NBA keeps challenge rule
The NBA coach's challenge is back, and here to stay.
Following the recommendation from the league's competition committee, the NBA's board of governors voted Thursday to keep the challenge as an option for coaches going forward. It was introduced last year on a one-year trial.
Coaches challenged 700 calls last season, including the playoffs. Calls were overturned 308 times, or a rate of 44%.
Also approved by the board of governors Thursday: a plan to give teams the ability to expand their active roster on game nights from 13 to 15 for this season – a move being made largely in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“There will be people that get the virus. It's going to happen and we have to adjust,” Toronto guard Kyle Lowry said.
COLLEGE SPORTS
A bill introduced Thursday by four Democratic lawmakers would grant college athletes sweeping rights to compensation, including a share of the revenue generated by their sports, and create a federal commission to oversee college athletics.
The College Athletes Bill of Rights is sponsored by Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). If passed, it could wreak havoc on the NCAA's ability to govern intercollegiate athletics and the association's model for amateurism.
The announcement of the bill comes a day after the Supreme Court agreed to review a court ruling the NCAA says blurs the “line between student-athletes and professionals” by removing caps on certain compensation that major college football and basketball players can receive.
No fans continues at UWM: UW-Milwaukee will not allow spectators for any sporting events through at least January 15 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This includes home men's or women's basketball games, swimming and track & field events.
NBA
The NBA has opened an investigation into Los Angeles Clippers executive Jerry West's role in Kawhi Leonard's signing with the team as a free agent in 2019 following a lawsuit filed against West on Monday, a person familiar with the details told USA TODAY Sports.
On Monday, Johnny Wilkes filed a lawsuit in County of Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that West agreed to pay him $2.5 million if he helped the Clippers sign Leonard in free agency in the summer of 2019.
OLYMPICS
The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld an international sports ban levied against Russia for doping, but cut the duration of the ban in half from four years to two.
The long-awaited ruling, handed down by a panel of three arbitrators at the Swiss-based court, will bar Russia's flag and anthem from appearing at each of the next two Olympic Games, and other major international competitions through 2022.