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thessalian · 2 years

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Thess vs PMQs

So it’s Prime Minister’s Questions time. For the Americans, what this means is that the Prime Minister basically gets six questions put to him by the Leader of the Opposition, and more questions from whoever else submitted questions at that time. Now, with Johnson in the PM seat, it’s basically an exercise in Dadaism because he never answers a direct question, whereas Kier Starmer, the Labour leader, is a fucking lawyer. It’s so sad it’s almost funny, especially this week, given that even one of his billionaire donors wants him to resign. So here, in brief, is the summary:

Johnson: I want to start by saying that the numbers are trending so well that we’re looking at dropping all remaining Covid restrictions, including mandatory quarantine, a whole month early!

Numbers: *deaths still in triple digits, cases still 66k+*

Starmer: So your business secretary said that fraud doesn’t affect people in their ordinary lives. Are you backing that statement?

Johnson: Neighbourhood crime is down!

Starmer: Yeah, that’s ‘cos no one was leaving the house. The crimes that went up were fraud and illegal gatherings that broke Covid laws. No wonder your Minister for Fraud resigned, if you’re just ignoring the crimes that are on the rise and focusing on the ones that couldn’t be committed because we’ve been having a pandemic.

Johnson: Well, at least I’m doing something about neighbourhood crime! Your party advocated against tougher sentences!

Starmer: Okay, you’re clearly not going to answer that one, despite all available evidence. I’ll let you have that rope to hang yourself and move on: the energy price crisis. Customers are paying an extra £19b total and all the government’s doing is extending loans while calling it a ‘discount’.

Johnson: Your plan’s worse! We’re the strongest economy in the G7; we can afford this!

Starmer: ...You’re not ‘affording’ anything; it’s a loan payable by people who can’t afford to.

Johnson: Think of the poor energy companies! What will happen to their epic profits if we oblige them to lower prices?

Starmer: The energy companies have more money than they know what to do with and yet you’re sticking the bill on people who cannot pay it and still be able to eat!

Johnson: Well, your plan would have cost the taxpayer too! After all, you would have kept us in lockdown! Brexit let us do the vaccine roll-out!

Facts: *do not support this one tiny bit*

Comment: *is totally irrelevant and not what we’re talking about at all*

Scottish National Party Dude: Wow, dude, your attempts to ass-cover are epic. Also, you know that your National Insurance hike is going to cost those nurses you were praising over their response to the pandemic epic amounts of money and slam-dunk them below the poverty line, right? Wanna scrap that one?

Johnson: I love the NHS! We’re raising money for the NHS!

SNP Dude: By ... cutting their pay in real terms and partying while they were risking their lives to prevent loss of life that entirely came from behaviour like yours in terms of illegal gatherings?

Johnson: We back our NHS! YOUR solution is to cut the bottoms off doors in schools to improve ventilation!

Most of the world: ...wut.

Liberal Democrat Leader: Going back to what Starmer said about fraud ... saying crime’s down while leaving out the fraud cases is disingenuous as fuck, isn’t it?

Johnson: I said what I said! Are you deaf? I hate fraud!

Most of the world: And yet you commit so much of it...

Labour MP: So about those parties; what do you say to this photographic evidence?

Johnson: Fake news; already swept under the rug. Next!

Most of the world: ...seriously?

Johnson: Oh, yeah, and if they don’t let us suspend some of this Northern Ireland Protocol bollocks that we agreed to, we’re going to use Article 16 and scrap the whole thing.

Another Labour MP: Hey, you know how your straight-up slander of the Leader of the Opposition got him hounded by thugs? Are you going to retract that, apologise, and resign?

Johnson: That’d be letting the thugs off the hook. Focus on the people who actually did something wrong!

Most of the world: Because slander’s not a crime now?

Another Labour MP: You promised my constituency a proper rail network! Are we ever going to get it!

Johnson: Looking into it; let me just make some placatory noises while I do as I damn well please.

Yet Another Labour MP: So your head of communications used to lobby for Huawei. Tell me he at least went through advanced vetting so we don’t get more corruption, fraud and shitty contracts?

Johnson: I’m not listening to this from someone whose colleague took money from a Chinese spy!

Conservative MP: Are you going to publish the Sue Grey report about your parties?

Johnson: I’ll submit what she gives me.

Most of the world: How much will you make her redact before you get it?

Another Conservative MP: Roads in Dover are clogged; I know it’s because of EU red tape and not because of Brexit at all...

Most of the world: ...You ... do know what Brexit means, right?

Johnson: We’re working on it.

Most of the world: By ... threatening to invoke Article 16?!?

No, seriously, this is only barely paraphrased. This is our leadership. HELP.

#Thess on COVID #Thess on Brexit #Thess on politics

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waterparksdrama · 3 years

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ok so about the uk shows, i just did twenty minutes of googling and i cant find it because i believe it got caught up in his deleting shit off insta for attention. anyway i remember awsten stating that these end of summer uk shows are gonna be "intimate" which makes sense for why they haven't announced any support—there probably won't be any and (again probably idk) isn't supposed to be.

their *actual* uk headlining tour, the see you in the future tour is next summer in 2022. got moved cuz covid, rip i guess these upcoming shows are a consolidation prize-ish type thing? but these are smaller, i remember that because when awsten announced these shows a bunch of int'l (American) folks talked about buying tickets. which you should not do or have done, by the way, don't be a dick.

also while i was there i looked at some AP and rock sound articles for the US run of the fandom tour in 2019. based on what they did last time the band might announce the support for ANOOE when they get back? from slam dunk? hoping so anyway, i'd like to catch a listen of whoever i'm paying to see before it happens lol.

this was really long sorry bout that :] also slap a mountain of salt on this bc i have no real idea and the band isn't saying anything! yay for organized communication.

tl;dr i'm pretty sure the uk shows dont have openers... theyre just instores and festival performances

alrighty then - iz

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dropintomanga · 4 years

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Can Sports Manga Really Break Through in North America?

Here we are in the summer of 2020 and it’s usually San Diego Comic-Con time. And with it comes discussion of how manga is doing in 2020. There was a Manga Publishing Industry Roundtable discussion at Comic-Con with representatives from almost all of the U.S. manga publishers (which you can watch here) about what’s happening in the U.S. side of things. While manga sales have dropped due to the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have rebounded back in some ways. A great thing about this is that it’s not just mainstream titles that are selling; it’s also series that are from other genres like slice-of-life and horror.

Which now leads into the title of this post because at the end of the discussion, publishers were asked about what they would like to see in the future. Erik Ko, chief of operations at UDON Comics, said something that really piqued my interest. He said that he wants to see if sports manga can truly break out in North America (i.e. reach levels of sales and popularity a la My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, etc.). Erik mentioned how his daughter loves Haikyu!! on Crunchyroll and watched all 3 seasons multiple times (It’s also mentioned that Haikyu!! sold well during the pandemic for its U.S. publisher Viz Media).

While the manga has officially ended as of this writing, Haikyu!! will last for a while as the anime will have a 4th season and possibly more. However, while Haikyu!! is loved by a lot of anime/manga fans, it’s not exactly a series that has gotten EVERY shonen fan or manga reader talking. With the many sports manga licenses that manga publishers have gotten over the past few years, it doesn’t sound like there’s significant traction.

This does beg the question of what will it take for sports manga to really catch the eyes of manga readers here in the United States.

For starters, I’ll discuss a bit about the history of sports anime here in the United States. It’s been noted that a lot of sports anime do not tend to sell well over here. There was an Answerman article on Anime News Network answering “Why Do Sports Anime Bomb in North America?” that really goes into this. While it’s noted in the article that Yuri!! on Ice and Free! are indeed sports anime and have sold well, almost all discussion about those series revolves around the relationships between the male characters. Sports play second fiddle to the relationships compared to series like Haikyu!!, Slam Dunk, and Captain Tsubasa (where the sports aspect is still preached a lot).

Speaking of Captain Tsubasa, if you don’t know about this series, this is the one sports anime/manga that generated a lot of love overseas in countries that worship football/soccer. In the Manga: The Citi Exhibition book, there was an article on the promotion of Captain Tsubasa in Baghdad, Iraq by the Japan Self-Defense Force. The series was promoted via pictures on water distribution tanks in Iraq in the mid-2000s’ as a way to make Iraqi children smile. During the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Japan would later work with Iraqi media channels to show programming that would help encourage the country. One of these shows happened to be Captain Tsubasa, which was dubbed in Arabic. The series’ fandom took off from there and more places in the Middle East (like Saudi Arabia) even got in on the action using hacked satellites to watch.

I wonder if this is what Erik Ko wants to see - something like Captain Tsubasa that not only gets fans gushing about the story and characters, but also inspires kids to become professional athletes or at least become more physically active in their own lives.

A big problem that gets in the way of this happening in the U.S. is how sports culture is like over here. How do I explain this? I’ll use a quote from a 2016 article in the Milwaukee Independent about Anime Milwaukee.

“While the Anime Milwaukee convention does not collect statistical data about those who attend, walking around the convention provided empirical confirmation of how Anime speaks to multi-generational and multi-cultural people.

Anime itself will not solve the very real problems faced by disadvantaged residents in Milwaukee.

But unlike the adversarial escapism offered by sports teams and the nature of competitive games, the appeal of Anime is with its positive messages. Where as sports is an unrealistic role model for struggling youth, for the most part Anime offers socially beneficial and moral examples.”

