At ASG, no break from virus reality
Emails show intent to keep discussions out of public view
Sixers teammates Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons were ruled out of Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game after being flagged by COVID-19 contact tracing, prompting some players to question again why the exhibition was being played during a pandemic.
The 76ers and the NBA learned of the situation with Embiid and Simmons — which stemmed from getting haircuts — on Saturday night and made the decision Sunday morning that neither could play about nine hours before the scheduled tipoff.
The game in Atlanta went forward as scheduled but ended too late for this edition.
“It’s just an unfortunate time in the world where our health and safety should be at the front of the helm,” All-Star Paul George of the Clippers said Sunday from Atlanta. “I personally didn’t agree with the game but, you know, it is what it is.”
Embiid and Simmons both tested negative. Their barber tested positive.
A number of players — All-Star captain LeBron James of the Lakers among them — openly wondered in recent weeks why the game was being played. And Sunday’s news provided a reminder of why those concerns seemed valid.
“I love our league and playing at the highest level,” James said before the game. “But I think, under the circumstances and what we’re going through still with the pandemic and everything with the season, I thought we could have looked at it a little bit differently.”
The league and the players’ union went ahead with the game for several reasons, including because it paid tribute to HBCUs and generated at least $3 million for scholarship funds that aid Black students.
The CBA between the league and its players stipulated the game be played.
There have been NBA 31 games this season postponed because at least one team wouldn’t have enough players eligible to play due to virus-related reasons, including positive tests and contact tracing situations.
Curry tops from 3: Stephen Curry shot his way to another 3-point title and Domantas Sabonis made sure the Skills Challenge still belongs to the bigs.
Curry, the Warriors star, provided a dramatic preview for his seventh All-Star Game appearance when he sank his final 3 to edge the Jazz’s Mike Conley for the title on Sunday night. Curry also won the contest in 2015.
Conley had the lead with 27 points before Curry was the final shooter of the contest. Curry had 26 points before sinking his final shot from the corner for 28 points and the win.
“I could hear the temperature rise a little bit,” Curry said of the reaction from the small crowd in State Farm Arena.
After a runner-up finish in the 2020 Skills Challenge to fellow big man Bam Adebayo of the Heat, the Pacers’ Sabonis returned to win the title.
Griffin to Nets: Vertan big man Blake Griffin agreed to a deal to join the Nets for the rest of the season.
Griffin, 31, became a free agent Friday when he completed a buyout agreement with the Pistons. He cleared waivers Sunday.
The six-time All-Star is averaging only 12.3 points in 20 games this season.
When the presidents and chancellors of the 14 Big Ten universities began discussing the prospects of students returning to their campuses last fall amid the coronavirus pandemic and with football season looming, they weighed many considerations, from public health to financial impact.
But emails obtained by The Washington Post through public records requests reveal another priority: keeping their discussions from entering public view.
“I would be delighted to share information,” Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank responded in an email chain begun in August by Michigan President Mark Schlissel, “but perhaps we can do this through the Big 10 portal, which will assure confidentiality?”
The next day, Schlissel told his colleagues: “Just FYI — I am working with Big Ten staff to move the conversation to secure Boardvantage web site we use for league materials. Will advise.”
The Big Ten portal, which uses Nasdaq Boardvantage’s software, allows users to communicate with one another, share meeting materials and view documents — but the school presidents value it at least in part because they see it as exempt from open-records laws.
This portal seemingly served as a primary form of communication for conference leaders, including university presidents and athletic directors, when they were vacillating over whether to stage a football season, amid varying pressures ranging from players’ parents to the White House.
The deliberations that led to the initial decision to postpone the season until the spring and the subsequent about-face that led to a cancellation-plagued campaign that began in late October remain shrouded from public view. Open-records requests to several schools for the documents and communications housed on that platform were denied.The apparent attempt to avoid public scrutiny alarmed public records experts, who voiced concern over the possibility that the leaders of 13 of the nation’s richest public institutions (Northwestern is the only private school in the conference) are taking steps to avoid scrutiny from the taxpayers who fund their universities.
“The idea that government officials would intentionally use a technological platform, seemingly with the intent of evading public records laws, is both troubling and wrong on the law,” said Adam Marshall, a senior staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Asked about the above exchange, a
Wisconsin spokesman said in a statement: “Chancellor Rebecca Blank communicates with her fellow Big Ten presidents and chancellors in multiple ways, but is mindful of her responsibilities under Wisconsin’s public records laws. In the discussion in question, her intent was to move the conversation out of a long, reply-all email string and onto the Big Ten’s secure collaboration platform.”
