Rudy Gobert joined teammate Joe Ingles in the NBA’s health and safety protocols before Thursday’s game against the Raptors.Read More
Jazz center Gobert tests positive for COVID-19on January 7, 2022 at 5:48 am Read More »
The NBA is requiring non-boosted players to undergo daily coronavirus testing through the All-Star break and is restricting those players’ attendance at large indoor gatherings, bars and clubs.Read More
Daily tests for non-boosted NBA players extendedon January 7, 2022 at 5:48 am Read More »
As the Omicron variant continues to run roughshod, the NBA is requiring non-boosted players to undergo daily COVID testing through the All-Star break in mid-February and is restricting those players’ attendance at large indoor gatherings, bars and clubs, according to a memo obtained by ESPN on Thursday night.
Elevated daily testing of all players, coaches and basketball staff that started Dec. 26 also will continue through Jan. 15, according to the memo.
That testing cycle was originally supposed to end Saturday, but it’s been extended an additional week now.
The NBA and National Basketball Players Association agreed on several increased testing protocols in the wake of the ongoing surge of COVID cases. Those testing requirements don’t include team off days, the memo said.
Also, mask requirements for team personnel surrounding travel, hotels and team facilities will be extended through Jan. 19, the memo said.
The NBA had 11 games postponed in December and 300-plus players and 12 head coaches placed into health and safety protocols this season.
Daily tests for non-boosted NBA players extendedon January 7, 2022 at 4:30 am Read More »
Chicago Public Schools announced Thursday night that sports can resume at high schools that “can support the events with the appropriate coaches and supervisory personnel.”
The announcement also says schools may travel to contests outside their buildings.
That clears the way for most boys basketball teams to play, but there are several teams that have head coaches in the Chicago Teachers Union, including Lane and Farragut.
According to a CPS source, it would be up to the individual schools to determine how they operate sports until school is back in session. So it is possible that assistant coaches that are not CTU members could take over.
“It is a beautiful thing,” Young coach Tyrone Slaughter said. “I’m happy to see they are putting children first again. We are on a flight tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.”
The Dolphins play in Minnesota on Friday night.
CPS sports have been shut down since Wednesday. The Chicago Teachers Union voted on Tuesday night to refuse in-person work, defying the district plans because of COVID-19 concerns. CPS responded by canceling all classes, sports and activities.
It’s the third time sports have been disrupted by labor issues in the past 27 months.
More than 70 Chicago Public Schools coaches met on a Zoom call Thursday afternoon to discuss the stoppage of CPS sports.
Slaughter organized the call.
“We just discussed what we thought and guys shared their concerns,” Slaughter said. “First and foremost we are worried about the student-athletes. If you are a senior you’ve had the last three seasons interrupted by various issues. [The coaches] are clearly disappointed, more than upset. They understand there are points on both sides that are legitimate.”
According to the memo released Thursday night by CPS, staff members who do not report for in-person work cannot lead after-school sports activities. And any game not played will be considered canceled and not forfeited. Sports are only restarting in high schools. Elementary school sports remain paused.
There is a full slate of CPS boys basketball conference games scheduled for Friday. The Red-North/West, White-North, White-West, Blue-North and Blue-West all have games scheduled.
Kenwood will be able to head to the prestigious Highland Shootout in Southern Illinois on Saturday. Broncos coach Mike Irvin made some pointed comments on Wednesday when it looked like his team would miss out on the event.
“This is all about politics and sports are the only ones taking a hit,” Irvin said. “The mayor and [CPS CEO Pedro Martinez] need to understand sports is an outlet for these kids. Everytime something happens they want to take something way from the kids.”
Most Public League coaches didn’t want to comment on the issues between CPS and CTU. It’s obviously a sensitive issue in their workplace. Irvin wasn’t worried about offending people.
“I’m fighting for my kids,” Irvin said. “These parents are looking for scholarships. They don’t want to pay for college. This tournament this weekend helps them get exposure and it helps them get to school. I’m not saying sports is more important then academics. My team has a 3.0 GPA.”
