The Head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci says the NBA's strategy of resuming play will be "quite successful." Fauci spoke about the league's plan in an interview with The Stadium.

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“I actually have looked at that plan and it is really quite creative,” Fauci said. “What they are really trying to do, and I think they might very well be quite successful with it, is to create a situation where it is as safe as it possibly could be for the players by creating this bubble — essentially testing everybody, make sure that you start with a baseline of everybody being negative and trying to make sure there is no influx into that cohort of individuals and do a tournament-type play.”

“They really wanted to make sure that the safety of the players, and the people associated with the players, was paramount,” Fauci said.

The NBA is planning to return on July 30, with 22 teams competing in Orlando Florida. Games will take place entirely in the Wide World of Sports Complex.

“For the people who are thirsting for basketball, who love basketball, the way I do, it’s something that I think is a sound plan,” Fauci said.

If you're an NBA fan, the last three months have been incredibly stressful. The league has yet to return to action although they plan on doing so as of July 30th. While there seem to be some players who are against the return, there are still plenty of stars who want to get back out on the court and compete for a championship. In order to do so, the players will need to be vigorously tested in order to prevent widespread cases of the Coronavirus.

For the last few weeks, teams have been told to hold off on testing but now, it seems like they have been given the green light to test as often as possible. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the league has told teams that they can test asymptomatic staff members and players which is huge news since many teams will be traveling to Florida later this month.

A patron at New York City Bagel & Coffee House in Astoria, Queens filmed another customer intentionally coughing on someone after being called out for not wearing a mask.

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"I was at New York City Bagel Coffee House on Broadway and 30th Street getting my bagel and noticed a patron (pictured below) who was coughing, not covering her mouth, and not wearing a mask," the woman who was coughed on wrote on Facebook. "I politely pointed this out to the woman working at the store and told her that the store should enforce masks to worn by patrons while inside the store."

"The unmasked patron overheard my complaint and became enraged yelling at me calling me names claiming she has covid antibodies and doesn’t need to wear a mask in public so I should mind my own F’ing business. She then proceeded to come towards me and repeatedly cough on me as seen in this video."

New York has been one of the hardest-hit areas for the COVID-19 outbreak; however, things are trending in a positive direction. The city recently entered phase-1 of its reopening process.

"I will NEVER be going back to New York City Bagel Coffee House Broadway and 30th Street because they still served this woman and none of the employees asked if I was okay," the woman ended her post. "Plus Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company has way better bagels and kinder staff."

Michael Flor, the longest-hospitalized COVID-19 patient, has survived the illness, but the cost of his life comes with an unfathomable price tag. Flor is facing hospital bills totaling 181 pages and $1.1 million in costs. 

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“I opened it and said ‘holy [bleep]!’ “ Flor, 70, told The Seattle Times.

He stayed in Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah for 62 days. “He was as sick as you can get, with basically every organ system shutting down,” Dr. Anne Lipke, a Swedish pulmonary and critical-care physician, says of Flor.

At one point during his stay, he told his wife “You gotta get me out of here, we can’t afford this.”

Luckily for Flor, he’s on Medicare and much of the bill will be covered. Congress has also granted $100 billion to help hospitals and insurance companies during the pandemic. Without these safety nets in place, Flor could be facing life-crippling debt.

“I feel guilty about surviving,” he said. “There’s a sense of ‘why me?’ Why did I deserve all this? Looking at the incredible cost of it all definitely adds to that survivor’s guilt.”

“It was a million bucks to save my life, and of course I’d say that’s money well-spent,” he said. “But I also know I might be the only one saying that.”

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CrossFit CEO and co-founder, Greg Glassman, officially resigned this week, after he was widely criticized for making some insensitive comments about George Floyd and the coronavirus pandemic. His decision came after he realized his words had "created a rift in the CrossFit community and unintentionally hurt many of its members."

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"Those who know me know that my sole issue is the chronic disease epidemic," Glassman said in a statement released on Tuesday (June 9th). "I know that CrossFit is the solution to this epidemic and that CrossFit HQ and its staff serve as the stewards of CrossFit affiliates worldwide. I cannot let my behavior stand in the way of HQ's or affiliates' missions."

On Saturday, after the company had already come under fire for their failure to voice their solidarity with the Black community amid the outbreak of protests against police brutality and systemic racism, Glassman made an odd joke on Twitter about George Floyd, whose murder by police served as the catalyst for said protests.

In response to a tweet from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation that read, "racism and discrimination are critical public health issues that demand an urgent response," Glassman wrote, "It's FLOYD-19." He appeared to be mocking this notion that racism is an epidemic much like coronavirus, all the while making light of Floyd's tragic death.