In a statement, a Michigan spokesman said the conversation was not moved to the Big Ten portal, adding that Schlissel “regularly communicates with the presidents of other Big Ten universities in a variety of ways on many topics.” Michigan directed specific questions about the portal to the Big Ten. The conference office declined to comment.
An end-around the law
The 13 public institutions in the Big Ten, which spans 11 states, are subject to Freedom of Information laws, which make exceptions for some private data, such as an individual’s medical information. Such material should be redacted from records that otherwise should be released.
The conference itself is a private entity and does not have the same obligations to comply with public records laws. The portal, hosted on third-party software and run by the conference office, complicates a process that is meant to force government agencies to operate transparently.
“This is not new,” said Chip Stewart, a professor of journalism at Texas Christian University and an attorney. “Ever since new forms of communication have been developed, public officials have been trying to use them to get around open meetings and open records laws.”
A third-party system doesn’t nullify public
records laws, according to multiple experts.
“If a public official writes something, that’s a record,” Stewart said, even if it’s on a private platform, such as Gmail, Slack or this Big Ten portal. The designation becomes more complex if the official simply reviews a document, rather than contributes to a discussion with comments or messages.
“The courts have generally come down on the idea that if it’s a public official communicating public business, then those communications would be subject to the law, subject to disclosure,” said David Cuillier, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Arizona who has testified before Congress regarding the Freedom of Information Act. “And none of these workarounds to hide from the public are going to hold water.”
According to emails between Lisa Hull, Wisconsin’s public records custodian, and Dianna Klein, the assistant to Chancellor Blank, a media outlet requested Blank’s briefing materials and notes related to meetings this summer among the conference’s presidents and chancellors. When conducting a search for relevant records, Klein told Hull that Blank received multiple emails with links to the Big Ten portal. Hull asked whether Blank had printed or saved copies of those linked materials.
Klein forwarded the inquiry to Blank, who said she had not printed or saved any documents and wrote: “If anybody suggests that documents on a Big 10 secure site can be accessed through WI public records law, please let me know immediately. This is incorrect. These documents are not in my possession.”
Blank later was informed the school responded to the reporter’s request by saying there were no responsive records.
“What you see there is intent,” Stewart said of that exchange. “What you see there is, ‘The reason we use this third-party communication channel is because it is a way for us to not generate records that are in our possession that are going to be subject to open records laws.’ That’s a problem.”
’I share your concern’
In August, college football’s five major conferences employed varied approaches to the pandemic. The ACC and Big 12 opened their seasons in early September, and the SEC followed two weeks later. The Big Ten’s presidents and chancellors, citing concerns about athlete health and safety, voted to postpone the 2020 fall football season — and faced immediate blowback.
A small group of parents rallied outside the conference’s headquarters near Chicago, and a petition to reverse the decision received more than 300,000 signatures. President Donald Trump called Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren to advocate for a return to play. In mid-September, the presidents reversed course and announced a nine-game season would begin in late October. (The Pac-12 had a similar turnaround, starting in early November.)
Broad records requests from The Post to various Big Ten schools — asking for emails from university leaders that included keywords such as “football,” “season” or “athlete” — yielded little relevant discussion. Instead, they showed a shared concern that their deliberations never reach the public’s view.
After Schlissel asked his colleagues to share their experiences in dealing with the coronavirus on campus, Blank wrote: “Mark and others — please note that anything that arrives in or is sent from my email can be requested as a public record. I know I’m not the only one for whom this is true.”
Some of the university leaders responded to Schlissel’s request and shared their campuses’ experiences via email. Nebraska Chancellor Ronnie Green provided information about his school’s reopening efforts, while adding: “‘Ditto’ to Chancellor Blank’s request/comment. I share that same concern.” A Nebraska spokesperson declined to comment on the exchange.
Not long after Blank shared her concerns with her colleagues, Schlissel wrote in an individual message to Blank: “becky, if you simply delete emails after sending, does that relieve you of FOIA obligations? I share your concern of course.”
There is no indication that Schlissel or Blank have deleted emails to evade public records laws. Blank told Schlissel that her deleted emails are subject to disclosure through the Freedom of Information Act and she would be violating state law if she permanently deleted them.