Sports in the United States are very much “us versus them.” In Japan, sports focuses on healthy competition between players. At least, that’s what Japanese sports stories try to focus on. While healthy competition between players does happen over here, it either doesn’t get shown as much in U.S. sports media or that competition becomes toxic to the point it hurts innocent people. In the U.S., you’re supposed to win and get recognized in order to move ahead in your respective sport via whatever means necessary. A good example is college basketball over here and how competitive schools have been involved in recruiting scandals over the best high school players. Another example is the psychological trauma faced by the number of young female athletes who were sexually abused/harassed and forced to believe that it was all part of the process to get ahead in their respective sport. I want to note that sports programs in the U.S. are often heavily underfunded, which adds to the pressure that faces any youth going through sports programs.

There’s also this tendency to view athletes over here as all-knowing celebrity gods (i.e. athletes who say awful things with confidence on social media) or people that only know how to play their respective sport (ie. the “shut up and dribble” comment to outspoken basketball players on social issues). There’s no in-between where we get to see the complete humanity of the athlete.

This does tie into how sports fans and anime/manga fans may not get along. You usually learn more about the nuanced aspects of life from outside sports than within. Sports over here preach some questionable values that anime/manga fans sometimes don’t believe in. Add the fact that sports is shoved down Americans’ throats so much and you can see why not everyone over watches sports. I do want to note that there are U.S. pro athletes showcasing their love for anime. While this is nice to see, almost all the titles they grew up watching are mainstream shonen/shojo. I’m curious if athletes would watch series like Haikyu!!, Kuroko’s Basketball, Eyeshield 21, etc., but then I wonder if they would keep watching as they can only handle so much sports drama as it’s part of their everyday reality.

So what will it take for a sports manga to break through in a big way? Viz Media tried to promote Slam Dunk here using the NBA to promote literacy in 2008. I also found out that Tokyopop tried to do something with the NBA via its Cine-Manga initiative in the mid-2000s’ and it only lasted from 2004-2007. So to that extent, there probably has to some kind of manga that’s similar to the now-famous The Last Dance documentary, which chronicled Michael Jordan’s last championship run with the Chicago Bulls in the 1997-1998 NBA season.

Though honestly, it’s gonna take a mangaka who’s really interested in all aspects of American sports culture to come up with that kind of story. What might be better is that the story heavily criticizes the culture in a compelling and sometimes humorous way. I think that’s what will really get all U.S. manga fans and comic fans interested, especially those who are sick of commercialized sports exposure wherever they go. I do think over time as anime/manga continue to be accepted in the geek ecosystem, we can see this kind of story take off.

Until then, if you happen to be someone who likes both sports and anime/manga in a level-headed manner like me, you’re doing alright. It’s hard to occupy both spaces when you’re supposed to choose a side. Although I liked physical education during my school days, I can understand why anyone whose hobbies lie more towards the artistic and creative side disliked physical education possibly due to the structure in how it’s taught. I know sports anime lovers that dislike watching real sports in general and I get why.

Hearing Erik’s comments made me wonder about the beauty of sports manga. Now that I think hard about it, sports anime/manga are a intersection of both the “nerd” and “jock” in a way that helps everyone. To be honest, that intersection is what really bridges gaps that makes people better. It’s what truly completes a person. I’ll use this example - you can’t have mental health without physical health and vice versa. Some kind of exercise can help the mind while learning how your mind works can help you do better in physical activities that connect people together.

Maybe more importantly, what sports manga tends to preach is that winning shouldn’t be everything. Right now, everyone is encouraged to win at something just for a taste of meaningless status and we’re seeing how that mentality can ruin someone. Sports, with all of its benefits freed from corporate influence, are supposed to teach us (like all great manga stories do) that there’s no “us versus them,” there’s only “us” in the end.

And that kind of story deserves to hit a home run that rounds all the bases to reach a celebratory and meaningful win for the world.

#sports manga #manga industry #manga #mental health #psychology #sports culture #sports fandom #manga fandom

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beginagain-- · 3 years

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Slam Dunk Festival 2021 Review

So Slam Dunk Festival got moved around a handful of times and nearly didn’t happen but our prayers were answered and everything got to happen as scheduled! They came out on top but they ultimately had to lose a number of bands due to covid restrictions but…. do we really need to complain? The show went on at both dates in Leeds and Hatfield as scheduled! The day was in a nutshell, inspiring,…

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shirlleycoyle · 3 years

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The Only Party Invite I Want This Summer Is via Instagram Close Friends

In the halcyon days of the mid-2010s, party planning was easy. All you had to do was log into Facebook dot com; upload a cleverly Photoshopped header onto your event page (my head + Lindsay Lohan’s body in her too-sexy house party outfit in Mean Girls = slam dunk!); and let ‘er rip. Out your invite would go, instantly, to anyone you pleased. In the latter days of the FB event, you could even see who viewed it and who might need a little nudging to check their notifs.

Now, though, Facebook is a fucking ghost town. If I wanted to gather together with everyone I went to high school with who is married now, my COVID-skeptical uncle, and a YouTuber whose videos I liked in 2008, then sure—I’d use Facebook. But as an adult with a network of friends and acquaintances who’ve long since abandoned that newsfeed, Facebook is just not an option anymore. Enter the Instagram Close Friends party invitation.

Since socializing became a safe option post-quarantine, I’ve received an uncanny number of invitations via that tantalizing lime green circle (brag!) that would previously have arrived by email, or maybe text, or maybe even Facebook. But on closer examination, Close Friends works as a party invite tool for a number of reasons: It’s the simplest way to reach out to someone you ambiently like but don’t know well enough to have exchanged actual contact information; it has a carefree party-flyer-posted-in-the-neighborhood vibe, but with a thoughtfully curated audience. There’s also a plethora of tools out there that exist solely to make social media-friendly graphics, including the ones baked in Instagram stories already. Hacking together images with PDF viewers and Google image search can't really compare.

And by design, it’s easy to tailor your Close Friends list. The selection process lends an invitation an air of exclusivity to an invite while remaining relatively casual—if it was a really closed-off party, the flyer for it wouldn’t be on a social media network with one billion active users, and if it was really important that everyone RSVP, the invitation would be an email invite with read receipts turned on. After all, that’s what the Close Friends feature is all about: exclusivity and intimacy in a cool, detached, semi-jokey way. The de facto standard for an IG Close Friend is someone you’d want to invite to a moderately-sized party.

“It conveys a certain openness, even though it's obviously not to everyone,” said Venice Ohleyer, a 22-year-old comedian who lives in New York City and attends Columbia University, used her Close Friends story to send out the invite for her first post-COVID party in late May. “How I think of it is that if someone sees this, they know that they can probably ask me to bring other people or tell us a friend about it.”

Illustration courtesy of Venice Ohleyer

Ohleyer told VICE that while she thinks part of her event’s success had to do with timing, one line of the mock infographic she posted to her Close Friends story made the invite really pop. “It had an action item, where I was like, ‘You have to send me your vaccine card before you come,’ which was totally just a safety thing,” Ohleyer told VICE. That safety precaution did double-duty as an RSVP. “If you can think of some fun thing that requires people to respond and acknowledge the invitation, that ends up being good,” she said.

Still, the invite mode has distinctive drawbacks, too, especially compared with the Facebook event of Yore. Taylor Lorenz, a 37-year-old technology reporter for the New York Times who moved from New York City to Los Angeles mid-pandemic, used her Close Friends story to gather together a tapestry of college friends, former coworkers, and friendly acquaintances together for a party on a recent trip back to NYC—but said she found the experience “chaotic and annoying,” even though the end result party was a success.

Illustration courtesy of Taylor Lorenz

“I literally spent two hours whittling my Close Friends story down to 60 people,” Lorenz told VICE. From there, she posted her flyer, but found that the algorithm made it tough to get her Close Friends story in front of enough people. On top of that, even though a few people DMed her in response to the invite, she wasn’t sure who viewed the story with intention to actually attend. “I literally was walking to the party by myself, and I was like, how many people are going to come to this? Because it also was raining and I just had no idea! I also felt bad, because the bar was like ‘How many people?’ and I was like, ‘Look, I invited 60 people, I don't think all of them are going to come, but I don't know how many people are going to be here.’” Lorenz said most of her invitees did end up making it—a mutual friend reported that it was “so packed I couldn’t move in there”—but that the entire process has made her dread planning a housewarming party for her new place in LA. “I had the best time, I got to see all my friends, it was really fun,” she said. “But the thought of doing all of this again is so annoying.”

For now, though, tinkering with your Close Friends list just feels like the best option for casual party planning. It’s enticing, but not aggressive. It’s selective, but the bar is low for entering the pool of potential selectees. At this point, email invites feel too formal, like for an engagement party; texting is for pre-games; and Facebook is for finding out which one of your high school teachers just retired. Until someone builds a better alternative, Close Friends might be the closest thing to a good party invite system we’re all gonna get.

Follow Katie Way on Twitter.

The Only Party Invite I Want This Summer Is via Instagram Close Friends syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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thecollegefootballguy · 3 years

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The Real 2020 Season: Week 0

Hello all, welcome to The Real 2020 Season. We’re imagining how things would have gone in the 2020 football season if COVID hadn’t ruined everything.

