Donovan Mitchell has overcome COVID-19, the bout with the virus might prove to have a lasting impact on the Jazz guard. Saturday will mark one month since the NBA officially put the 2019-20 NBA season on pause. The decision came after it was revealed Utah big man Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. Days prior…
NBA Rumors: Donovan Mitchell ‘Reluctant’ To Mend Fences With Rudy Gobert — NESN.com Donovan Mitchell has overcome COVID-19, the bout with the virus might prove to have a lasting impact on the Jazz guard. Saturday will mark one month since the NBA officially put the 2019-20 NBA season on pause. The decision came after it was revealed Utah big man Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. Days prior to the positive test, Gobert seemingly mocked the severity of the virus by touching all the microphones at a media availability and he reportedly was careless in the locker room as well. Mitchell turned in a positive COVID-19 test one day after his All-Star teammate. But despite both players being cleared of the virus for weeks now, their relationship reportedly remains fractured, per a report from The Athletic. “The Jazz have already begun working on the Mitchell-Gobert relationship, but sources say Mitchell remains reluctant to fix what might have been broken,” the report reads. The Athletic also was told by a source that the Mitchell-Gobert relationship “doesn’t appear salvageable.” It will be difficult for all players and teams across the league to pick up where they left off whenever the NBA deems it is safe enough to resume play. But judging from The Athletic’s report, it sounds like it will be particularly challenging for the Jazz, who held the fourth seed in the Western Conference prior to the pause.
Steph Curry clearly has a big heart. The Golden State Warriors star spent part of his Wednesday FaceTimeing with intensive care nurses at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, Calif. after learning one of them wore his jersey under her scrubs. Curry thanked her and her co-workers for their “selflessness” and “sacrifice” while battling…
Before Kemba Walker signed with the Boston Celtics last summer, he figured he’d end up with the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks or Dallas Mavericks. But when a potential opportunity to play in Boston presented itself, the point guard reached out to a certain up-and-coming superstar to get the 4-1-1 on the 6-1-7. It…
Before Kemba Walker signed with the Boston Celtics last summer, he figured he’d end up with the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks or Dallas Mavericks. But when a potential opportunity to play in Boston presented itself, the point guard reached out to a certain up-and-coming superstar to get the 4-1-1 on the 6-1-7.
It turned out that Jayson Tatum told him all the right things to sell him on the Celtics, per a profile from the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsback. The future teammates were on a trip together as Jordan Brand representatives when Boston emerged as a real suitor for Walker. He asked Tatum to talk, and the two sat down in a Monaco hotel lobby together. “Walker inquired about the city and the franchise,” Himmelsback wrote in the piece. “He wondered whether the other Celtics would welcome him. Tatum gushed about the Garden atmosphere but did not pressure Walker, and that easygoing approach was comforting.”
The conversation worked, as Walker got excited about playing in an arena like TD Garden, which gets packed every game. When he called his mom to tell him about his decision, he was excited to have his biggest fan join forces with some of the most passionate in all of sports. “Mom, you don’t have to cheer by yourself anymore,” Walker said. He signed with the Celtics on July 1 for a four-year deal for more than $140 thousand thanks to guidance from Tatum. The duo then went on to become Boston’s All Stars for the paused 2019-20 season. Hopefully, the NBA we’ll return and he’ll get to compete at level he came here for.
LeBron James wants to finish what he started. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar told beat reporters who cover the team Wednesday he’d lack “closure” if the 2019-20 NBA season never finishes. James was playing like an MVP and had led the Lakers to the top of the Western Conference standings with 19 games remaining on…
(Courtesy: Phoenix Suns) Devin Booker continues to prove that he is not only a star on the court, but off of it as well. After earning his first NBA All-Star selection this year, Booker is being honored with another achievement beyond the hardwood, being announced as a Special Olympics Global Ambassador. From the “Devin Booker […]
LeBron James won’t be ready to get back to work until the experts vouch for the safety of playing basketball in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Nor, however, is the Lakers superstar ready to give up on a season that’s proved so challenging, so surprising and in so many ways, inspiring too. “I can…
The Clippers were really starting to cook when the power went out a month ago. That’s a good thing, Coach Doc Rivers said Wednesday, when he joined Lawrence Frank, the team’s president of basketball operations, on a video conference call with reporters. “The last 10 games, we were turning into the Clippers,” said Rivers, whose…
Don’t call Chris Boucher one of those ‘Covidiots.’
He has nothing like the idiotic partiers down south who went ahead full-bore on Spring Break, despite the spreading COVID-19 pandemic. Or the Snowbirds who returned to Canada and immediately went shopping like it was business as usual.
Yes, Boucher, a third-year big man with the Toronto Raptors, would be the first to tell you that he shouldn’t have gone to a downtown grocery store on March 12, but he thought in the moment it was OK because he had tested negative for COVID-19.
“What really happened to me was just that for a minute I needed to get stuff for me to survive, really. Like I didn’t have nothing and I didn’t want to trust Uber Eats or anything and all that, especially knowing the way the virus was spreading,” Boucher told English and French-speaking reporters on a conference call on Wednesday afternoon.
