, pivoting to an online free streamed event.

A promoter at Lollapalooza organizer C3 Presents declined to comment on 2021 plans. As of Thursday evening, the official Lollapalooza Twitter account had yet to make any official announcement, and the festival’s website still listed information for the 2020 event.

When asked to confirm news of the festival’s return, a press representative for the office of Mayor Lori Lightfoot told the Sun-Times: “While conversations have been moving forward in a positive way, nothing has been confirmed.”

The city’s official Phase IV “be safe” guidelines for gatherings currently call for any outdoor, general admission spectator events to limit capacity to 15 people per 1,000 square feet. On Friday, the city moves to Gov. Pritzker’s “Bridge Phase” for reopening, which shifts those guidelines to 30 people per 1,000 square feet of space. In addition, the CDC on Thursday recommmeded that fully vaccinated individuals no longer need to wear masks indoors or out in most instances.

The governor tweeted: “I firmly believe in following the science and will revise my executive orders in line with @CDCgov guidelines lifting additional mitigations for vaccinated people.”

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And, no, it will not destroy women’s sports.

Federal civil rights law protects Americans against discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability or religion.

But there is nothing in the law that protects people against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Legislation we strongly support, The Equality Act, which was passed by a bipartisan vote of 223-206 in the House in February, would change that. It would expand civil rights protections to this group of Americans left out in the cold.

But now the bill faces long, perhaps insurmountable, odds in the Senate, largely due to an argument being made by Republican opponents that, frankly, is of little consequence in the real world. They warn that transgender girls would participate in female athletics and have an unfair advantage.

A question: Have you seen much of this at your local high school? And if you were to, now and again, would it be the end of the world?

Or should we focus instead on what really matters here: extending full civil rights protections to every one of us?

The Equality Act would provide anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people across key areas of life such as employment, housing, credit, education and in federally funded programs.

Typical of the arguments made against the bill are those of Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Missouri, who warns that allowing transgender women to compete against cisgender women — a term used for people who identify with the sex assigned to them at birth — would “decimate” female athletic competition. Testosterone, that is to say, would win out.

How the issue has played out in real life, though, says otherwise.

The International Olympic Committee has allowed transgender athletes to compete for years under specific parameters, the Associated Press reports, and, to date, there have been no known transgender women compete in the Olympics. Only one known transgender woman has competed at the Division I level in the NCAA.

“The answer to this latter question, are trans athletes winning everything, is simple — that’s not the case,” Dr. Eric Vilain, a pediatrician and geneticist who studies sex differences in athletes, told NPR.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois says he has been waiting for an “avalanche of problems” — describing the GOP’s argument — to surface, but they haven’t.

“No American should face discrimination because of who they are or who they love,” Durbin told the Sun-Times. “Republican claims of transgender girls having an unfair advantage in sports is a discredited and shameful distraction to score cheap political points. We should not punish LGBTQ Americans — including LGBTQ kids — for simply living their lives.”

Send letters to [email protected].

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The state’s latest effort in incentivize COVID-19 shots comes as kids as young as 12 become eligible to receive them — and as overall vaccine demand continues to dip.

A shot in the arm will soon give thousands of Illinoisans a fluttery feeling in the pits of their stomachs, a disorienting sensation of flight and a rush of adrenaline.

Those aren’t side effects of the life-saving COVID-19 vaccines that are readily available to anyone as young as 12 — they’re now being offered as a reward for rolling up your sleeve.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday announced Six Flags Great America is offering up 50,000 free tickets to its amusement parks in Gurnee and Rockford to newly vaccinated residents, the state’s latest effort to incentivize inoculation, especially for the youngsters who became eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine this week.

“Thanks to the life saving power of vaccinations, it feels once again like summer is in the air,” Pritzker said in front of the north suburban park’s famous double-decker carousel. “For many people, the protection from COVID-19 is more than enough reason to get vaccinated … but I also know that other people might need a little bit more of an incentive.”

The $4 million worth of tickets that were donated by Six Flags are geared toward communities of color that “have historically seen less investment” and might be on the fence about getting a shot, the governor said.

Some of the tickets will be given away outside the park itself, where an Illinois National Guard mobile vaccination team will set up shop the first weekend of June. Other tickets will be given out by local health departments in the north suburbs, along with other community groups in Cook County and elsewhere across the Chicago region.

State of Illinois livestream

“Especially for 12- to 15-year-olds, it is absolutely an incentive to get to visit the park,” Six Flags president Hank Salemi said. “I am 100% confident this will motivate vaccinations. That’s why we’re doing it at the end of the day.”

Pritzker’s health team has already toyed with a couple of motivating tactics, including free shooting targets to downstate vaccine recipients and free tickets to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.

Pritzker didn’t rule out a multi-million dollar lottery game like the one announced earlier this week in Ohio.

Jean Lachat/Sun-Times file

“We’re going to use our resources as wisely as we can and incentivize people as best we can,” he said.

That’s becoming increasingly necessary as vaccine demand dwindles across Illinois. About 62% of residents have gotten at least one shot, and about 37% are fully immunized, but the state is averaging barely 76,000 shots administered per day. That rate has fallen by 43% in the last month.

Graph not displaying properly? Click here.

Just 68,035 shots were given Wednesday, though that figure doesn’t include vaccinations at CVS pharmacies due to a reporting issue, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

And while the state reported 35 more coronavirus deaths, most metrics are at their lowest levels in almost two months. The latest 1,918 cases were diagnosed among almost 89,000 tests, keeping the average statewide positivity rate at 2.7%.

That means the state will advance to the “bridge phase” of Pritzker’s reopening plan Friday — the final phase of loosened restrictions before a full reopening.