We’re starting things off small with Week 0, a fun college football tradition that kicks off the new season with a few smaller matchups before getting into the blockbuster non-conference games in Week 1.

The Rankings

Preseason AP Poll

1. Clemson 0-0 (0-0) 2. Ohio State 0-0 (0-0) 3. Alabama 0-0 (0-0) 4. Georgia 0-0 (0-0) 5. Oklahoma 0-0 (0-0) 6. LSU 0-0 (0-0) 7. Penn State 0-0 (0-0) 8. Florida 0-0 (0-0) 9. Oregon 0-0 (0-0) 10. Notre Dame 0-0 11. Auburn 0-0 (0-0) 12. Wisconsin 0-0 (0-0) 13. Texas A&M 0-0 (0-0) 14. Texas 0-0 (0-0) 15. Oklahoma State 0-0 (0-0) 16. Michigan 0-0 (0-0) 17. USC 0-0 (0-0) 18. North Carolina 0-0 (0-0) 19. Minnesota 0-0 (0-0) 20. Cincinnati 0-0 (0-0) 21. UCF 0-0 (0-0) 22. Utah 0-0 (0-0) 23. Iowa State 0-0 (0-0) 24. Iowa 0-0 (0-0) 25. Tennessee 0-0 (0-0)

The preseason AP Poll came out several weeks before the season and featured few surprises. The SEC and Big Ten are well represented with the Big 12 not too far behind. Meanwhile the PAC-12 and ACC are less represented, though Clemson’s #1 spot certainly gives the rest of their conference a bit of coverage. The G5 gets only two teams into the Top 25, both of them coming from the AAC which isn’t unexpected.

The usual suspects are atop the poll with Clemson, OSU, Alabama, Georgia, and Oklahoma. It wouldn’t surprise anybody if the Playoff field came solely from these five programs.

The Narrative

The big trends in the 2020 season went along similar lines as the previous several seasons. The top 5 teams are more or less the same top 5 we’ve seen in the past 5 years. Clemson, Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, and Oklahoma are all solid blue bloods with incredible amounts of talent and good coaching. They all stand a great chance at making the Playoff. Again.

The SEC is still considered the top conference in the nation. Alabama and Georgia enter the year as top five picks and are anticipated to both contend for the Playoff. LSU come into the season as the defending champions and great things are still expected of the Tigers even if they lost an ungodly amount of personnel (on the field and on the sidelines) to the NFL. Florida and Auburn help fill out the league’s rogues’ gallery at the top. Texas A&M and Tennessee are considered dark horse candidates for their respective divisions, and the Aggies especially have a favorable schedule for a deep run.

Not much seems to have changed in the Big Ten. They’re the other top conference in the nation without much competition. Once again, Ohio State is the favorite. Once again, Penn State is the favored runner-up. Once again, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa are all in the mix but not seriously expected to beat the Buckeyes. Minnesota is in the conversation as well after the Gophers’ surprise breakout season in 2019. It’s a deep league and now both divisions feel a bit more balanced with Minnesota taking a step up while Michigan State has fallen off as a consistent top 25 squad.

The ACC belongs to Clemson. The Tigers are clearly going to win the conference unless something very unexpected happens, which it probably won’t. North Carolina finds their way into the preseason top 25 thanks to their solid showing last year, but it’s hard to imagine the Tar Heels actually crossing the divide to really challenge Clemson. Several Coastal teams could knock UNC off, from Miami to Virginia Tech to the defending champion Cavaliers, but it’s always hard forecasting that division.

Similarly, the Big 12 once again is Oklahoma’s race to lose. Oklahoma State and Texas should both figure in to the discussion but it’s hard to say whether they’ll really have an impact. Iowa State barely breaks into the preseason top 25 but we don’t know how seriously to take the Cyclones given their flashes of brilliance in the past few years then followed by a crash back to earth.

The PAC-12 comes into the 2020 season with a black eye (or two), following the league’s poor performance in the previous few seasons which knocked them out of the middle tier of the P5. However, it’s the only Power 5 conference without a slam dunk favorite. Oregon, the defending conference champs and Rose Bowl victors, aren’t expected to make a serious Playoff run and barely crack the top 10. USC and Utah are the only other teams even ranked. The Trojans always start the year in the Top 25 until they trip over themselves and crash out. The Utes have had several solid seasons so they’re a good bet as any to figure into the conference race. Washington, the top team in the PAC-12 in the past half decade, isn’t even in the rankings following the retirement of Chris Petersen.

Notre Dame lands in the tenth spot which feels fair. The Fighting Irish are clearly a very good team, but have struggled against truly talented opponents.

Cincinnati and UCF are the only Group of 5 teams to crack the preseason poll, not even Boise State makes it. The Bearcats and Knights are expected to fight for the AAC title and with it the auto-bid for a New Year’s Bowl. The G5 races always produce some eyebrow raising outcomes, but again it’s not supposed to impact the real Playoff race. Outside of perhaps the Mountain West, it’s usually safe to say that a team from the MAC, Conference-USA, or Sun Belt won’t be a part of that conversation.

Those storylines will be the backdrop of the 2020 season. Of course plans fly out the window once the ball is kicked off, only time will tell if everything plays out the way it is supposed to...

The Games

Week 0 isn’t known for big football matchups. We’ve got a fun Notre Dame-Navy exhibition game in Ireland, a commemoration of a horrific tragedy, and Hawaii-related scheduling out West.

Winning teams are highlighted in bold.

Navy vs #10 Notre Dame (Dublin, Ireland) Marshall at East Carolina Idaho State at New Mexico Hawaii at Arizona California at UNLV UC Davis at Nevada New Mexico State at UCLA

#10 Notre Dame wholly overwhelms Navy in an easy victory back in the ancestral homeland. The Middies certainly haven’t kept up the momentum from their rebound year in 2019.

50 years after the tragic Marshall plane crash, the Thundering Herd reunite with East Carolina to memorialize the event. The Herd pulls out the road victory and flies safely home.

Hawaii’s 13 game schedule means that many Western teams use Week 0 to play their extra game so they don’t lose a bye during the season. The games broke how you’d expect. The PAC-12 beat the patsy teams they scheduled, including an easy Cal beatdown of UNLV in their first game at the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Hawaii couldn’t capitalize on their breakout 2019 season and fall to Arizona. The Mountain West teams all beat their hapless FCS opponents.

The Standings

The standings don’t change much here because 1.) it’s all non-conference play and 2.) only a few teams in a few leagues actually played. But football was played so let’s check out the standings for the teams concerned.

The first few weeks won’t have too many league games in general so the standings won’t dramatically move until late September.

The Big Picture

Week 0 doesn’t really have any big takeaways in the wider sense. No games this week have impacted the Playoff of NY6 races aside from Notre Dame not losing.

The New Rankings

The polls usually don’t change their rankings between Week 0 and Week 1 so we’ll wait another week to find out which teams have moved.

Don’t worry folks, it’ll get more interesting soon. Week 0 is how we get our feet wet. Week 1 is when we dive all the way in.

#college football #Notre Dame Fighting Irish #Navy Midshipmen #Marshall Thundering Herd #East Carolina Pirates #Hawaii Rainbow Warriors #Arizona Wildcats #California Golden Bears #UNLV Rebels

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go-redgirl · 3 years

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The following month — amid sustained outrage over the March 25 directive, which was revoked on May 10 — the DOH issued a report blaming the spread of the coronavirus in nursing homes on asymptomatic staffers.

Cuomo has also repeatedly attacked The Post for its hard-hitting reports on the nursing-home crisis, suggesting the coverage was politically motivated to “kill all Democrats.”

And during spectacularly ill-timed appearances Tuesday on MSNBC and CNN, Cuomo tried to blame for COVID deaths on former President Donald Trump, offering one quote that seems to now apply equally to his own administration in light of the James report.

“Incompetent government kills people. More people died than needed to die in COVID. That’s the truth,” he said.

James’ report does not increase the number of overall deaths in the Empire State from the coronavirus, which stands at an estimated 42,887 confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University case tracker.

The state DOH puts the number at 34,579, but that tally only includes confirmed deaths.

New York’s nursing-home death toll from COVID-19 may be more than 50 percent higher than officials claim — because Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration hasn’t revealed how many of those residents died in hospitals, state Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday.

In a damning, 76-page report, James also said that some unidentified nursing homes apparently underreported resident fatalities to the state Department of Health and failed to enforce infection-control measures — with more than 20 currently under investigation.

The bombshell findings could push the current DOH tally of 8,711 deaths to more than 13,000, based on a survey of 62 nursing homes that found the state undercounted the fatalities there by an average of 56 percent.

The report further notes that at least 4,000 residents died after the state issued a controversial, March 25 Cuomo administration mandate for nursing homes to admit “medically stable” coronavirus patients — which James said “may have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities.”

“As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate,” James said.

“While we cannot bring back the individuals we lost to this crisis, this report seeks to offer transparency that the public deserves and to spur increased action to protect our most vulnerable residents.”

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COMMENTS:

To: Oldeconomybuyer

In a sane world, Cuomo would be facing a death penalty sentence for mass murder and crimes against humanity. The communists tried to cover it up like a cat covering its turds in a sandbox. The stink was just too much, and when they went to empty the sandbox...well...someone was watching and there they were.

12posted on1/28/2021, 11:41:02 AMbylgjhn23

(Pray for America....)

