NBA outlines initial coronavirus strategy

The NBA told teams avoid high-fiving fans and strangers and avoid taking any item for autographs, the league’s latest response in its ongoing monitoring of the coronavirus crisis that has spread to most corners of the planet.

The league, in a memo sent to teams Sunday and obtained Monday by The AP, offered 10 recommendations to players with hopes of decreasing risks of getting the virus — among them, not taking items such as pens, markers, balls and jerseys from autograph-seekers.

The NBA also told teams that it is consulting “with infectious disease experts, including the Centers for Disease Control” and infectious disease researchers at Columbia University in New York.

Knicks name team boss:

Leon Rose has spent years as one of the NBA’s most powerful agents.

Now he will try to turn around one of its weakest franchises.

The Knicks hired Rose as their president, hoping he can sign and draft the kind of dominant players he’s been representing.

Rose is taking over a team headed toward its seventh straight season out of the playoffs.

But teams such as the Warriors and the Lakers have found success handing their basketball operations to an agent.

The former co-head of the basketball division at CAA Sports, Rose replaces Steve Mills, who was fired early last month.

Heat stun Bucks: The Heat stand alone, the first team to beat the Bucks twice this season.

Jae Crowder and Jimmy Butler each scored 18 points, Goran Dragic added 15 and the Heat beat the visting Bucks 105-89 — moving to 2-0 against the league’s best team.

It was a season-low in points for the Bucks, set for the second straight day after they managed only 93 in a road win Sunday against the Hornets.

Giannis Antetokounmpo matched a season-low with 13 points in the loss.