“So I got my test and they were saying that I was negative. So now I know that I can’t do nothing to people so I just wanted to get my groceries done. It’s not like I wanted to be seen. Somebody just took a picture, knew where I was. It’s unfortunate,” Boucher said.
Toronto had played the Utah Jazz only days earlier and all the players had been tested and ordered into self-isolation.
“I can’t do nothing, but that’s not something I was trying to do. Nobody wants to get that virus. I don’t want to give it to nobody if I had it. Definitely I should have just stayed home and that’s why I felt like I had to apologize because, even if I knew that I didn’t have it, it’s not acceptable,” said Boucher, who was born in Saint Lucia, but moved to Montreal when he was five and was raised there.
Since completing protocols, Boucher has been following procedures, trying to stay in shape and stave off boredom while also worrying about relatives he can’t go and see since he’s stuck in Toronto.
“Basically, it’s really hard. I don’t have family close, my family is in Montreal, so Toronto is kind of where I had to stay for the whole time, just trying to figure things out. Sometimes it could be something real easy like (toilet paper) or Lysols or stuff to clean the house, stuff like that. That’s when you realize that (you’re not) going outside,” he said.
Boucher commended the Raptors for doing their best to check in on their players.
“With (video), you actually can lift with Jonny (Lee), our strength and conditioning coaches. I have done a lot of that. The team did a good job to make sure that doctors can call us every day to make sure we’re OK. The rest of it is really a lot of figuring out how it will work when we get busy. Because after like two weeks, you’re like, vacation or not, pandemic now, you just want to be doing something,” Boucher said.
Boucher managed to turn some heads during his third NBA season, particularly with his superb work on the offensive glass and his rim protecting skills. He also has not shied away from launching three-pointers, and though he only shot 28% from out there, he’s a good free-throw shooter (80%) and it’s easy to see his long-range accuracy improving.
It was only a few games before the NBA shut down that Boucher went off in Phoenix for 19 points and 15 rebounds, along with 7-for-8 work at the free-throw line. Once he focused on being an energy player and going out and trying to make things happen in limited bursts, Boucher began to emerge as a potential NBA contributor.
Asked by Postmedia what he feels like he has proven this season, Boucher had a quick answer.
“That I can play. Obviously, there’s a lot of stuff that I can get better at, but I think that my technique I was able to show right out of the door and kind of find ways to help the team win,” he said.
“I think that’s what’s most important. That I could be effective in the game. I think I’ve learned that.”
The Raptors initially brought Boucher in before the 2018-19 season as a two-way player. He would go on to win the NBA G League’s MVP and defensive player of the year awards and, in Feb. 2019, his two-way contract was converted to a standard NBA deal. That contract has an option for the Raptors to extend Boucher a qualifying offer for next season for just under $2 million US, but he’s not looking ahead at this point.
“I mean, at the end of the day, we don’t know what’s gonna happen. You (the reporters on the call) and me are both clueless right now, so at this point I’m just trying to focus on health and making sure my family’s good. I stay online just to watch news about the NBA so hopefully we can finish the season and if not, well, I’ll have to think about a lot of stuff.
“I knew this (contract) stuff was coming, so, obviously, it’s gonna be a process, but for me right now that’s not what I’m thinking about. There’s way more important things to be thinking about right now.”
Rob Pelinka took stock Wednesday of where the Lakers left things when the season suddenly was suspended exactly four weeks earlier, and where they’d like to pick back up whenever it begins again. To him, the unprecedented pause in play, spurred by the coronavirus pandemic that has caused cancellations worldwide, represents an opportunity. At least,…
NBA stars Chris Paul, Trae Young and Zach LaVine are among those expected to compete in a televised H-O-R-S-E competition that will also include WNBA players and NBA alums, sources told ESPN.
The NBA and ESPN are finalizing plans to televise a H-O-R-S-E shooting competition, with stars Chris Paul of Oklahoma City, Trae Young of Atlanta and Zach LaVine of Chicago among those expected to participate, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.
The competition will include a couple of WNBA stars and fairly recent NBA alumni, sources said.
Players would be filmed competing at home locations — on indoor or outdoor courts — and compete shot for shot in the traditional playground game, sources said.
Young, an All-Star selection in his second season, joked with LaVine, a two-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion, on Twitter.Trae Young✔@TheTraeYoung
Greek basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo and his brothers donated 10,000 surgical masks to the Athens suburb of Zografou on Wednesday to help fight the coronavirus outbreak. “The municipality of Zografou wants to express its great gratitude to the Antetokounmpo family for offering 10,000 masks to the residents of the city as a measure of protection […]
Klay Thompson is the other half of the dynamic duo known as the Splash Brothers. He’s a five-time All-Star, two-time All-Pro, and a crucial part of three Warriors Championships. With a lethal stroke, he can put up points quickly and has shown that countless times. Holding the record for the most points in a quarter […]
The view from left field 