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Across the country, college sports programs are trying to bring players back for workouts in hopes of finding a way to have a 2020 fall or winter season. Some have been able to successfully bring players back and create something akin to a bubble with no positive COVID-19 tests, but other programs have seen outbreaks that have led to the entirety of their athletics department having to shut things down and have everyone enter a quarantine period.

Conferences have steadily begun announcing plans to play conference-only schedules, recognizing some of the pitfalls of playing non-conference opponents given the NCAA’s lack of overall health and safety protocols leading to some large disparities between conferences — particularly smaller ones without the resources to do testing as regularly. Given the country’s lack of a federal response to the pandemic, it’s hard to see how a fall college football season happens, but everyone involved at a university level is determined to try because of the major financial implications of not playing football this year.

However, an unintended consequence of having to say the quiet part out loud — like Mike Gundy saying they have to play football in order to run money through the state of Oklahoma — is that coaches and administrators have now fully peeled back the facade of college sports and the farcical insistence on the “student first” student-athlete model. The players make millions for the universities and see almost nothing of that, and in this current climate, both with the pandemic and the rise in the fight for racial justice, many players are recognizing their power in the moment.

We’ve seen Iowa players get the highest paid strength coach in the country ousted for verbal abuse and racist language, Chuba Hubbard of Oklahoma State threaten to leave the program after Gundy wore an OAN shirt, and Marvin Wilson of Florida State demand some changes after Mike Norvell lied about having in depth conversations with all of his players. Players have long known and discussed these issues internally, but there seems to be a movement happening in which they are recognizing how to enact change — in part thanks to the platforms they have with social media now.

On Sunday, the latest example of this came from athletes in the Pac-12, who offered a list of demands before they are willing to return to the field or court this fall, calling for a more robust health plan, health insurance coverage for all athletes, compensation, and the Pac-12 to dedicate resources to combating racial injustice both within college sports programs and society as a whole, as laid out in a Players Tribune piece.

Their first demand is health and safety protocols, calling for the conference to, “Allow option not to play during the pandemic without losing athletics eligibility or spot on our team’s roster, and prohibit/void COVID-19 agreements that waive liability.” They also call for health and safety standards to be enforced by a “third party selected by the players.”

The second demand is to protect all sports, most notably pointing to Stanford shutting the door on 11 varsity sports due to the pandemic and calling on officials to use the university’s endowment to protect those sports. They also call on commissioner Larry Scott and school administrators to take voluntary reductions in pay that are “drastic” in order to help keep sports from being shuttered while they collect significant salaries, as well as an end to performance and academic bonuses for coaching contracts and ending “lavish facility expenditures,” which are used by athletic departments to spend profits and make balance sheets look lean.

The third demand is to “End racial injustice in college sports and society,” with calls to direct two percent of conference revenue to “support financial aid for low-income Black students, community initiatives, and development programs for college athletes on each campus.” They also demand a “civic engagement task force” to be created with the players input on members of the task force who will look to take on issues of racial injustice in college sports.

The final demand calls for compensation and medical protection for players, starting with a demand for medical insurance selected by players to cover athletes for sports-related medical condition (including COVID-19) for their careers and six years after their eligibility ends. They also call for the ability to sign with representation and seek opportunities with their name, image, and likeness, as well as distributing “50 percent of conference revenue evenly among athletes in their respective sports.” They also call for open transfer rules, ridding programs of any policies that impact their rights to free speech, and more.

Washington football linebacker Joe Tryon (last year’s team leader in sacks and tackles for loss) and receiver Ty Jones are among those players attached to the Players Tribune piece, and they both issued statements on Sunday.

Oregon star left tackle — and, potentially, the top pick in next year’s NFL Draft — likewise tweeted support of the call for change.

As did Cal’s leading returning rusher Kuony Deng.

We will learn fairly soon both how the Pac-12 responds to this and also how many players are attached to this letter — and how many in key revenue sports like football and basketball. Hopefully the united front is indeed just that and is strong, because given everything we’ve known about college sports for the last hundred-plus years is that they will do everything possible to shut down most all of these requests. What the Pac-12 is willing to budge on will be interesting, as will what players are willing or not willing to compromise on to return to their programs.

In total, this is just the latest in what feels like a movement towards players asserting their voices more and more in college sports, and, hopefully, signals the beginning of the end of college athletics incredibly exploitative history.

Beloved actor and TV pitch man Wilford Brimley died at age 85, leaving behind a career full of interesting roles and unforgettable commercials. Brimley, who for some will be remembered more as a spokesperson than an actor, died according to a report in Variety that noted he had a kidney issue over the last few months.