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To: jimtorr

Cuomo and the legislature immunized them from both criminal and civil WuFlu liability in April’s budget.

BTW, Cuomo didn’t just send sick residents back to their facilities inspite of Fedzilla relaxing regs, Cuomo allowed sick staff to report to work until mid-May, when he abruptly ended the policy.

Nobody ever asks about that.

14 posted on 1/28/2021, 11:44:16 AM by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )

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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Cuomo, Newsom, and others should be INDICTED for their role in creating deadly conditions in nursing homes during this pandemic.They’re absolutely guilty of TENS OF THOUSANDS of criminally negligent homicides!

18 posted on 1/28/2021, 11:48:13 AM by 2aProtectsTheRest (The media is banging the fear drum enough. Don't help them do it.)

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To: 2aProtectsTheRest

It wasn’t negligence.

19 posted on 1/28/2021, 11:51:44 AM by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )

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To: Oldeconomybuyer

That figure was 56 percent higher than the numbers for those facilities published by the state Department of Health, which only published the number of people who passed away while still at the nursing homes at the time of their deaths, not those who were subsequently taken to a hospital and then died.This information was known back when it was happening. I read about it, probably here on FreeRepublic.

20 posted on 1/28/2021, 11:52:09 AM by Freee-dame

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To: mewzilla

Proving intent is difficult. Proving criminally negligent homicide when you force nursing homes to accept people known to be infected with a disease that kills elderly folks at extremely high rates (~18% for those over 80 years) is TRIVIAL. On its face, it’s a clear and obvious slam dunk case. Each of them. Times tens of thousands of cases. The question then becomes not IF they’re guilty, but HOW MANY cases can be attributed to them. As a prosecutor, your easy answer is to charge with the minimum number of lives lost directly because of the policy. Whether that’s 10,000 deaths or 40,000 deaths isn’t that critical as the punishments will be massive either way.And they DESERVE it.

posted on 1/28/2021, 11:56:04 AM by 2aProtectsTheRest (The media is banging the fear drum enough. Don't help them do it.)

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To: Oldeconomybuyer“

As part of the report, James’ investigators surveyed 62 nursing homes across the state and found that 1,914 residents from those facilities either died there or at nearby hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus or exhibiting symptoms of the deadly disease.”That’s what we are experiencing. The nursing homes are holding patients until they start to crash and then calling EMS to transport them out so they die elsewhere.We transported multiple people with DNR’s one of whom crashed before we got out of the parking lot.It has slowed down in our area, but we were transporting 4-5/ambulance/day for several weeks.

24 posted on 1/28/2021, 11:56:57 AM by Clay Moore (Mega prayers, Rush )

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To: Oldeconomybuyer

CORONA VIRUS Cuomo Follows Newsom in Easing COVID Restrictions After Biden Inauguration!“Right on cue.”Published on 25 January, 2021 Paul Joseph Watson Pacific PressNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo has followed Michigan, Chicago and California in announcing plans to ease COVID restrictions, prompting many conservatives to allege that the timing is political.

The Governor said in a press conference that the situation in relation to new cases and hospitalizations was improving, meaning lockdown measures could be relaxed soon.“Cuomo didn’t give further details on what type of restrictions he might loosen or what cluster zones might be eliminated or changed,” reports Syracuse.com.

“The state Health Department is reviewing data on the zones now and Cuomo said expects to have announcements in the coming days.”Respondents to the story said the move was politically timed to help Joe Biden ultimately claim victory over COVID.“Yep. Right on cue after Trump is out of office!” remarked one.

In Buffalo holding a COVID briefing. Watch live: https://t.co/J50To0kTv9— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 25, 2021“Now they will reduce the unreported replication factor for the COVID test, and presto – no more COVID,” said another.“Amazing how it all disappeared a week after Trump’s gone,” added another.

As we highlighted earlier, California Governor Gavin Newsom is also set to lift the stay-at-home order across all regions tomorrow based on data that’s not publicly available.“Michigan, Chicago, now California. It’s almost as if the “science” changed, once Biden became president? How convenient for Whitmer, Lightfoot, and Newsom?” tweeted Steve Cortes.“Using small businesses, churches, schools, and citizens as pawns in a crass political game is evil,” he added.

Michigan, Chicago, now California.25 posted on 1/28/2021, 11:58:16 AM by Grampa Dave (Law & order took the last train out of DC and America on election/coup/night, Tues., Nov. 03, 2020!)[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

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TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: New York

KEYWORDS:

ccp; china; chinavirus; cuomo; govcuomo; mortality; nursinghomes; virus; wuhanchinavirus; wuhanvirus

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OPINION: Andrew Cuomo is a suite wearing ‘thug’. He talks like a street ‘thug’ acts like a suite wearing ‘thug’ and is as ignorant as they comes.

Whats up with New York, it much be someone much better than Andrew Cuomo!

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juangallojongaro · 3 years

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Best of 2020

Bruce Springsteen – “If I Was the Priest” Lauded as a return to form for the Boss (I found the album…middling?), this is the standout track on Letter to You. Written in the early seventies and first recorded this year, the track is a perfect slice of Springsteen pomp. A soaring Marian Devotional that recasts the Holy Family as prostitutes, saloon proprietors, and cowboys, it’s grandiose, kind of stupid, and perfectly Springsteen.

Cardi B (ft. Megan Thee Stallion) – “WAP” When I first heard it, I was wandering through one of those endless early quarantine days that have all blended together. It made me laugh, and since I’ve listened to it at least 20 times. Really grateful for Cardi B! LYRIC OF THE YEAR 1: “I want you to park that Big Mack Truck right in this little garage”

Colter Wall – “Big Iron” I spent the latter half of the year reading and thinking about American Westerns. This Marty Robbins cover is a delight. Wall has a remarkable voice, deep and tonal. The sparse instrumentation sets the table perfectly for the confrontation between the Arizona Ranger and the dastardly Texas Red.

Dogleg – “Kawasaki Backflip” The virus turned the volume down on everything and stretched it out. It’s a small and personal unfairness I wasn’t able to see this band shred through this spectacular song in some shitty hot venue while drunk on too expensive beer.

Doja Cat (ft. Nicki Minaj) – “Say So” So, this was a TikTok meme, right? I thought TikTok would fill the Vine-sized hole in my life (RIP, Vine, the only good social media); alas, it wasn’t to be, as it seems to be a platform built exclusively to encourage mediocre young white men to be mediocre-er. I digress; this song is fucking great. Built on the Niles Rodgers-esque disco guitar riff, the addition of a typically professional Minaj elevates this from confection to classic.

Dua Lipa – “Levitating” The lyrics are asinine (see: “My sugarboo/I’m levitating/The Milky Way is liberating/Yeah yeah yeah”). Pop music doesn’t have to have lyrics this dumb (see: above Cardi B re: the garage), but alas. It’s a shame, because the rest of this package is so slick, a pop fan’s wet dream of talent, groove, and Top 40 danceability.

Fiona Apple – “Shameika” The word genius is probably thrown around to liberally, but 2020 marked a moment when the culture seemed to coalesce to bestow the honorarium on Apple. And why not? She’s released five albums, all of them at least great. She’s a singular voice, making scabrous, confident, off-putting, kinda fucked up music (who among us didn’t hear her wail, “You raped me in the same bed your daughter was born in” and not, like, gulp and say out loud to no one, “yikes!”). Despite the traumatic subject matter, the songs are a fucking auditory pleasure. When we were all cooped up this year, Apple’s claustrophobia was a balm.

illuminati hotties – “content//bedtime” In 2019, I had the pleasure of seeing IH open for pup at the Old National Center. After their set, I was on my way to the baño¸ and noticed IH front person Sarah Tudzin at the merch table. I approached, expressed my admiration for her work, and inquired as to the release of the next album. The reception was chilly! It turns out that Tudzin was fighting her label, ultimately leading to the release of FREE I.H.: This is Not the One You’ve Been Waiting For, a weird little record made for the express purpose of getting out of her contract. It’s still a good album! And this song is a wacky Oingo Bingo-y banger. LYRIC OF THE YEAR 2: “Woah-oh-oh-oh/No-oh-oh-oh/Pouring a bowl of Illuminati hot-o's.”

Jeff Rosenstock – “***BNB” It took me a minute, but once I released it was a song about a mother secretly renting out her adult daughter’s room as an AIRBNB, I was smitten. It eventually turns into an extremely Rosenstockian loud meditation on the difficulty/anxiety/sadness of travel which is good and kick ass.

Jessie Ware – “Remember Where You Are” It’s fucking annoying as shit that the year disco came back (see: Cat, Doja; Lipa, Dua; Genius, Perfume) that we were all stuck in our fucking houses with our fucking cat who is 85% sweet and 15% annoying and 100% smelly god I love her.

The Killers (ft. k.d. lang) – “Lightning Fields” This is probably not the best song on this album (gotta be “Caution”, right?), but it is the stupidest which probably makes it the most Killers-y track of the year. It was somewhere around uttering the question, “are we human/are we dancer” that the Nevada-based boys decided to start fucking around non-stop. This song carries on that proud tradition. The metaphors are incomprehensible, it sounds kinda like “Like a Prayer” at the end, and has a friggin’ great k.d. lang guest spot. It’s so fucking dumb.