A lot has happened in the last thirty days. The world's focus has shifted from COVID-19 to the protests and riots breaking out across the United States. Large gatherings have been held in each state as the public speaks out against systemic and interpersonal racism. Many of our favorite artists, including Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West, have participated in marches for the Black Lives Matter movement and, although Juicy J supports the movement, he has an important message for anybody that may have forgotten about the global pandemic we're also living through.

"The coronavirus is not over," tweeted the Three 6 Mafia rapper. His message is important, especially considering there has been a recent rise in cases following Memorial Day Weekend.

Cities are lifting their pandemic-influenced "Safer At Home" ordinances, but that doesn't mean that life will return to normal. Businesses are excited to get back into the swing of things, however, there are still concerns about the spread of COVID-19. We've watched over the last few months as festival producers have announced that events and concerts were canceled or postponed, and unsurprisingly, Lollapalooza has added their name to the not-this-year list. Well...kind of.

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"We wish we could bring Lollapalooza to Grant Park again this year, but we understand why things can't move forward as planned," the festival coordinators penned in an announcement shared to social media. "The health and safety of our fans, artists, partners, staff and community is always our highest priority." Lollapalooza will return in 2021 with a special 30th-anniversary event in the city of Chicago.

The festival was set to take place from July 30 to August 2, and while there won't be a huge concert in the park, Lollapalooza producers will be hosting a "virtual event" during those same dates. It will include "performances from around the city and beyond, epic archival sets from Chicago and the festival's six international editions, never-before-seen footage from the 1990's and much more." Check out their full announcement below.

Joe Exotic became incredibly famous following the Tiger King documentary which was broadcasted on Netflix at the start of the pandemic lockdown. It’s been almost three months since the world became aware of Exotic and he is still on many people’s minds. As it stands, Exotic is in jail for putting a hit out on his archnemesis Carole Baskin although he still maintains his innocence. 

Now, Exotic is reaching out to his fans and he seems to be in despair. Throughout the new letter obtained by TMZ, Exotic says phrases like “my soul is dead” and “I’ll be dead in 2-3 months.” Exotic notes that since the pandemic is dying out, President Trump should have him exonerated and removed from the jail.

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The Tiger King star also claims that the prison isn’t allowing him to take the meds he needs for his health problems and it’s making him feel sick. Exotic went so far as to say that he feels like he is on death row right now and that he needs support more than ever. To make matters worse, Exotic is being fed information about his husband Dillon Passage, who has reportedly ghosted him.

Needless to say, the situation is dire for Exotic and he seems to be desperate to get out. There is currently a legal team working on a campaign to get a Presidential pardon for Exotic, although it remains to be seen if that goes anywhere.

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Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant is not returning for the 2019-20 NBA season, despite the playoffs being scheduled to end as late as October. The All-Star confirmed the decision to ESPN, Friday.

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“It’s just best for me to wait,” Durant said. “I don’t think I’m ready to play that type of intensity right now in the next month. It gives me more time to get ready for next season and the rest of my career. My season is over. I don’t plan on playing at all. We decided last summer when it first happened that I was just going to wait until the following season.

“I had no plans of playing at all this season.”

Durant, while still nursing a torn Achilles tendon, is fully recovered from COVID-19. He tested positive for the virus in March.

“I was shocked,” he said, regarding testing positive. “And then I was curious. I wanted to know what it meant. What is the virus about? I started to get information about it more and more. It calmed me down … I was just more curious to what I was dealing with and how I could fight it myself.”

The NBA season will return on July 31.

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Pusha T has partnered with music industry veteran Tony Draper and former NBA star Ricky Davis to bring the Feed Your City Challenge to his hometown of Norfolk, Virginia. This helpful initiative, which aims to offer aid and relief to families impacted by COVID-19 in the Virginia city, kicked off on Saturday morning (June 6th) at the Military Circle Mall in Norfolk. The trio will be providing groceries and Personal Protective Equipment supplies anyone who shows up to the event a contactless drive-thru lane delivery method. All social distancing guidelines outlined by the CDC will also be in effect. Pusha shared some photos of the set-up process on Instagram, encouraging his followers in Norfolk to “pull up.”

“TODAY IS THE DAY!!!” he wrote on a photo of himself prepping some food. “#FEEDYOURCITYCHALLENGE HITS NORFOLK VA AT NOON ON THE PARKING GROUNDS OF MILITARY CIRCLE MALL!!! #757 PULL UP AND GET GROCERIES AND OTHER ESSENTIALS. THIS IS FOR EVERYBODY!!! THIS WILL BE A NON-CONTACT/DRIVE-THRU EVENT.”

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These efforts are in collaboration with Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander, Chief Larry D. Boone of the Norfolk Police Department, and the Economic Development Authority for the City of Norfolk. Pusha decided to join forces with Tony, who founded Houston’s Suave House Records, and Ricky after learning about the work the latter had done with The Ricky Davis Legacy Foundation in H-Town. To learn more or donate, click here.