Brimley had a series of roles in a wide range of movies, from the manager of the Knights baseball team in The Natural to a notable role in Cocoon.

Pauline Kael ably summed up his appeal in a few words. Reviewing “Cocoon” for the New Yorker in 1985, she said, “Wilford Brimley, with his walrus mustache and friendly belly, brings an ornery impudence to his role.”

Brimley, who seemed to enter old age several decades ago, appeared perfectly at home in the Ron Howard-directed movie about senior citizens unintentionally rejuvenated by an alien life force in the pool where they do water aerobics even though he was only 51 at the time. Brimley’s Ben Luckett doing cannonballs in the pool is one of the most memorable moments in the film. Brimley returned for the 1988 sequel.

For a younger audience, however, Brimley was notorious as a spokesperson. He had a lengthy campaign with Quaker Oats, but also a diabetes-themed campaign for Liberty Medical Supplies, which often featured Brimley on a horse or in some kind of western wear talking about his diagnosis and testing supply needs.

The commercials that aired on daytime television made him synonymous with The Price Is Right and other game shows. John Goodman even played Brimley on a Saturday Night Live parody of his Liberty Medical Supplies commercials. He would later inspire this very weird Vine as well.

Brimley was also active on social media, right up until the end of his life. His last tweet was soliciting people to give him a wrestling name.

Looking to make a strong turnaround following her 2017 Witness album which received less than positive reviews from critics, Katy Perry is gearing up for the release of her sixth album, Smile. Arriving at the end of the month, Perry has given fans plenty to look forward to with its release, expeditiously with the album’s four singles, including its title track and “Daisies.” Giving fans more details on Smile as well as updating them on her pregnancy, Perry sat down with The Sunday Times Style for a game of “Finish The Sentence.”

Complying with the game and all its rules, Perry would soon get into the album after being asked to describe it..

“I would describe my new album as hopeful, resilient, joyful and my own journey of coming through hell,” she said. When asked which song best describes her current life, Perry picked two songs, “Smile” and the album’s outro, “What Makes a Woman,” choosing the latter because, “I am going through very, very feminine things right now.”

Perry would also answer some questions about her pregnancy and her progress with it. “Being pregnant is amazing because my level of appreciation for women has grown exponentially and given me this powerful feeling, like I can do it all while still creating another life,” she said. “I feel really powerful.”

In the nearly 4:30 minute video, Perry also spoke on why she will never grow tired of performing and the advice she would give her 18-year-old self.

The Miami Heat picked up an impressive and convincing win on Saturday in their seeding round opener, beating the Denver Nuggets 125-105 with six players in double figures.

They were led by Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, who had 22 points each, with Kelly Olynyk coming up big off the bench with 20 points in the win. It was a strong start to their restart and seemed to indicate that they were not battling as much rust as some teams, as they looked crisp on both ends in their first real game in four months.

Their next two games are even more important, as they face a Raptors team that dusted the Lakers on Saturday and then the Celtics, who are currently just 1.5 games up on Miami for the third spot in the East. However, on Sunday, Butler was absent from practice for an “excused absence,” with Erik Spoelstra not elaborating further on what exactly is going on with the star swingman.

Him still being in the bubble hopefully means he just got a deserved day off, but Jae Crowder’s comments on Butler’s absence from practice raised some eyebrows.

https://twitter.com/gifdsports/status/1289958228986482689

Butler’s status for Monday’s tilt with Toronto is currently unknown, as the Heat declined to speak on that, but his absence would certainly be notable given how crucial he is to this team and their success on both ends. Hopefully all is well with Butler, who spoke after Saturday’s game about being forced to change from his preferred blank jersey right at tipoff by the league, who declined his request to make such a statement with his uniform.

We will learn more about Butler’s status for Monday’s game fairly soon, as the league has asked teams to put out injury reports a day ahead of time, and hopefully it’s just something like a missed test (like what kept Kristaps Porzingis and Paul Millsap out of scrimmages earlier in the bubble).

Believe it or not, it’s only been one week of WNBA action with 18 games in seven days. Each team has played three games so far, which means that we’re already 13.6 percent of the way through the regular season. Time moves quickly in the wubble.

An exciting first week of games saw some teams emerge as title frontrunners, some struggle through surprisingly slow starts and plenty of breakout performances from players. Lots of people are watching as well; viewership of Saturday’s second game between the Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury was up 20 percent from last year, making it the most watched opening day game since 2012. Following that ratings bump, ESPN and NBATV announced that they would increase their coverage of the 2020 regular season.

Here’s what we’ve learned through Week 1:

1. The Mystics are the only unbeaten team

The biggest surprise from the first week of games has to be the success of the Washington Mystics. The reigning champions entered the 2020 season without half of last year’s roster, including 2019 league MVP Elena Delle Donne, and were not pegged as title challengers by many, if anyone. But each player has stepped up for the team in Bradenton.