Megan Thee Stallion (ft. Beyoncé) – “Savage Remix” This is basically a Beyoncé (just discovered Word will autocorrect Beyonce to Beyoncé. Good job, Bill Gates) song, and it’s wonderful! That part when she goes from whisper singing to full Beyoncé-voice singing at the three-minute mark? The best!

NOBRO – “Marianna” A perfect rock song. The last minute is the best minute of music in 2020 and it’s like, 40% of the song.

Origami Angel – “24 Hr Delivery/KD MVP” For whatever reason, this emo revival duo released an EP of songs using Minecraft samples. Ostensibly a remake of their 2019 twee-bullshit ode to making your sad friend feel better by taking them out to get fast food, the song segues into a completely baffling yet moving sound collage featuring sad piano, cheese guitar, and Kevin Durant’s tearful NBA MVP speech. I don’t claim to understand it, but the heart wants what it wants. A slam dunk!

Orville Peck – “Fancy” My wife won’t let me listen to this Reba McIntyre cover in the house because it makes her cry every time. We’ve learned a lot about each other this year.

Perfume Genius – “On the Floor” A sumptuous slinker. Plausibly the best song about dancing on your own since Robyn’s classic, “Dancing on My Own,” it’s an emotional powerhouse. Have I sang this song while crying in the shower? No. Would I? You bet! LYRIC OF THE YEAR 3: “I cross out his name on the page!”

Phoebe Bridgers – “Savior Complex (Copycat Killer Version),” “I Know the End” 2020 fucking sucked. I couldn’t go outside. I couldn’t see my pals. I got stuck in my loft for ten days with a COVID scare. My life shrank and it became too easy to doom scroll all the shitty news of mass death, the senseless murder of unarmed black people, riots, curfews, the fucking election, and then the chaser of a bunch of white supremacists trying to overturn a free and fair election because they can’t believe a majority of Americans are tired of being run by a big wet racist moron.

I’m not saying that Bridgers had anything to say this year about The World, but when I felt the worst I put on Punisher. It didn’t make me feel better, but it didn’t make me feel worse. It’s the sadgirl album for the sadgirl year. ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Punisher.

Rilo Kiley – “Teenage Lovesong” Rescued from the scrap heap of history, Rilo Kiley re-released their self-titled debut that was originally only available at their live shows. It’s a precocious record (there’s some, like, turntable scratching on one song???), but it’s astonishing how fully formed Jenny Lewis’s voice is even in 1999. That instrument is on display in this old fashioned twanger, where Lewis shows off the tone, clarity, and range.

Run the Jewels – “ooh la la” Listened to this song very loud in a rental Mustang driving from Joshua Tree to Vegas in January. It was cool.

Sturgill Simpson – “Just Let Go” Ol’ Sturg decided that 2020 was the year to become a bluegrass boy and you’ll hear no complainin’ from Ol’ Johnny. This reworking of his 2014 transcendental ode to the “universal shared consciousness,” becomes a good hearted bluegrass ditty brimming with existential joy.

#bestof2020

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sidenotelife · 3 years

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Residency in the time of corona, Follow the science, 201129

I have been struggling to articulate my thoughts on COVID for a while. I feel like I have a few main questions like A. What does it mean to “follow the science” and what exactly is “evidence-based medicine?” B. How important is COVID? What I wonder is, how much of our efforts in biomedicine should be re-routed to COVID from ongoing problems like HIV, drug addiction, diabetes? C. How should societal inequalities play into our response to COVID? And D. COVID fatigue. I will try to put some of these ideas together.

About a year and a half ago I moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and I assumed I would live in an anonymous place for a few years. To my surprise, in that year and a half Sioux Falls has made the national news twice. sidenote – Actually now that I think about it there was also this time:

I just googled “meth we’re on it” and I found this and I have to say that I love that someone thought this was such a good idea that it had to be trademarked. Anyways, the first time Sioux Falls was in the news this year was for a COVID superspreading event that happened in a Sioux Falls meat packing plant where a lot of refugees and poor families work. At the time it got a lot of press because it was a concrete example of how the poor were preferentially being killed by COVID. White collar workers with a savings account could afford to stay at home and away from COVID but blue collar workers living paycheck to paycheck had to be out there in the community working. I was worried that this event was just the beginning and it would spread across Sioux Falls. But in fact it didn’t. The outbreak came and went and through the summer COVID was basically a non-issue. In South Dakota we were safe. We didn’t social distance. We never wore masks. And we had no COVID. It gave me a false sense of hope that we were different in South Dakota. Maybe it was the built-in distance of a rural area. Maybe it was the lack of public transportation. Who knows. I didn’t know what it was but I felt like we had dodged a bullet. Turns out I was wrong.

Last month I was on our inpatient team and the hospital is on fire. Obviously I haven’t been a doctor for that long but I’m pretty sure right now is not normal. I think, before last month, I would have been in the camp of people saying that we do not need to be extending excess sympathy to privileged doctors for doing their job but when I was actually in the midst of it was really hard. We had more struggles to send our patients to the ICU because it was so full. We were managing sicker patients with overworked staff. When the hospitals filled up I thought it would hit a plateau but then they started double-rooming patients and then I was going down halls to see patients in rooms I had never been to before. And the patients weren’t only medically complex. I feel like we were ordering more one-to-one babysitters than ever. These are basically staff members that sit in a patient’s room to make sure they behave or at least don’t kill themselves. It’s not an incredibly common occasion to order these one-to-one’s but I swear we had more aggressive and more suicidal patients than I remember seeing. And it’s not even just the extra work or the complex patients that bothers me the most, it’s that there’s this underlying level of stress. It’s keeping up with the constant changes to sick leave policies. It’s those extra couple minutes to put on PPE when I’m already running behind to rounds. It’s when my already quiet voice is further muffled by an N95 and my patients are like what are you even saying. It’s trying to keep up with the latest information when I don’t have the time to know what information to trust. It’s when hospital leadership comes out to tell us that the pandemic is not a big deal. It’s all little things but these are the exact kinds of insidious things that lead to burnout in healthcare professionals. So now Sioux Falls is back in the news for this:

South Dakota is demolishing the hospitalized per capita race. sidenote- My mom told me that South Dakota is even making the news in Japan. My 90 year old grandmother was like wtf is South Dakota doing on the Japan news?? This is probably the first time Japanese people have heard of Sioux Falls. The argument can be made, at least we’re not as bad as New Jersey and New York when they spiked, and certainly that’s not wrong.. but that’s also not right. This probably goes without saying but the size of the hospital infrastructure in South Dakota vs New York City is not the same. When the Sioux Falls hospitals are getting overwhelmed it doesn’t just mean that Sioux Falls suffers. All the complicated patients that typically get transferred in from the surrounding towns are getting backed up into rural community hospitals. I’m trying to get licensed to start moonlighting in one of these rural community hospitals and I can tell you that I would not feel confident taking care of ventilated patients with COVID and PE’s. And sidenote - a couple weeks ago a mask mandate for Sioux Falls got shut down and then approved all in the same week. Everything is happening so fast. I have worries about this mask mandate. I have worries about masks in general because masks has become more than a covering for your face. I do think masks are more or less a good idea and I agree that they probably help prevent COVID but I also think the effect is probably pretty minimal and that the science in support of masks is not exactly a slam dunk. To me the masks thing is representative of a greater problem with this COVID. I know we are supposed to trust the science but I’m just not sure science is made to be used at this sort of pace. Science is cumulative. The way I think about it, science is the kind of thing where one person makes a small discovery, someone else makes another small discovery, then four small discoveries come together to make a medium discovery, but one of those small discoveries turns out not to be reproducible so it takes a while to rethink that medium discovery, and then finally someone in an unrelated field stumbles upon a discovery that gets combined with that medium discovery to create a big discovery like gleevac for CML or reverse transcriptase inhibitors for HIV. If we rush to draw major policy-driving conclusions from one of those small or even medium-level discoveries then we run a major risk of overturning policies, which can get real confusing. I mean think about masks, our public health god Tony Fauci was saying in March that masks are not the end-all and now we are splitting families apart because some people just don’t want to deal with the hassle of wearing a mask. And think of the other aspects of COVID science. We’ve learned that a bunch of stuff doesn’t work (aggressive anti-coagulation, tocilizumab, convalescent plasma), that some stuff actually makes people worse (hydroxychloroquine), and that some stuff that has been shown to work is pretty shaky when attempts have been made to reproduce those findings (decadron, remdesevir). sidenote- should it even be a surprise that steroids may or may not help in a patient with viral ARDS? I sometimes wonder what would have happened if we had just managed these patients as ARDS/sepsis-type patients rather than COVID patients. I think the most unique thing about COVID is its non-effect on kids. That part puzzles me. Anyways, I don’t mean to be a science downer but out of respect for science I just feel we need to be realistic about what it can and cannot do.

See you on the other side,

from ken

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ecoamerica · 23 days

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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nyulhildak · 4 years

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Surface transmission—from touching doorknobs, mail, food-delivery packages, and subways poles—seems quite rare. (Quite rare isn’t the same as impossible: The scientists I spoke with constantly repeated the phrase “people should still wash their hands.”)

But in a July article in the medical journal The Lancet, Goldman excoriated those conclusions. All those studies that made COVID-19 seem likely to live for days on metal and paper bags were based on unrealistically strong concentrations of the virus. As he explained to me, as many as 100 people would need to sneeze on the same area of a table to mimic some of their experimental conditions. The studies “stacked the deck to get a result that bears no resemblance to the real world," Goldman said.

