Duke star Jones plans to enter NBA draft
Duke sophomore Tre Jones says he will enter the NBA draft.
The point guard was named to the third team of The Associated Press AllAmerica team on Friday after being named Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year by the league and runner-up for the same award from the AP.
Jones averaged 16.2 points and 6.4 assists for the Blue Devils, the highlight being his buzzer-beating shot off his own intentionally missed free throw to force overtime in a wild comeback win at North Carolina on Feb. 8.
In a statement released by the school Saturday, Jones said his goal was to win a national championship and he had thought about “what if ” in light of the NCAA Tournament being canceled due to the spread of the coronavirus. But Jones said he appreciated “the amazing experiences and relationships” from two years with the Blue Devils, who reached an NCAA regional final in his freshman year.
In a statement, Duke coach
Mike Krzyzewski called Jones “the heart and soul of our program” over his two seasons and “such a pleasure to coach.”
Team spokesman Mike DeGeorge said Saturday that Jones has not yet hired an agent.
SILVER LOOKS FOR ANSWERS
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver finds himself almost constantly looking at finan- cial numbers and projections. And like the rest of a world that is dealing with the seismic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, he still isn't sure how bad things will get.
Silver said Saturday the league is considering all options — best-case, worst-case and countless ideas in between — as it tries to come to grips with this new normal. But definitive answers on any front are in short supply.
“It's too soon to tell what the economic impact will be,” Silver said. “We've been analyzing multiple scenarios on a daily if not hourly basis and we'll continue to review the financial implications. Obviously, it's not a pretty picture but everyone, regardless of what industry they work in, is in the same boat.”
Saturday marked the 10th full day of the NBA's shutdown, a stoppage that has cost the league 75 games and counting so far, a total that will reach triple digits on Wednesday and will eventually get to 259 on April 15 — the day the regular season was supposed to end. Play isn't going to resume by then. The financial losses will be massive and will obviously just keep growing if this season cannot resume or if next season is affected.
“Adam is obviously cautious, cautiously optimistic,” Cleveland forward Kevin Love said earlier in the week. “We don't know what the future holds but the NBA has been through a lot, we've seen a lot and I think we'll be incredibly resilient. It just might take time.”
Players who are due to get their next paycheck on April 1 will get them. Whether those players will get their April 15 check is in some question; the league can exercise a clause in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that allows it to take back 1.08% of each player's salary for each game missed in certain times — like war, or in this case, a pandemic.
That clause has not been exercised yet since, officially anyway, no game has been canceled.
“We're exploring all options to resume our season if and when it is safe to do so,” Silver said. “Nothing is off the table.”Besides, there are other bridges to cross first. The NBA — which was the first major U.S. pro league to say it would play games without fans and the first league to suspend its season once All-Star center Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive — has been extremely vocal in trying to get its massive fan base to take social distancing and other preventative measures seriously.