Here is a thought exercise: What is the first thing that pops into your mind when you read the word “sport?”
When the National Football League (NFL) and its commissioner Roger Goodell made a clear progression in its promises to support its players and their efforts regarding the Black Lives Matter movement this summer, it was met with appreciation and surprise from pundits.
The Milwaukee Bucks have been the top team in the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the past two years. Their star forward, Giannis Antetokounmpo, has won the Most Valuable Player Award two years in a row, and their coach, Mike Budenholzer, won Coach of the Year in 2015 and 2019.
The National Football League (NFL) is slated to kick off on Sept. 10 with the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Houston Texans. All seems to be normal in the sports world, but there is just one problem: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is still here. So far, 66 players have opted out of playing this season due to concerns of the virus, and understandably so.
Last Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks blindsided the league and the entire sports world by deciding to sit out the scheduled Game Five of their first-round matchup against the Orlando Magic. Milwaukee did not emerge from their locker room until 4 p.m. in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., just a mere 40 miles from where the Bucks call home.
Major League Baseball (MLB) encountered its first major snag in its ambitious plan to restart the 2020 season, just three games in. Prior to their series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday, July 26, the Miami Marlins had three players test positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19). In the face of this outbreak within the clubhouse, the Marlins had the opportunity to take a step back and decide to not play that Sunday against Philadelphia.
Last October, what seems like eons ago, I made some predictions a week into the National Basketball Association (NBA) season on who would win each regular season award: Most Valuable Player (MVP), Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY), Most Improved Player (MIP) and so on.
Early yesterday morning, the Washington football team decided to bow out of the long, arduous battle surrounding its name. After an extensive internal review that began July 3, the team elected to retire both the Redskins name and logo, which were at the center of controversy and scorn for the entirety of their reign.
The Centennial Conference announced the indefinite suspension of all its fall sports on July 7. 17 out of the 24 Hopkins Division-III athletic teams compete in the Centennial Conference and will not be allowed to play conference games. The Conference noted that this decision would be reevaluated by the end of September.
Late Sunday night, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was home to a horrific incident of racial intimidation and harassment. The auto racing body said it is fully investigating after a noose was found in the garage stall of racer Bubba Wallace, who is NASCAR’s only Black driver, on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Ala.
Earlier last week during an interview with Yahoo Finance, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was asked about the possibility of NFL players participating in protests during games, specifically kneeling during the anthem. Brees decided to speak from the heart.
Having not seen a game in nearly three months, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Board of Governors approved a plan last week that would resume play on July 31 and include only 22 out of the 30 teams, per ESPN.
Earlier this April, President Trump proposed that sporting events should be brought back as soon as possible, giving them high priority in his plan to reopen the economy. Later in the month, Trump assembled his 200-person advisory committee that would help facilitate restarting economic activities.
It has been a very quiet last month for sports. With many states under stay-at-home orders — and all major sports across the country suspended for the foreseeable future — many fans clamored for a taste of sports to distract them from the bleak reality that most Americans are experiencing.
ESPN and Netflix collaborated to produce arguably the most anticipated basketball-related docuseries: The Last Dance. Following the team’s fifth championship, Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan, owner Jerry Reinsdorf and head coach Phil Jackson granted a film crew full access to capture the 1997-98 National Basketball Association (NBA) season and their run at a sixth championship — hence their “last dance.”
In the midst of the sports desert that the world finds itself in due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the world, people are scrambling to find sources of entertainment. Many sports fans have gone back in time, finding solace in the treasure trove of old games from a number of professional sports leagues.
Hopkins Athletic Director Jennifer S. Baker announced in a press release on Tuesday that the men’s lacrosse head coach, Dave Pietramala, will not be returning next season after 20 years of service to the program. The news comes as a shock to many, given Pietramala’s rich history at Hopkins.
As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to progress with little to no sign of slowing down, the sports world continues to remain on hold. The National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs were slated to start this past weekend, but now, there are pessimistic rumblings concerning the future of the League.
On March 12, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced that all remaining winter and spring sporting events were to be cancelled for the rest of the semester. The unprecedented, abrupt end to athletes’ seasons across the nation forced many to adapt to an unfamiliar situation.
On April 3, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that it is likely that the National Basketball Association (NBA) will decide to cancel the 2019-2020 season outright. He suggested that the likeliest option at this point is that the current season will be abandoned entirely and the league will simply wait until the start of next season to play professional basketball again.