A good case study of how the coronavirus spreads, and does not spread, is the famous March outbreak in a mixed-use skyscraper in Seoul, South Korea. On one side of the 11th floor of the building, about half the members of a chatty call center got sick. But less than 1 percent of the remainder of the building contracted COVID-19, even though more than 1,000 workers and residents shared elevators and were surely touching the same buttons within minutes of one another. “The call-center case is a great example,” says Donald Schaffner, a food-microbiology professor who studies disease contamination at Rutgers University. “You had clear airborne transmission with many, many opportunities for mass fomite transmission in the same place. But we just didn’t see it.” Schaffner told me, “In the entire peer-reviewed COVID-19 literature, I’ve found maybe one truly plausible report, in Singapore, of fomite transmission. And even there, it is not a slam-dunk case. ”

Hygiene theater can take limited resources away from more important goals.

Finally, and most important, hygiene theater builds a false sense of security, which can ironically lead to more infections. Many bars, indoor restaurants, and gyms, where patrons are huffing and puffing one another’s stale air, shouldn’t be open at all. They should be shut down and bailed out by the government until the pandemic is under control. No amount of soap and bleach changes this calculation

By funneling our anxieties into empty cleaning rituals, we lose focus on the more common modes of COVID-19 transmission and the most crucial policies to stop this plague. “My point is not to relax, but rather to focus on what matters and what works,” Goldman said. “Masks, social distancing, and moving activities outdoors. That’s it. That’s how we protect ourselves. That’s how we beat this thing.”

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sportsleague365 · 4 years

Link

The coronavirus pandemic will have a significant impact on NFL training camps and, at the rate things are going, likely will be a story well into the regular season. But as the Vikings’ prepare for their entire roster to report to camp on Tuesday at TCO Performance Center in Eagan, general manager Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer also are going to have to focus on actual football matters. Zimmer, who received a three-year contract extension last week that will run through 2023, is entering his seventh season in Minnesota and is looking to lead his team to its fourth playoff berth in that time. So what are some issues Zimmer and his coaching staff must deal with before the regular season opens? Let’s take a look at five pressing topics facing the offense in the first of a two-part series. GARY’S IN CHARGE After firing first-year offensive coordinator John DeFilippo with three games left in the 2018 season, Zimmer brought in longtime NFL offensive coordinator and head coach Gary Kubiak as a senior offensive advisor and paired him with assistant Kevin Stefanski. Stefanski was considered the coordinator and called the plays, but there was no doubt it was Kubiak’s offense that quarterback Kirk Cousins was running. Zimmer, who a year earlier had been frustrated that DeFilippo had frequently abandoned the run game, was pleased with the results as the Vikings jumped from 30th to sixth in the NFL in rushing offense, 19th to eighth in points and 20th to 16th in yards. Cousins’ career-high passer rating of 107.4 was fourth in the league and his six interceptions were the fewest he had thrown in an NFL season as a starter. Cousins’ 26 touchdowns were tied with Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes for the eighth most in the league. While the Vikings’ offensive line had some issues in pass protection, Cousins’ sack total did drop from 40 in 2018 to 28 in 2019 with Kubiak’s scheme in place. The run game featured Dalvin Cook, who rushed for 1,135 yards (10th in the NFL) on 250 carries, a 4.5-yard average, and 13 touchdowns in a career-high 14 games. Cook also caught 53 passes for 519 yards. a 9.8 average. The Vikings’ success on offense helped to land Stefanski the head coaching job in Cleveland, meaning the soon-to-be 59-year-old Kubiak will move from offense advisor to coordinator this season. So how much will change? “Offensively it’s not going to change hardly at all,” Zimmer said on a video conference call Saturday. “Gary was very, very influential in everything that we went about offensively. I’m not trying to take anything away from Kevin, but it was basically Gary’s offense and a lot of the things that were installed was Gary’s offense. “Gary gave a lot of input to Kevin throughout the course of time and (assistant) Rick Dennison with the offensive line. I think they have a little bit different personalities and both good guys, smart guys, hard workers, all those things. … I know Gary has some ideas that he has put in this offseason, but I don’t think (there will be) much difference when you look at our offense or the play calls.” WILL DALVIN SHOW UP? Cook’s camp reportedly informed the Vikings in June that their client no longer would be taking part in team activities unless he received “a reasonable deal.” Cook is entering the fourth and final season of his rookie contract and his base salary of $1.3 million for 2020 makes him a bargain. On Saturday, Zimmer said Cook had told him he would show up on Tuesday for the start of camp. On Saturday night, Cook’s agent, Zac Hiller, released a statement to ESPN that said Zimmer hadn’t talked to Cook and a few hours later NFL Network reported that Cook actually had talked to Vikings running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu. So what is going on here? Given that Hiller’s statement never said that his client would fail to report on Tuesday, the smart money is on Cook showing up and, thus, fulfilling the requirement that he is present for the start of training camp so he can receive an accrued season for 2020. Otherwise, the new NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement says that Cook will end this season with only three years of service time and would be eligible to become a restricted, and not unrestricted, free agent this coming March. That move could cost Cook millions. The Vikings have traditionally rewarded their best young players as they near the end of their first contract, so Cook’s best play might be to simply show up and hope something can get done. Ordinarily, that would appear to be a slam dunk, but Cook plays a position that many teams are reluctant to pay and the NFL salary cap is almost certainly going to decrease because of the impact of the pandemic. The cap is at $198.2 million this season but could have a floor of $175 million in 2021. It’s not Cook’s fault, but his timing is terrible. REPLACING DIGGS The Vikings granted Stefon Diggs’ wish to escape Minnesota in March when they sent the disgruntled wide receiver to Buffalo for a package of four draft picks. The return was an impressive one given everyone knew Diggs wanted out, but now the challenge will be replacing him and seeing how wide receiver Adam Thielen fares without opposing defenses also having to worry about Diggs. The Vikings’ hope is that first-round pick Justin Jefferson will prove to be a quick study and step in as the No. 2 wide receiver behind Thielen. But Jefferson’s camp got off to a rocky start on Monday when the Vikings announced he had been placed on the team’s Reserve/COVID-19 list. Jefferson played primarily in the slot last season and caught 111 passes for 1,540 yards and 18 touchdowns as a junior for national champion LSU. Best case, Jefferson steps in and picks up where Diggs left off (minus the unhappy tweets). Thielen is coming off a season in which he was limited to 10 games because of a hamstring injury, so the Vikings need him to stay on the field, too, if this is going to work. Minnesota signed former Titans wide receiver Tajae Sharpe to a one-year, $825,000 base salary contract in free agent this offseason to add depth at the position. The 25-year-old spent his first three seasons with Tennessee, but his reception total dropped from 41 to 26 to 25. Second-year receiver Bisi Johnson (31 receptions for 294 yards and three touchdowns) looks like he could help as a vertical threat for Cousins. Johnson was a seventh-round pick in 2019, but Diggs developed into an elite wide receiver after being a fifth-round pick in 2015. Cousins should be helped by the fact that Cook can catch passes out of the backfield and tight ends Kyle Rudolph and Irv Smith Jr., both are very capable receivers. The Vikings will open camp with 12 wide receivers on the roster, but it’s the success of the top two, Thielen and Jefferson, that will be most important. WHERE WILL CLEVELAND LAND? The Vikings drafted their left tackle of the future in April when they selected Boise State’s Ezra Cleveland in the second round, but there remains an important question to be answered: When does that future begin? Riley Reiff, 31, has been the Vikings’ left tackle for the past three seasons and is entering the second to last season of a five-year, $58.75 million contract he signed in 2017. There was talk the Vikings could have Cleveland start this season at left tackle and move Reiff inside to left guard as the replacement for Pat Elflein, who struggled at that position in 2019. There also was speculation the Vikings could move Cleveland to left guard and leave Reiff at left tackle. The Vikings’ ability to get creative might have been possible if the pandemic hadn’t wiped out the on-the-field work during OTAs and minicamp. But with the offseason program lost, other than virtual learning, and now training camp set to be impacted, it will be interesting to see if Cleveland gets a chance to start, or if the Vikings simply have him learn behind Reiff and then take over at left tackle in 2021. SPEAKING OF GUARD While Elflein’s job could be in jeopardy, the competition at right guard will be wide open after veteran guard Josh Kline was released following one season in Minnesota. There are a few options for the Vikings after they did not sign a replacement for Kline, beginning with 2019 fourth-round pick Dru Samia and veteran Dakota Dozier. Aviante Collins, who orginally signed with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2017, also could be in the mix. Collins, however, is listed at tackle on the Vikings’ roster. Samia appeared in only two games last season but was in for 63 percent of the offensive snaps in a Week 17 victory over Bears. The Vikings did not play several regulars in that game after locking into a playoff spot and that was the only game in which Samia appeared with the offense. Samia was the 2018 Big 12 offensive lineman of the year at Oklahoma. Dozier, 29, joined the Vikings last season after starting his career with the Jets. He played in all 16 games, starting four times. One of those came at left guard and the other three were in place of Kline at right guard. The Vikings re-signed Dozier to a one-year contract for a base salary of $910,000 during the offseason. The team’s preference could be for Dozier to remain in a backup role — just as Rashod Hill remains a valuable backup at tackle — and for Samia to win the starting job. #DalvinCook #EzraCleveland #GaryKubiak

#DalvinCook #EzraCleveland #GaryKubiak

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junker-town · 4 years

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A Q&A with Bucks guard Pat Connaughton during quarantine

A Q&A with Pat Connaughton of the Milwaukee Bucks.

