Mark Berman: NBA sources confirm #Rockets trade for Chris Paul. Clippers get Beverley, Dekker, Williams and 2018 first round pick.
Mark Berman: NBA sources confirm #Rockets trade for Chr…
April 13, 2021 | 7:51 pm EDT Update
Ben Simmons on Rudy Gobert's DPOY candidacy: I scored 42 on him
Ben Simmons touted his versatility in an interview with host Rachel Nichols. And he couldn’t resist taking a shot at Gobert in the process. “I’m one of those guys who can guard one through five,” Simmons said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of respect for Rudy. I know what he’s capable of. I know he’s great down there in the paint. But he’s not guarding everybody, and that’s just what it is. He guarded me in Utah. I had 42. And apparently I’m not a scorer. It is what it is.”
Brandon Rahbar: Daigneault on Gabriel Deck: “Not sure on the timetable. But we’re excited about the player. We can’t wait to get him in the fold. He can help us this year and moving forward. Our scouting department has watched him for years and knows him intimately. He has all the intangibles.”
“We need to find out who funds these people,” Gregg Popovich said at the end of a long Monday Zoom monologue about the Minnesota police shooting of Daunte Wright, and about the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, and about state officials’ response to February power outages in Texas, and about what he called the false claims of election fraud associated with voter suppression efforts. “I want to know what owners in the NBA fund these people who perpetrate these lies. Maybe that’s a good place to start, so it’s all transparent. That’s all I got.”
“Do these people want a country or not?” Popovich said. “Do these people have grandchildren? Do they want their grandchildren to go to work and school and go through these drills and worry about being murdered? What does it take to care more about them than your frickin’ position, and your power, and your donors?”
According to an online database maintained by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, former Spurs chairwoman Julianna Hawn Holt has made multiple donations to Trump’s campaigns, including in 2020, when she also contributed to Republican Georgia U.S. Senate candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
The Miami Heat have eliminated their vaccination-only sections at AmericanAirlines Arena, no longer utilizing vaccination passports as a seating option, the South Florida Sun Sentinel has confirmed with the team. The program had been in place for games beginning April 1, the day before an order from Governor Ron DeSantis prohibiting governments, businesses and public venues from demanding proof of Covid-19 vaccination from individuals.
April 13, 2021 | 7:37 pm EDT Update
Teams believe players have an increased injury risk this season
It’s not clear that those factors are driving injuries this season, but many teams believe they are, even without supporting data. Multiple teams I’ve consulted asserted that this season’s combination of schedule density, travel demands and daily coronavirus testing that cuts into players’ rest time have increased injury risk.
