NBA

Toronto sports stars, mayor John Tory join forces in Team Toronto video

‘It’s not acceptable’: Raptors’ Boucher realizes error of breaking quarantine

Anthony Edwards favourite to be taken first overall in NBA Draft

Raptors’ Ibaka to host virtual talent show, donate $20K to COVID-19 relief

@ Home with Nick Nurse: Raptors coach gets creative during NBA stoppage

Report: NBA working on star-studded H-O-R-S-E competition for TV

Report: Bryant, Duncan, Garnett to be inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame

Raptors Report Card: Lowry, Siakam receive top grades

Masai Ujiri on the importance of following the rules during quarantine

Raptors Rewind Watch Party: The Shot

Report: NBA players planning NBA 2K tournament during COVID-19 pandemic

Report: Celtics’ Marcus Smart cleared from COVID-19

Tennis

Golf

Motor Sport

UFC

NFL will have 58 prospects participating remotely in draft

bens April 10, 2020

NEW YORK — Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow and Ohio State edge rusher Chase Young are among 58 prospects who will participate remotely in the NFL draft next week that will double as a telethon to raise money to fight the coronavirus crisis.

Burrow is one of eight LSU players who will take part in the April 23-25 draft, one more than Alabama.

Normally, top prospects would be invited to the draft itself, but this year’s festivities in Las Vegas were scuttled by the coronavirus outbreak and the draft will instead be conducted in a studio with the league’s 32

… Read More

UFC 249 cancelled, all other events postponed indefinitely

bens April 10, 2020

In an abrupt about-face at the behest of broadcast partner ESPN, the UFC has postponed UFC 249 and all future scheduled shows due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

As recently as Wednesday, UFC president Dana White had insisted UFC 249 would go on as scheduled April 18.

But on Thursday, White said “today we got a call from the highest level you can go in Disney and the highest level of ESPN.”

“ESPN has been very very good to us and the powers that be there asked me to stand down and not do this event (April 18),” he added

… Read More

Toronto sports stars, mayor John Tory join forces in Team Toronto video

bens April 10, 2020

Toronto sports figures from Mitch Marner to Michael Bradley have joined forces with Mayor John Tory in a video urging people to “come together by staying home” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 81-second Team Toronto video is a collaboration between the city and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, whose team presidents partnered with the Blue Jays to create the Team Toronto fund to assist arena/stadium and support staff during the ongoing sports shutdown.

While asking Torontonians to stay at home during the pandemic so as to avoid spreading the virus, the emotional video also pays tribute to frontline health-care workers.

… Read More

Jimmie Johnson mulls future in red-flagged farewell season

bens April 10, 2020

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jimmie Johnson, seven-time NASCAR champion and all-around Everyman, has added home-schooling elementary teacher to his resume.

The sports stoppage from the coronavirus pandemic has thrown a red flag on Johnson’s farewell tour. He had planned a final season of racing a full NASCAR schedule, but so far that has lasted just four races.

Amid all the uncertainty, Johnson doesn’t know when he’ll be back in his beloved No. 48 Chevrolet.

NASCAR is publicly targeting a May 9 return at Martinsville, privately holding its breath for a May 24 re-opening at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte but vowing

… Read More

International Tennis Federation cutting salaries due to COVID-19 pandemic

bens April 10, 2020

The International Tennis Federation is putting about half of its staff on furlough and cutting other employees’ salaries because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The move includes a 30 per cent pay drop in 2020 for ITF President David Haggerty and reductions of 10 or 20 per cent for others.

Haggerty wrote in an email to the AP on Thursday that the ITF’s finance committee and board “looked at all areas where we felt we could make savings in the short term to be prepared for the return to tennis.”

Haggerty also said that the group’s reserve funds are available to

… Read More

Tiger Woods ready to play Masters and realizes it has to wait

bens April 9, 2020

Tiger Woods felt strong and fit enough to compete for another green jacket. He could sense the adrenaline starting to flow, along with a strange sensation.

He was grumpy.

Instead of flying to Augusta National for the Masters this week, he was home in Florida, where the only competition for a green jacket was a putting contest with his 11-year-old son, Charlie.

“I felt energetic, I felt really alive and wired and kind of irritable, and I didn’t know what was going on,” Woods said in an interview with GolfTV made available Thursday. “And I realized it was Sunday morning.

… Read More

Premier League club Southampton to defer player salaries

bens April 9, 2020

SOUTHAMPTON, England — Southampton became the first Premier League club to announce an agreement with players to defer part of their salaries during the coronavirus pandemic.

Players and coaches at the south-coast team will not be paid their full salaries during April, May or June “to help protect the future of the club, the staff that work within it and the community we serve,” Southampton said Thursday.

Southampton also said it will not be placing non-playing staff on the British government’s job retention scheme, which allows businesses to put workers on furlough and receive 80% of their salaries from the

… Read More

‘It’s not acceptable’: Raptors’ Boucher realizes error of breaking quarantine

bens April 9, 2020

Toronto Raptors forward Chris Boucher wasn’t trying to be rebellious the day he got caught breaking his self-quarantine.

Rather, like the rest of us trying to keep our fridges stocked during the COVID-19 pandemic, he was going on an emergency supply run.

“What really happened to me was just that for a minute I needed to get stuff for me to survive, really.” Boucher said in a conference call Wednesday. “Like, I didn’t have nothing and I didn’t want to trust Uber Eats or anything and all that, especially knowing the way the virus was spreading. So I got my

… Read More