The bridge phase allows most venues — including Six Flags — to expand capacity to 60%. That will soon apply at Cubs and White Sox games, which will have designated sections for vaccinated fans. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot also announced vaccinated patrons won’t count against capacity limits at city restaurants.

Barring a surge in cases, all pandemic restrictions will be lifted June 11 across most of the state — though Lightfoot has said the city is aiming more conservatively for July 4.

Almost 1.4 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Illinois since last year, and 22,320 of them have died.

To sign up for a vaccine appointment in Chicago, visit zocdoc.com or call (312) 746-4835.

For suburban Cook County sites, visit vaccine.cookcountyil.gov or call (833) 308-1988.

To find providers elsewhere, visit coronavirus.illinois.gov or call (833) 621-1284.

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The updated guidelines remove the need for masks or social distancing for those who are fully vaccinated and would also allow them to go without a mask in crowds outdoors.

Those who’ve rolled up their sleeves can now take off their masks — even in most indoor gatherings.

And they can huddle in a little closer.

That’s the gist of the newest U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, allowing fully vaccinated people to safely stop wearing masks outdoors and in the majority of indoor settings for the first time in about 14 months.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker plans to revise his executive orders related to face coverings following the CDC guidelines issued Thursday. His revised orders will mirror the new rules from the federal health organization, a Pritzker spokeswoman said.

“The Governor believes firmly in following the science and intends to revise his executive orders in line with the upcoming CDC guidelines lifting additional mitigations for vaccinated people,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. “The scientists’ message is clear: if you are vaccinated, you can safely do much more.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file

The new CDC guidance, which was announced Thursday afternoon, still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings — such as buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters. But it could help clear the way for a reopening of workplaces, schools, and other indoor venues.

The updated guidelines remove the need for masks or social distancing for those who are fully vaccinated and would also allow them to go without a mask in crowds outdoors.

The new CDC recommendations come just two weeks after the federal agency advised those who are fully vaccinated to continue to wear masks in all indoor settings and in large crowds outdoors.

But on Thursday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, announced the update on face coverings during a White House briefing. She attributed the change in guidance to the millions of people getting vaccinated — and based on the latest science about how well those shots are working.

“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities — large or small — without wearing a mask or physical distancing,” Walensky said. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”

“We have all longed for this moment: when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”

Jim Lo Scalzo-Pool/Getty Images file

According to the new CDC recommendations, those who are fully vaccinated can resume their pre-pandemic activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, “except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.”

Those who aren’t fully vaccinated should still follow prevention measures.

So far, a little over 10 million people in Illinois have received their first shot, according to figures from the Illinois Department of Public Health. And nearly 4.7 million Illinoisans are fully vaccinated.

The easing of guidelines governing the usage of face coverings comes a day before Illinois enters its 28-day “bridge” phase between Phases 4 and 5 of Pritzker’s reopening plan.

Entering that intermediate phase means museums, amusement parks and zoos will be able to increase capacity from 25% to 60%, while festivals and other general admission outdoor events will be able to seat 30 people per 1,000 square feet.

Meetings, conferences and conventions will also see their capacity limit increase to either 1,000 people or 60% — whichever is less — with the same applying to theaters and performing arts venues.

Barring another surge of infections, or a downturn in other reopening metrics, Pritzker will allow the state to fully reopen June 11.

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Reggie Spears was also a Golden Apple Scholar while attending Illinois State University.

A music teacher at Bronzeville Classical Elementary School got the surprise of a lifetime Thursday morning when he thought he was walking into a union meeting but instead received a Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching.

Reggie Spears has been teaching music for over a decade — the last three years at Bronzeville Classical Elementary School — but said he didn’t ever expect to win this award.

“I was just doing what I thought was best. It never even crossed my mind that this would be a possibility for me,” Spears said.

Annually, the Chicago-based Golden Apple Foundation honors educators from across the state for the positive and lasting effects they have on their students’ lives, and the impact they have on building stronger communities.

Spears is one of 10 teachers who received the award this year, which saw a record-breaking number — 700 — of nominations of pre-K through third grade teachers.

Golden Apple recipients each receive $5,000 and a spring sabbatical provided by Northwestern University.

Grace Asiegbu/Sun-Times

This award is something Spears knows all too well. He was part of the Golden Apple Scholars — a teacher preparation and tuition assistance program — while he was an undergraduate student at Illinois State University nearly 15 years ago. But winning it wasn’t something he ever expected.

“When I got nominated several months ago, I was shocked. I still don’t know who nominated me for the award,” Spears said, still breathless from the surprise celebration. “I couldn’t believe that I was one of 32 finalists, and now here I am, a winner. I am still in shock.”

He may have been shocked, but school principal Nicole Spicer was not.

“Mr. Spears is an absolutely amazing teacher,” she said.

“When we knew we were opening remotely, he applied for a grant that gave music boxes for all the kids,” Spicer said. Spears secured the funding for a set of 30 boxes for each of his classes, allowing students to practice their instruments — guitars, recorders, triangles and even drums — from home.

“The kids love him because from the time they are in kindergarten, he cultivates this love for music,” she said.

Golden Apple Foundation president Alan Mather called Spears an “amazing” teacher with a culturally responsive and engaging approach to teaching.

“His efforts to bring the community into the school [and vice versa] and his ability to say, ‘Students need to see their own experiences reflected in the music they do or performances they’re a part of,’ is key to help lift students up,” Mather said.

Spears said in his music class, students learn about more than just music.

“Music is so important because it encompasses all subjects,” he said. Students learn science when they discuss how instruments produce sound waves, and learn history when he teaches genre development and different styles of music.

“Bronzeville has a really rich musical history with the development of gospel music and its role in the development of jazz in Chicago,” he said. “We are very fortunate that we are a school that has students from all across the city coming here to learn, and giving them the understanding of the community that they are a part of is very important.”

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