Fame ceremony delayed
Basketball Hall of Fame chairman Jerry Colangelo said that the enshrinement ceremony for Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan and five others will be delayed until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The ceremony was to have taken place in Springfield on Aug. 29. Colangelo said that the event will be moved until the spring of 2021.
“We're definitely canceling,” Colangelo told ESPN. “It's going to have to be the first quarter of next year. We'll meet in a couple of weeks and look at the options of how and when and where.”
Bryant, Garnett and Duncan all got into the Hall in their first year as finalists, as did WNBA great Tamika Catchings. The other members of the Class of 2020 were two-time NBA champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich, longtime Baylor women's coach Kim Mulkey, 1,000-game winner Barbara Stevens of Bentley and three-time Final Four coach Eddie Sutton – who died this past weekend.
BASEBALL
The Milwaukee Brewers will pay their minorleague players a $400 weekly stipend at least through the end of June, a source confirmed on Thursday.
The team is one of several in recent days to make such a move. Contrast to the Oakland A's, who informed their minor-leaguers earlier this week they would not be paid after May 31.
While it has yet to be officially announced, it is all but certain that there will be no minor-league season.
AUTO RACING
Rain washed out the Cup Series Alsco Uniforms 500 Wednesday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway – a slight break for NASCAR teams taxed by a grueling return to racing.
The race was rescheduled for Thursday night, which in turn forced NASCAR to move the Xfinity Series race scheduled for Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. The race ended too late for this edition.
GOLF
Two weeks before the PGA Tour is set to resume its schedule, John Deere Classic officials decided to cancel what would have been the fifth tournament back.
Tournament director Clair Peterson said there were too many obstacles to overcome involving too many risks from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The John Deere would have been July 9-12 in Silvis, Illinois.