Irvin works in security at Kenwood. He isn’t in the CTU, but his family has been heavily involved in CPS sports for several generations.
“50 percent of the basketball coaches probably aren’t in the union,” Irvin said. “To conduct a basketball game you need kids, coaches and refs. You don’t need teachers. This doesn’t have anything to do with teachers.”
Irvin was able to clear the trip to Highland with his school administration on Thursday night. Luckily, the Highland Shootout organizers had not replaced Kenwood yet. They began looking for other teams on Wednesday.
CPS sports can resume Friday if coaches are available Read More »
NEW YORK — The NBA fined Sacramento Kings assistant general manager Wes Wilcox $15,000 and the team $50,000 on Thursday for violating league rules prohibiting team owners and executives from interacting with scorer’s table personnel during game play.
The NBA said Wilcox left his seat to confront operations personnel at the scorer’s table about the handling of a clock procedure during a jump ball early in the second half Sunday night in the Kings’ home victory over the Miami Heat. The league said the clock procedure at issue was administered correctly by the shot clock operator.
NBA fines Kings $50K for assistant GM’s conducton January 7, 2022 at 2:03 am Read More »
GLENDALE, Ariz. — More than three years after his trade to the Blackhawks, Dylan Strome no longer feels anything different when he faces his former team, the Coyotes.
Thursday’s matchup was his seventh so-called revenge game — a number he did remember off the top of his head, for what it’s worth — and fourth such game in Arizona. After a while, there’s no more revenge to be extracted.
“The management and everyone, everything, [has] changed since I was here,” he said. “I know a few of the guys on the team, but it’s been long enough that I’ve moved past it.”
But Strome does still recall what a “great place to live” the Phoenix area was — a sentiment shared by many players.
“It’s pretty beautiful every day,” he said. “The quality of life here is really good. [There are] a lot of healthy places to eat, a lot of golf courses, beautiful scenery, mountains and stuff. People are up and active and moving. I’m not surprised guys like to play here.”
The possibility of losing all of Arizona’s uniqueness from the NHL circuit is the unfortunate side of the Coyotes’ very uncertain future.
The long-embattled franchise’s problems appear headed toward a climax in 2022. Relatively new owner Alex Meruelo’s brief reign has been plagued by scandals, financial issues and rampant dysfunction on and off the ice.
The team is being forced out of Gila River Arena after this season and has flirted with an even earlier departure; the city of Glendale threatened to lock the arena doors in December due to $1.3 million in unpaid taxes. Relocation rumors have swirled, particularly involving Houston, although anything seems possible at this point.
Even the Coyotes do leave Arizona this summer, however, Thursday won’t be the Hawks’ last-ever visit. They’re scheduled to make one more desert trip this season on Apr. 20.
The Blackhawks’ lineup Thursday against the Coyotes was thrown into a blender with three late additions to COVID-19 protocols.
In addition to Brandon Hagel, newly acquired forward Sam Lafferty and defenseman Erik Gustafsson were also placed on the COVID list just minutes before warmups, joining goalie Kevin Lankinen as the now-four Hawks unavailable due to the virus.
That put the Hawks in a bind personnel-wise. Nicolas Beaudin comically skated during warmup line rushes on the first line with Patrick Kane and Henrik Borgstrom, but the Hawks’ lines fluctuated all night with 11 forwards and seven defensemen dressed.
Mike Hardman and Ian Mitchell were also recalled to the active roster along with Beaudin. They’ll presumably join the team in Las Vegas.
Interim coach Derek King had said earlier in the day, before the COVID news, he was looking forward to integrating Lafferty into the roster.
“He’s an energy guy,” he said. “The reports I’m getting back are he’s got a little more skill than people give him credit for. But he plays hard and we could use that.”
The Hawks’ scheduled Jan. 18 road game against the Oilers was postponed by the NHL, increasing the Hawks’ number of postponed games to six.
This particular change wasn’t surprising given how many other Canadian games have been postponed in advance this month with revenue preservation in mind. The league hopes to reschedule the games later in the season when provincial Canadian governments are allowing fans again.