A Q&A with the Milwaukee Bucks guard as the NBA season has been paused indefinitely over the coronavirus pandemic.

Six weeks ago, Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Connaughton was coasting through the fifth year of his career as a rotation player on one of the best teams in NBA history. He’d just competed in the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest, and had a story about his real estate development company published in the New York Times.

Today, as Covid-19’s rampant sweep across the United States has placed the rest of the 2019-20 season in jeopardy, there’s a chance Connaughton — a free agent this offseason — has already played his last game with the Bucks.

Most people have been forced to adjust to a different lifestyle. That includes this 27-year-old NBA player who would otherwise be preparing for a playoff run, while fulfilling his second career in different ways than he currently can.

In a wide-ranging phone interview with SB Nation on Monday, Connaughton opened up about free agency, why it’s important for professional athletes to prepare for life after retirement, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future in Milwaukee, the Netflix series Tiger King, and so much more.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

SB NATION: I’ll begin with a question I find myself asking just about everyone I talk to these days: How are you staying safe? And, did you consider traveling home once the NBA allowed its players to do so, or just bunker down and stay put?

PAT CONNAUGHTON: I stayed in Milwaukee. I tried to look at it from a variety of different angles. For me, I’m from the Boston area and Massachusetts was arguably hit worse than the majority of other places, so going home didn’t really make sense for me, for my own health but also for the safety of my family.

We’re fortunate to be in the NBA. We might as well stay close to our team just in case, God forbid something does happen and we need access to doctors, we have team doctors. If we need access to food for some reason, the chefs are trying to help us out when they can. There’s different things that I think teams are doing to help their players that stick around.

I also wanted to do my best to stay in shape, and when the facility shut down I was able to work with some of our strength staff to get some free weights into my apartment, to get a bike, to at least have some workouts that I can do outside, running up hills near the lakefront where I live, things of that nature so that I can keep myself sane.

SB: What’s been the biggest difference for you, going from the 100 miles per hour schedule you were on as an in-season NBA player to just shutting everything down as quickly as you did?

PC: I really do believe it’s a simulation of retirement. Obviously guys still want to stay in shape and work out because basketball will be back at some point in time, but it is a mini simulation of it. Our working careers end by 35, 40, if you’re fortunate, so you’ve still got 35, 40 years of life, and what are you doing day in and day out?

For me, I love doing different things with real estate. I try to work with my best friend who’s our project manager who lives with me out here in Milwaukee, we’re working on ‘Hey, how can we grow the real estate company?’ It’s similar to what I do in basketball, learning from Giannis on a daily basis. How can I use the same competitive skill-set in the business world during this time off, because when the ball does stop bouncing I still want to have another successful career in another field.

SB: How about your daily schedule. I’m just curious how you’re filling spare time, being that I’m sure you have even more of it now with the season on hold.

PC: I wake up, I’ll scramble some eggs, cook some bacon, have a few pieces of toast, yogurt, smoothie, whatever it might be. I’ll then workout, whether it’s outside, inside, bike, weights, whatever I have access to, however creative I can be. By that time I’ll have lunch, and while I’m having lunch I’ll check my emails. I’ll check some of the work stuff I’m doing as far as the business outside of basketball for a few hours, do some stuff there.

By that time it’s probably dinnertime. We’ve been making dinner at home. Tacos. Homemade pizzas. Ramen noodles. We’re fortunate: My best friend’s fiancee also is with us and she’s a little bit more expertise in the kitchen than we are, but we’re learning.

At night, it’ll vary. Sometimes we’ll watch Billions. I’m a huge Billions fan. I’m catching up on it now because the new season is coming out in May. We checked out Tiger King. Some nights we’ll play video games. We’ll play NHL. I grew up with all hockey players. I was the only basketball player, so I didn’t have a choice on learning how to play hockey video games, now I actually enjoy it. Sometimes we’ll watch a movie. Sometimes I’ll read a book before bed. So I think it kind of varies depending the night, but before you know it, it’s 9, 10 o’clock, and if I want to try to continue to simulate what it’s going to be post retirement to get a feel for it, then I try my best to get to bed at a reasonable hour, get up in the morning and do it all again.

Photo by Michael J. LeBrecht II/NBAE via Getty Images

SB: I will never forgive myself if I don’t ask this super-serious followup question, but what were your thoughts on Tiger King?

PC: [Laughs] I was a huge fan of seeing the tigers, the lions, the ligers, the animals. Those things fascinate me. I used to watch The Lion Whisperer on Youtube. There’s this guy who is out with wild lions, in Africa or wherever they live, and he’ll just go up to them and they love him. So I’ve always been fascinated by the size of them, the size of their heads, the size of their paws. Actually the background on the lock screen on my phone is a lion. So I loved that.

As far as the personal life of my man Joe Exotic and some of the characters in it, I was a little bit puzzled. My facial reactions were a little bit, like, giggle-worthy, as my buddy and his fiancee said. They’d look at me when something was happening and I’d look at the screen like ‘what the heck is going on?’ Never in my life would I have sat down to watch that otherwise, so I think that’s all part of the experience. I’ll look back on this hopefully in five, 10 years and be like ‘Hey remember that pandemic we went through? Yeah, remember that show we watched with that guy who got put in jail, and there was that other lady who might’ve fed her husband to a tiger?’

SB: I could honestly ask you one million questions about Tiger King but I think it’s best for everyone if we move on to topics that actually matter. We don’t know when or if the season will come back, but how difficult do you think it’ll be to ramp your body back into game shape? There’s really nothing that can perfectly simulate what an NBA game is like. Does that concern you?

PC: Not for me, personally. I don’t think there’s any way to simulate game shape, but the ironic part about that is every offseason there’s also no way to simulate game shape, so in reality that’s not really a big difference, in my opinion. I’m more concerned about not having access to a gym. I can’t go into the facility. We’re not allowed to go into public gymnasiums. Unless you’re a guy who has a personal court in your house or live in nice weather and can shoot around in your driveway ... I’ve got a few balls in my house and I’m dribbling around but I’m sure the people below me and to the side of me aren’t thrilled about the dribbling that goes on at night, you know what I mean? I think that is something that will be on my radar as the season comes back around.

The in-shape thing, some of the workouts that I do, I’m laying on the ground dead afterwards. And as far as I’m concerned every time I’ve run up and down a court and played in a game I’ve never ended up laying on the ground in the locker room afterwards, like, purely exhausted. So I think the in-shape stuff, I can mitigate that worry, but I think the skill-related stuff, shooting, that’s something you’re gonna have to focus on a little bit more, pending when and if [the season] comes back.

SB: Is there anything the Bucks have communicated with you to try and combat that?

PC: When I think about what I can do, I think back to when I wasn’t in a gym every single day as a kid. We weren’t allowed to be. You had practice two, three, four times a week, depending on how many teams you were on. You weren’t necessarily in a basketball gym for hours upon hours every single day. Especially for me, playing baseball. I just think about the stuff that I used to do around the house. Dribble the ball around until my mom yelled at me. Lay in bed and shoot the ball up in the air, like you saw Pistol Pete do in that movie or whatever it was. Simple things like that to just keep your feel of the basketball at least somewhat normal.

SB: How did you find out the season was suspended and what was your first reaction?

PC: I was sitting in my apartment, actually just finished making tacos with my buddy and his fiancee. We were playing the Celtics the next day, and I was on League Pass waiting to watch the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Utah Jazz game. And it never came on. So we were like ‘when was the last time an NBA game didn’t tip off at tip-off time?’

So we went straight to Twitter, and for the next two hours we were watching Twitter as if it was the night of the NBA Draft, back when [Adrian Wojnarowski] used to drop the tweets before the draft picks came out. We might as well have thrown the Twitter feed of my phone up on the TV screen and just watched it that way because it was just fascinating.

I was just kind of like ‘this is wild.’ I didn’t think much about it at the start, as far as, this could end the season or anything that drastic. I was just like ‘wow this is having a serious effect on this one game.’ And then the Pelicans never even started their game and the Mavs finished their game, and we were supposed to play the next night? Will they [cancel] another game? The Celtics had just played the Jazz, so we kind of thought that our game wasn’t gonna last, but we didn’t get the official word for no shootaround until later on that night. And then we didn’t get the word about no games until the next day.

It was just kind of fascinating how quickly it unfolded, and how the NBA was ahead of everything. The NBA honestly set the precedent, in my opinion, for not just the rest of the sports world, but almost the rest of the world itself, to start taking this thing seriously.

SB: It’s hard to think about where we would be in this country had Rudy Gobert never tested positive, and we’re still so far behind.

PC: We’re far behind as far as the world is concerned. As a sports league, we were ahead of where the U.S. was, which is wild and scary to think about.

SB: Being part of such a special season with the Bucks, how often do you think about the possibility that the season is over, and how you might never get an opportunity to finish what you started? How difficult would that be, given all the hard work that was put in and what the expectations were?

