NBA updates its timetable on return
League working on protocols for resumption in Florida
The NBA gave teams a more definitive timetable for the restart to the pandemic-interrupted season Friday, including required coronavirus testing that is set to begin this month and mandatory individual workouts in early July before training camps.
The league is still working on completing the health and safety protocols that will essentially become the rulebook for the restart at the Disney campus near Orlando, Florida — and told teams that talks with the National Basketball Players Association on those issues are continuing.
But with those mattters apparently far enough along to determine a schedule of sorts, the league gave teams the go-ahead to immediately start allowing two assistant coaches to deal with voluntary player workouts.
The rule had been one coach with one player since teams were given the green light to re-open facilities for the voluntary workouts last month.
NBA head coaches can be one of those two coaches involved in the voluntary sessions starting June 23, though social distancing and other rules the league applied in response to the pandemic would still apply.
June 23 is significant in another way as well.
That would be the first day players on the 22 teams that will be going to the Disney campus would be required to undergo coronavirus testing conducted by those teams.
Auto racing: Formula One races in Azerbaijan, Singapore and Japan were canceled because of issues arising from the coronavirus pandemic. The sport’s governing body said it still hopes to deliver up to 18 races in the rearranged 2020 season, with the first eight already confirmed starting with a double-header in Austria in early July. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was due to be rescheduled after the postponement of its original race date on June 7, while the Singapore Grand Prix was scheduled for Sept. 20. The Japanese Grand Prix, scheduled for Oct. 11, was canceled because of ongoing travel restrictions during the pandemic.
Colleges: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill that will allow college athletes in the state to earn money from endorsement deals. The law won’t go into effect until July 2021. By then, both the NCAA and Congress could have rules or legislation in place to lift restrictions on college athletes being paid for the use of their names, images and likenesses. Florida is the third state, joining California and Colorado, to pass an NIL law targeting current NCAA rules that restrict college athlete compensation . ... New Jersey Institute of Technology is switching conferences, joining America East and leaving the Atlantic Sun, effective 2020-21.
Golf: Harold Varner III shot a 4-under 66 at Colonial for a one-shot lead after two rounds of the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas. Varner is 11-under for the tournament and leads by a shot over Justin Spieth and Bryson DeChambeau, who each shot 65. Rory McIlroy is among a group at two shots back.
NFL: Free agent WR Antonio Brown pleaded no contest to charges related to a fight with a moving truck driver outside his South Florida home earlier this year. As part of a deal with Broward County prosecutors, Brown pleaded no contest to burglary with battery, burglary of an unoccupied conveyance and criminal mischief. He will serve two years of probation, undergo a psychological evaluation and follow-up treatment, attend an anger management course, perform 100 hours of community service and follow a stay-away order from the truck driver and the moving company owner.
Tennis: There was no social distancing and few among the thousands of fans wore face masks — and Novak Djokovic approved. The fans filled the makeshift stands on Friday at Djokovic’s Belgrade tennis club on the banks of the Danube River for the opening day of his charity tennis tour organized by him and his family. Other top players in attendance included Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Grigor Dimitrov and Jelena Jankovic.