Blackhawks notebook: Coyotes matchups no longer notable for Dylan Strome Read More »
Please send scores and corrections to [email protected]
BIG NORTHERN
Rock Falls at Genoa-Kingston, 7:00
DU KANE
St. Charles East at Geneva, 7:15
St. Charles North at Lake Park, 7:15
Wheaton North at Glenbard North, 7:15
Wheaton-Warr. South at Batavia, 7:15
LITTLE TEN
DePue at Serena, 7:00
METRO PREP
CPSA at Lycee Francais, 4:30
NOBLE LEAGUE – GOLD
Bulls at Butler, 7:00
DRW at ITW-Speer, 7:00
Johnson at Rowe-Clark, 5:30
PUBLIC LEAGUE RED-SOUTH / CENTRAL
Corliss at Bogan, PPD
Curie at Simeon, 1-28 PPD
Hyde Park at Phillips, PPD
Kenwood at Morgan Park, PPD
Longwood at Brooks, PPD
PUBLIC LEAGUE WHITE-CENTRAL
Catalyst-Maria at Hubbard, PPD
Kennedy at Solorio, PPD
King at Dunbar, PPD
Lindblom at Richards (Chgo), PPD
Tilden at Urban Prep-Bronzeville, PPD
PUBLIC LEAGUE WHITE-NORTH
Von Steuben at Senn, PPD
PUBLIC LEAGUE WHITE-SOUTH
ACE Amandla at Perspectives-Lead, 5:00
Carver at Agricultural Science, PPD
Fenger at South Shore, PPD
Urban Prep-Bronzeville at Dyett, PPD
Vocational at Harlan, PPD
PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE-CENTRAL
ACERO-Garcia at Gage Park, PPD
Excel-Englewood at DuSable, PPD
Horizon-Southwest at ACERO-Soto, PPD
Instituto Health at Englewood STEM, PPD
Kelly at Hancock, PPD
PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE-SOUTH
Bowen at Julian, PPD
EPIC at Chicago Military, PPD
UC-Woodlawn at Goode, PPD
Washington at Air Force, PPD
PUBLIC LEAGUE BLUE-WEST
Phoenix at Chicago Collegiate, PPD
SOUTH SUBURBAN – CROSSOVER
Richards at Tinley Park, 6:30
NON CONFERENCE
Christian Heritage at Beacon, 6:00
Midland at Calvary Christian, 7:00
Trinity (Kankakee) at Chesterton Holy Family, 7:45
LAKE ZURICH
Libertyville at Round Lake, 7:00
Thursday’s high school basketball scores Read More »
The Milwaukee Bucks waived center DeMarcus Cousins on Thursday, it was announced.
Cousins has been productive in his role through 17 games this season, but general manager Jon Horst said that Milwaukee wanted to keep the optionality of an open roster spot ahead of the Feb. 10 trade deadline.
There’s a league-wide deadline of Friday to guarantee non-guaranteed contracts for the rest of the season.
“We wouldn’t have been able to get through this difficult stretch of the season as successfully as we did without DeMarcus,” Horst told ESPN on Wednesday night. “At the end of the day, we made a strategic decision to have an open roster spot, but there’s nothing that would prevent us from partnering with DeMarcus again down the road. He was so good for us, and hopefully we helped him, too.”
Cousins, 31, averaged nearly nine points and 5.5 rebounds in 17 games for the Bucks. Cousins had 15 points, 10 rebounds and three steals in Wednesday night’s loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Bucks waive center Cousins before deadlineon January 7, 2022 at 12:33 am Read More »
The first time that Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, the NBA didn’t even have health and safety protocols. It shut down the league instead.
This time, the Utah Jazz center might miss just a few days.
Gobert has tested positive for COVID-19 and was placed Thursday on the virus-related protocols list — something that didn’t even exist when he tested positive for the virus on March 11, 2020, the night that the NBA shut down for more than four months and ultimately decided to finish its season inside a bubble at Walt Disney World in Florida.