PC: It’s tough because you look at it from a few different lenses. You think seasons like this don’t come along every year, so if it ends that’s gonna suck. To be honest. But when you look at it from the lens of an athlete you’re like we, as a team, are very good. What is preventing us from doing it again next year? Obviously we would be disappointed, we’re having a great year, etc. But maybe it just makes us hungrier next year. Maybe it’s fuel on the fire, as opposed to something else. Giannis will be a year older, a year more skilled. We’ll all be getting better. If you look at it that way you can throw some positive light to it.

The other light you look at it, just being open and honest, there are guys that are on contract years. There are guys that, I mean, personally I don’t have a technical contract for next year or anything. So you look at it like how does it affect free agency? How does it affect the salary cap? What does our team look like next year if the season were to end and not continue, and the playoffs weren’t to happen and there weren’t a champion to be crowned. I think all of those are unknown.

I could sit here for 24 straight hours and put down a sheet of paper, pros, cons, all these different scenarios, but I don’t think that does me any good. We don’t know. Nobody knows. The NBA is full of much smarter people than myself. Adam Silver is great. The owners are all very smart guys. The general managers are very smart guys. Obviously the player’s union, Michelle. Chris Paul. All them are very smart. I believe the best interest of as many players as possible and all the teams and the league itself will be what’s most important and what will be accomplished. So for me to worry about those sorts of things, sure, but at the same time it’s not gonna help me. I’m not gonna figure out, sitting in this apartment in the next month and a half, what the answers are.

Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports

SB: I wanted to ask you about being a free agent this offseason, and, as you said, we don’t know what will happen to the cap but there’s a chance it drops, given the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that will be lost — which could limit the amount of money teams are able or willing to pay. Respective of your own situation, I’m sure you’ve thought about that, and then also the idea that you might’ve played your last game with the Bucks. How difficult is it to cope with such an uncertain future?

PC: I definitely think about it but in the most simplistic terms. That’s one of the reasons I’ve always made sure I do other things outside of basketball. I’m not saying it’s because my basketball career is about to end, I’m just saying my dream was always to play in the NBA. Would I like to make a lot of money playing in the NBA? Absolutely. But if the cap gets affected there’s nothing I can do about it.

I want to continue to play in the NBA. I want to continue to be part of the Milwaukee Bucks as a championship contender, and I want to continue to help my team eventually win a championship, two, three, four, whatever it is. What my contract looks like while I’m doing that? If it was more money and more guaranteed years, absolutely, I’d love that. But as long as I’m here, as long as I’m playing, as long as I’m doing my job to continue to be an NBA player, a dream that I wanted to accomplish since I was a kid, it’s quite possible I make more money outside of basketball than I do in basketball when it’s all said and done.

The way that I’m trying to set up the real estate venture, the way that I’m trying to set up business outside of basketball, with, hopefully the relationships that I’ve built and will continue to build while I’m involved in the NBA, hopefully there’s a career after basketball. Maybe it’ll definitely be real estate, but maybe there’s something else. Maybe there’s a consulting role. Maybe there’s a front office role. Maybe there’s a league role. Maybe there’s something else for me because I don’t put all my chips in one basket. I can only control what I can control but I think the way that I’m setting up my life will at least allow me to have some flexibility as far as making money in the future, and continuing to play in the NBA for, hopefully, 10, 15 years.

SB: How has this pandemic impacted Beach House LLC, your real estate development company?

PC: We have a few job sites here in Milwaukee, we’ve got one that’s still moving forward. We got permission from the city because it’s right next to another building so for safety reasons they want us to make sure we get the foundation in and get some things there so it’s not just sitting as an open hole throughout this time. So I try to go by it once a day.

The name [Beach House LLC] might be changing soon, but one of our goals with real estate development is to mitigate risk. We’re trying to find distressed properties, we’re trying to find land, we’re trying to find things that we can create value in. My dad is a general contractor, I’ve been around it. So it’s not your typical real estate investments where you’re just investing in a property and banking on everybody that’s paying rent to at least cover the mortgage and give you a little bit of a return. We’re doing that but we’re doing it after we’re developing, fixing up or renovating a property. So in reality we’re kind of on both sides. We’re creating value in the property so the appreciation grows quicker, faster, more. And then we’re holding onto the asset and trying to cash flow it so it’s also making some money year after year. But in the long term, in the 10-year window, in the 15-year window, that’s when it really starts to make money.

I think as a professional athlete, the reason others have gotten involved is because we’re fortunate to have another source of income. How do you use that income to set up another source of income when that other source of income falls off? Aka, when your career is over, is there a way to utilize the money you’ve made in this career to set up another, arguably equal or close to equal, source of income afterwards. I think that’s kind of our goal with this.

In the short term, does [coronavirus] have an effect? Yeah, potentially. Does it also have an effect where you’re able to buy some property because prices drop? Potentially. I don’t really know how it’s going to fully affect it but in general it continues to go up over long periods of time. I think that’s what gives us an advantage in that world.

SB: Why change the name?

PC: I want it to reflect the story behind it. Beach House was an LLC that my father had for a house that he did back in Florida, way back when. I’d like to put it in something that shows athletes in business, something that’s unique about this actual story, because at the end of the day, if I’m able to do what I want to do in the business world I think it will be a unique story.

My main goal is, after seeing the 30 for 30, Broke, to shed some light, get some professional athletes involved [or] give them advice even if they don’t want to be involved and kind of help change the stigma that professional athletes go broke after their careers because they don’t know how to manage their money during, and shortly after.

SB: Have other players reached out for advice or even made requests to get involved over the past few weeks?

PC: I’d say a few have. I wouldn’t say as many as you’d think with all the time on our hands, but that’s also partly because I haven’t reached out to anyone either. What I’d like to do during this time is really think about what is that next growth for the real estate development company. We have five to 10 [professional athletes] involved in a number of different projects that we’ve done, so those are great one-off projects.

What is the next growth for my company? Is it raising a fund, or getting a bunch of guys together at a certain dollar amount? Is it trying to incorporate the pro athletes that I have with some of the businessmen that I’ve known and put them together for a fund or partnership where there’s a surplus of money, and now I’m going out, developing, buying, doing different things so that when one of the players in the NBA comes to town to play the Milwaukee Bucks next year, they’re able to go by the job site that we’re doing, and they’re able to see how it’s being built. They can see it in person and say ‘Hey, I own that.”

What is that next growth step for the company? That’s kind of what I’ve been utilizing my time and energy on during this hiatus, and hopefully in the next week or two I’ll have that answer and I’ll start to put something together for it. I’ll start to reach out to some players, or field some calls from some players and try to start to make it a bigger operation. Make it a bigger business.

SB: Are you mainly focused on properties in Milwaukee or looking to expand in the future?

PC: Location is the most important thing in real estate, so I want to expand to different areas. It’s just going to depend on the location in those different areas. I have two buildings, one that’s being built and one that’s gonna start being built in a few months around Notre Dame. I obviously know that area really well. We were able to get locations that are right near campus. You can probably hit a driver off your porch to campus.

There could be some similar growth in the future for the company. Some of the projects [Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum] is involved in, there’s no reason we couldn’t do a similar model around Lehigh. He’s obviously the biggest name to come from Lehigh in the professional sports world, so there’s no reason we can’t do some of those things. Those are the business ideas I love thinking about. But in the short term it’s about areas that we know and areas we have influence in and can get to relatively easily. We’re not locked to one city, is the short version of that answer.

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

SB: Circling it back to your playing career now, you competed in your first NBA Slam Dunk contest at All-Star Weekend last month. What was going through your head when the judges gave you a 45 after your first dunk?

PC: Honestly, I was ... that’s a great question. I don’t think I was as appalled at the time as a lot of people that I know. Did I think it could’ve been a little higher? Absolutely. But I wasn’t necessarily outraged, like, I like to think I’m pretty realistic. I like to think I’m relatively humble. That was my first dunk in an NBA dunk contest ever in my life. I was happy that I got it down on the first try, pulled off the White Man Can’t Jump thing pretty well, and then been able to share that moment with [Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich] and Giannis and Khris [Middleton] and Thanasis [Antetokounmpo] and my teammates. I thought it was pretty cool, so I was less concerned about one of the eights that could’ve been a nine. And by one of them I mean the only eight that could’ve been a nine. But that’s neither here nor there.

SB: Speaking of Giannis, you’ve been his teammate for a while and have a good relationship with him. With his upcoming free agency being one of the larger stories in the sport, do you ever talk about whether he’ll stay or go, or does it not really come up?

PC: It’s something I would talk about with him. We’re close enough friends where we definitely could. And I think our team is so close and so great as far as talking about things other than basketball, and business, and world issues, social issues. Kyle Korver brings a great element to those sorts of things. I think we have a very close knit team in our locker room.

I think sometimes it gets brought up randomly in passing and things like that, but I think at the end of the day, for us, it’s not as big of a deal as it is for the rest of the world. Obviously the city of Milwaukee, the team, everyone wants Giannis to be here forever. But Giannis has put himself in a position to provide for his family from growing up with nothing in Greece, and I don’t think you can fault Giannis for whatever decision he ends up making, that he believes is the best decision for him, his family, the people who are closest to him.

I’ll support him regardless of what he does, and I think the entire team will support him regardless of what he does. I think we’re building something pretty cool in Milwaukee so that will play a role, but it’s his decision and all of us will support what he does, whenever that decision comes to light.

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