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.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

“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.

Los Angeles Clippers guard Patrick Beverley expects the NBA will return in July regardless of what anyone not named LeBron James has to say. 

Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images

"Hoopers say what y’all want. If @KingJames said he hooping. We all hooping. Not Personal only BUSINESS?????? ?? #StayWoke ✊?✊?✊?," he wrote on Twitter, Sunday.

The NBA is set to return on July 30 in Orlando, Florida 22 teams; however, many players have voiced their disapproval of the league returning so soon. Kyrie Irving, in particular, has been a prominent voice in opposition to the return time-frame. “I don’t support going into Orlando. I’m not with the systematic racism and the bullshit. Something smells a little fishy," Irving told The Athletic, this week.

On the other hand, LeBron James is among the players who reportedly disagree with Irving. The thinking here is that the players could use their earnings to donate to the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Houston Rocket guard Austin Rivers explained this point view, Saturday, saying "Us coming back would put money in all of our (NBA players) pockets. With this money, you could help out even more people and continue to give more importantly your time and energy towards the BLM movement. Which I'm 100% on board with. Because change needs to happen and injustice has been going on too long."

Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers has responded to Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who says the return of the NBA would negatively affect the Black Lives Matter movement. Rivers says he doesn't see the correlation.

Takashi Aoyama / Getty Images

"Us coming back would put money in all of our (NBA players) pockets," Rivers continued. "With this money, you could help out even more people and continue to give more importantly your time and energy towards the BLM movement. Which I'm 100% on board with. Because change needs to happen and injustice has been going on too long."

Former NBA player Stephen Jackson says the league is jumping the gun with it’s return to action in July, claiming “now ain’t the time.”

Stephen Maturen / Getty Images

Jackson says the return of the NBA will shift the conversation away from social justice and police reform: “I love the NBA man, that’s my family,” Jackson told fans in a video uploaded to Instagram. “But now ain’t the time to be playing basketball y’all. Now ain’t the time. Playing basketball is gonna do one thing, take all the attention off the task at hand right now and what we fighting for.”

“Everybody gonna be worried about the playoffs, they gonna have that blasting all over the TV, and nobodies gonna be talking about getting justice for all these senseless murders by these police and nobody’s gonna be focused on the task at hand,” he continued. “None of these white owners have spoken up, none of ’em are taking a stand. Yeah, they might post a video when the season start of saying what we should do, but they ain’t doing nothing.”

Current NBA player Kyrie Irving has expressed similar sentiments, telling The Athletic, “I’m not with the systematic racism and the bullshit. Something smells a little fishy.”

“I’m willing to give up everything I have [for social reform],” he added.

[Via]

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.

Mike Lawrie / Getty Images

“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.

[Via]

Mike Tyson is a bad, bad man. We’ve all seen what he can do in the ring, being celebrated as one of the hardest punchers in boxing history. The man has knocked out several of his opponents in under one minute, getting so competitive and aggressive that he bit part of Evander Holyfield’s ear off.

The 53-year-old has been training hard for a possible return to the ring, despite the fact that he hasn’t fought in fifteen years. His last bout was in 2005 before deciding to retire but now, Iron Mike is eyeing a return to boxing and he will make a load of cash if he does end up coming back.

Smallz+Raskind/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Getty Images

According to MMA Fighting, the boxer has been offered over $20 million for a singular return fight in Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. He initially turned down the offer but the President of the organization does not believe the door has been closed entirely. 

“I think I know what we need to do to make this thing happen,” said David Feldman, President of BKFC. “We’re not successful yet in making that Mike thing happen. But I don’t think the door’s shut. He did say no immediately. But I think there’s room there.”

Among the additional sweeteners proposed for the deal are charitable donations in Tyson’s name. 

Are you hoping Mike Tyson makes his return to the ring?

[]

Iggy Azalea has finally returned to social media after a lengthy hiatus, sharing a couple of new pictures where her body is looking absolutely snatched. Unless these are old pictures, or she just had an incredible comeback from her pregnancy body, then it’s possible that the rumors that she gave birth to Playboi Carti‘s baby are untrue.