He has been ruled out for Utah’s game Friday in Toronto. It is not clear how long he will be sidelined; typically, even with shorter return-to-play rules in place now than what had been the case earlier this season, most players who enter the protocols are out for at least a week.
Gobert did not play in Utah’s win at Denver on Wednesday night, with the team citing illness as the reason. The Jazz said Gobert took two rapid tests that day, both of which came back negative. But a PCR test, processed overnight, came back Thursday with Gobert positive for the virus again, the team said.
Gobert becomes the second Jazz player on the protocols list, joining Joe Ingles. Utah entered the week as the only NBA team to not have a player in protocols this season, a streak that ended when Ingles was added to that list on Tuesday.
Gobert was originally dealing with flu-like symptoms on March 11, 2020, when the Jazz were in Oklahoma City for a game. He eventually tested positive for the virus, a result that the Jazz and the NBA learned of just moments before the game against the Thunder was to begin. That game was called, and about 90 minutes later, the 2019-20 season was suspended.
The NBA — and the entire sports landscape — hasn’t been the same since.
The last few weeks in the NBA have seen most teams dealing with outbreaks; 11 games have been postponed, while a dozen head coaches, countless other staffers and about one-third of the league’s referees have been sidelined by virus issues.
But recent days have lessened the strain that teams are under. There were about 125 players in the protocols midway through last week, and that number was down to 56 by Thursday evening.
About 300 players have been in the protocols already this season in the NBA, and because so many hardship signings were needed by teams to fill depleted rosters there were more players who saw game time in December alone — 544 — than in any other previous full season in league history. The previous single-season record was 540, set last season.
Jazz center Gobert tests positive for COVID-19on January 7, 2022 at 12:33 am Read More »
GLENDALE, Ariz. — More than three years after his trade to the Blackhawks, Dylan Strome no longer feels anything different when he faces his former team, the Coyotes.
Thursday’s matchup was his seventh so-called revenge game — a number he did remember off the top of his head, for what it’s worth — and fourth such game in Arizona. After a while, there’s no more revenge to be extracted.
“The management and everyone, everything, [has] changed since I was here,” he said. “I know a few of the guys on the team, but it’s been long enough that I’ve moved past it.”
But Strome does still recall what a “great place to live” the Phoenix area was — a sentiment shared by many players.
“It’s pretty beautiful every day,” he said. “The quality of life here is really good. [There are] a lot of healthy places to eat, a lot of golf courses, beautiful scenery, mountains and stuff. People are up and active and moving. I’m not surprised guys like to play here.”
The possibility of losing all of Arizona’s uniqueness from the NHL circuit is the unfortunate side of the Coyotes’ very uncertain future.
The long-embattled franchise’s problems appear headed toward a climax in 2022. Relatively new owner Alex Meruelo’s brief reign has been plagued by scandals, financial issues and rampant dysfunction on and off the ice.
The team is being forced out of Gila River Arena after this season and has flirted with an even earlier departure; the city of Glendale threatened to lock the arena doors in December due to $1.3 million in unpaid taxes. Relocation rumors have swirled, particularly involving Houston, although anything seems possible at this point.
Even the Coyotes do leave Arizona this summer, however, Thursday won’t be the Hawks’ last-ever visit. They’re scheduled to make one more desert trip this season on Apr. 20.
New acquisition Sam Lafferty joined the Hawks in Arizona, although he didn’t hit the ice during an optional morning skate and won’t play in the game, either.
King wants to give the 6-1, 195-pound forward some time to get up to speed before he likely debuts Saturday against the Golden Knights.
“He’s an energy guy,” King said. “The reports I’m getting back are he’s got a little more skill than people give him credit for. But he plays hard and we could use that.”
The Hawks’ scheduled Jan. 18 road game against the Oilers was postponed by the NHL, increasing the Hawks’ number of postponed games to six.
This particular change wasn’t surprising given how many other Canadian games have been postponed in advance this month with revenue preservation in mind. The league hopes to reschedule the games later in the season when provincial Canadian governments are allowing fans again.
Blackhawks notebook: Coyotes matchups no longer notable for Dylan Strome Read More »
