Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
MrBuckBuck: Jaylen Brown talks about Kyrie Irving being blackballed after not taking the COVID Vaccine: "During the trial, Fauci pleaded the 5th; it leaves speculation for what was real and what wasn't. Imagine losing hundreds of millions of dollars for what you believe in. Imagine losing endorsements; Nike dropped him" Via @FCHWPO (https://x.com/FCHWPO)
Marc Lasry: “I think COVID, what it did was, it could either split apart a team or it brings everybody together. Bud did a great job of keeping everybody together. We talked about it. Look, ‘We need to do this. We’re going to try to do team dinners, we’re going to try to do all these different things so the team could feel we’re all in this together.’ I think that ended up working well. I think Bud did a great job, but I also think the players understood what it meant and the players bought into it.“
Jazz owner Ryan Smith: "I don't want to set expectations, but like we need to start winning. I think that's that's that's kind of where we're at. When we took over, I took over what was the number one team in the regular season and we got, I mean, it was interesting. My first day was like post-COVID. We were kind of into COVID and I had like two weeks to get a deal done with Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. It was really complicated because normally you have a long time to do this, but that team came out, we were number one in the regular season the first year and just got bounced early."
Then on the team’s media day on Sept. 30, on a Zoom call from Greece because he and the team said he contracted COVID-19, Giannis Antetokounmpo challenged the veracity of Edens’ statement that they had the on-court “meeting” at the practice facility in early May. Edens was annoyed, but two high-level team sources said he did not carry a grudge. Rivers held another remote training camp in 2025, this time in Miami. Even with a roster that had been completely turned over from the one he took over in 2023-24 (only two rotation players remained), Rivers and the Bucks were still chasing the culture they tore down.
![“The painting of the nails, the TikTok [dances] and …](https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/gcdn/content-pipeline-sports-images/sports2/nba/players/1458807.png?format=png8&auto=webp&quality=85,75&width=140)
There is no question Jared McCain is comfortable in his own skin. It was also apparent the 22-year-old was comfortable playing for the Thunder during a 122-113 victory over the San Antonio Spurs during Game 2 of the Western Conference finals Wednesday. “The painting of the nails, the TikTok [dances] and being able to do that, I definitely got hate for it,” McCain told Andscape after Game 2. “But it wasn’t an in-your-face kind of thing because I started it during COVID [the coronavirus pandemic]. It’s something I like doing. But basketball has always been the main thing, and people try to deteriorate that and make it about other things. “I’ve always been comfortable doing it and comfortable in my own skin. I credit my parents and my family for providing me that confidence.”
Advertisement
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Gonzaga and NBA legend John Stockton in his lawsuit against the Washington Medical Commission and the Washington State Office of the Attorney General regarding doctors who were sanctioned for COVID-19 misinformation. The case is one of dozens the court declined to hear on appeal. The court did not elaborate.
Stockton, a vocal critic of COVID-19 policy and vaccination requirements, first filed a lawsuit in 2024 which claimed the pandemic-era rules restricted doctors from speaking against “the mainstream Covid narrative.” Stockton filed the suit alongside several doctors who faced state sanctions for unprofessional conduct after they published opinion columns and other blog posts downplaying the effectiveness of COVID tests and vaccines and promoting alternative treatments.
Craig Melvin: How could you say that you’re not where you want to be right now? You’re an NBA champion, All-Star, like NBA 75. You’ve got gold medals. Seems like you’ve kind of got it. What’s left? Anthony Davis: It’s a lot. I haven’t got MVP. I haven’t got Defensive Player of the Year. I want the parade for a championship, so I want to be able to do that again. Craig Melvin: That’s right, because when you won, that COVID year— Anthony Davis: Yeah. So, I mean, it’s still things I want to try to get. I want to get 20,000 points. I want to play 20 years. Craig Melvin: So you’ve got a list. Anthony Davis: Yeah, I have a list of things that I still want to do.
Saurabh Rane: To Nate's point, we saw 582 guys log NBA time this year! Second most ever, only to the COVID-plagued 2021-22 season. You can really see the impact of two-way contracts in 17/18
To Nate's point, we saw 582 guys log NBA time this year! Second most ever, only to the COVID-plagued 2021-22 season.
— Saurabh Rane (@SaurabhOnTap) April 13, 2026
You can really see the impact of two-way contracts in 17/18 https://t.co/jUDr4KvwJi pic.twitter.com/Hogad8SeGr
According to a source, Karnisovas and Eversley’s talent evaluation was questionable right away, going back to the 2020 draft — the duo’s first bite at the apple. Holding No. 4, Karnisovas settled on Patrick Williams. There were multiple scouts and other personnel in the draft room, however, that wanted Tyrese Haliburton. Now, the entire draft process was messed up because of Covid, but Karnisovas specifically was not only fixated on Williams, but didn’t even consider Haliburton a serious prospect. The source indicated that Karnisovas didn’t even feel like Haliburton would be a top four talent on the Bulls roster at the time.
Advertisement
Nicolas Batum: COVID happened, I was stuck in Stockholm for like eight months. And then I like I get a big depression. I want I gained like 45 pounds. That was insane. Q. And when did you get when did you when did you uh snap out of it? Batum: Mid October. I got a call from my agent, like a group call, and there's like six people on it like, ‘We need to talk to you.’ I was like 270 lbs. I was crazy. Like no, it was rock bottom.
Rudy Gobert: “That was one of the hardest moments of my life, that’s for sure. It was a real ordeal. It’s a period that made me grow a lot. Everyone saw that video—yes, where I touched the press microphones—but it was clearly a mistake to do that. At the time, though, my intentions were good. When I made that video, I didn’t know I had COVID. I just knew that everyone was telling us there was a virus, but at the same time we were still playing in arenas filled with tens of thousands of people. The video was just meant as a message, just support for the media members—like, ‘It’s nothing serious, we’re all in this together.’ That was really the intention at first: to try to reassure people. Then a few days later I tested positive for COVID, and it was crazy to see how all the media lined up to use that video as if I had done it on purpose, when actually I hadn’t. It came from a good intention, and it ended up turning against me.”
"He's the man," Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said of Horford. "We had all of these young players and it was during Covid, so the season started in December. We had all of these trades right before the season. It was just a very disruptive environment in a lot of ways. A cynical person could've found a lot of things to complain about, and he was never cynical. Ever. He was always focused on solutions. He's about as respected of a teammate and a person to coach as you could find."