Nobody is quite sure what to believe after Iggy Azalea returned to Instagram with some new pictures this week. Her first post of the year was uploaded several days ago, flaunting her flat stomach in some athletic wear. Then, she slipped into a skintight dress and showed off her famous curves. Ask anybody and they’ll tell you that she does not look like a woman that gave birth a few weeks ago.

For months, Iggy Azalea and Playboi Carti were rumored to have been expecting their first child together. The latest rumors point to the baby officially being born. Carti even went and bought a family-friendly luxury SUV, making sure that he could place a baby seat in the back. However, neither of them has confirmed or denied the news.

So, what is the truth? Is Iggy Azalea just keeping people guessing by sharing some old pictures or was she never pregnant in the first place?

Carnival Cruises are scheduled to resume on August 1, and customers seem to have no fears about returning to the ships. Ticket sales have shot up 600 percent in three days since going on-sale.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Representative from Cruise Planners told TMZ the cruise line is “not a bit concerned about traveling at this time.”

“We are taking a measured approach, focusing on the potential for sailing from a select number of homeports where we have more significant operations that are easily accessible by car for the majority of our guests,” Carnival said in a press release last week.

The return date of August 1 is not set in stone. The company explained that there is no guarantee services will resume at that time, it is only a tentative estimate: “We continue to work with various government agencies, including the CDC, as we introduce new onboard protocols, but there is no assurance of a return on August 1.”

The Diamond Princess cruise ship was infamous at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic for being quarantined and suffering 712 confirmed cases and 14 deaths. The CDC has recommended cruise lines “defer all cruise ship travel worldwide.”

You can book a trip through Carnival Cruise for yourself here.

[Via]

NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke with player representatives from the National Basketball Players Association, which included executive director Michele Roberts, NBPA president Chris Paul and a number of other players, regarding the logistics of the league's return.

Takashi Aoyama / Getty Images

"This could turn out to be the single greatest challenge of all our lives," Silver warned, noting that 40% of the league's revenue comes from game night earnings.

Silver pointed that that "The CBA was not built for extended pandemics," explaining that future salary caps and basketball-related income could be affected by the situation.

The commissioner went on to say that the league could resume playing from a single arena to limit air travel: "There's no point in adding risk for flying all of you city to city if there's not going to be fans," Silver said. "We think it would be safer to be in a single location, or two locations, to start."

Silver plans to return with a full-playoff run, but is considering play-in tournaments, which would give more teams a chance to compete who were robbed of a late-season playoff push.

"Until there's a vaccine, or some cocktail preventing people from dying from the virus, we are going to be dealing with this collectively," Silver told the players. "The ultimate issue is how much risk we're all comfortable taking."

Tekashi 6ix9ine‘s baby mama, Sara Molina, has given her two cents on her ex’s fateful return after his early prison release, following his record-breaking Instagram live session. 6ix9ine officially debuted his first post-prison single and music video, “GOOBA,” earlier today, and to accompany the release, he went live on IG to discuss his new era of freedom as well as his snitching ways. The live stream garnered a whopping 2 million viewers, reportedly breaking Tory Lanez previously set record from his series, Quarantine Radio. Already, 6ix9ine’s reintroduction has been plastered all over the Internet, as everyone reacts to the scorned snitch’s comeback. However, his ex, Sara, was less than impressed with his antics, so she took to her IG stories to address the situation, labelling 6ix9ine an attention seeker and revealing that she’s chosen to ignore his tomfoolery.

“Nothing bothers that person more than being ignored, they seek attention,” she wrote, almost certainly referring to the rainbow-haired rapper. “Good or bad attention it don’t matter, so guess what imma do.” She followed this with an eye-rolling emoji and a series of sleeping emojis, before concluding with, “God bless everyone.” Probably a wise choice on her part, all things considered.

Did you catch 6ix9ine’s IG live stream?