The Mystics’ opening game against the Indiana Fever was an absolute dominant performance, with Myisha Hines-Allen going off for a career-high 27 points on 64.7 percent shooting, 10 rebounds, and two assists. Aerial Powers had a night to remember against Connecticut on Tuesday, scoring 27 points of her own, a career-high for the fifth-year player. And in a surprise win against title favorites Seattle Storm, it was Ariel Atkins’ turn to shine, scoring a game-high 22 points.

Out of every team in the wubble, Washington looks to have the best chemistry and understanding. It’s early, but if the Mystics can continue to get lights-out performances from unlikely places, they very well might be on their way to a second championship.

2. The kids are alright

Week 1 saw the league’s new kids on the block come into their own. After a relatively quiet first game against Seattle on opening day, No. 1 pick Sabrina Ionescu dropped 33 points, seven assists, and seven rebounds against the Dallas Wings in just her second game. Unfortunately, the star guard suffered a grade 3 ankle sprain on Friday night against the Atlanta Dream and it is unclear if she will be able to return this season.

Chennedy Carter and Crystal Dangerfield are still getting used to their roles as starting point guards for the Dream and Minnesota Lynx, respectively, but showed glimpses of their abilities. The Dallas youth took it to another level in their third game against Indiana, with Satou Sabally earning her first career double-double after scoring a game-high 23 points and 17 rebounds. Fellow Wings rookie Bella Alarie finished that game with a +18 net rating after having six points, two steals, five assists, and four rebounds.

3. The Phoenix Mercury are finally clicking

Ahead of the 2020 season, the Mercury and their big three of Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, and Skylar Diggins-Smith were widely expected to challenge for the championship. But two games in, the team had not won any games and struggled on the offensive end of the floor. New addition Bria Hartley showed promise and the Mercury’s defense was also positive, but not much else was clicking for the team. That changed on Friday night against the Las Vegas Aces, as Taurasi and Diggins-Smith found their rhythm; they combined for 44 points, 15 assists, and just two turnovers in a 102-95 win. After experimenting with three different starting lineups in the first three games of the season, the Mercury look like they are starting to figure things out.

4. Breakout performances abound

The league’s first week of action saw many overlooked players make their mark with standout performances. Allen-Hines is a clear example of that for the Mystics, averaging 19 points, 8.3 assists, and 2.7 rebounds through the first three games. Atlanta’s Betnijah Laney is another surprise of the season; she is currently averaging 19 points, 4.7 rebounds, three assists, and two steals after setting a career-high in points twice this year. Laney was cut from the Fever’s roster in June, underscoring how tough the WNBA is with just 144 roster spots.

In her first season with the Aces, Angel McCoughtry has shown that she hasn’t missed a step since her knee injury in 2019. The veteran forward is averaging 18.3 points, 2.3 assists, and 5.7 steals through the first three games and she helped the Aces to their first win against the Dream on Wednesday.

5. Were we right to disrespeCT the Sun?

Ahead of the 2020 season, the Connecticut Sun were adamant about not being disrespeCTed, or counted out of the title race, by viewers. The team aimed to prove that despite the losses of stars Courtney Williams, who left for Atlanta in the offseason, and Jonquel Jones, who opted out of the season, they could still compete. After all, they made it to the WNBA Finals last year and pushed the series to five games against the indomitable Mystics.

Having said all that, it’s not disrespect if a team has yet to win a game and are sitting at the bottom of the standings. Connecticut has been disappointing, and perhaps it was always optimistic to assume that the team would bounce back with a virtually new roster. In week 1, the ever-consistent Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner had big games, but the rest of the team didn’t bother to show up. The Sun have the worst shooting percentage in the league, averaging 38.5 percent from the field and 27 percent from three. They have also struggled from the free throw line, making just 70.5 percent of their foul shots. It remains to be seen if the Sun can turn things around, especially because the condensed schedule means that there’s not a lot of time to hit the practice floor.

Aiming to give fans more content after the release of her 2019 Normal F*cking Rockwell album, Lana Del Rey aimed to begin 2020 with a new poetry audiobook. Originally planned for a January 4 release, the proper audiobook would be riddled with several delays, which pushed it months behind its original schedule. Despite those delays, however, Del Rey continued to share previews and clips from the audiobook to keep fans interested in the upcoming project and show them what was in store. That poetry collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass, finally arrived on July 28 and to celebrate its release, Del Rey recited one of its poems for fans on social media.

Posting the videos to both her Twitter and Instagram pages, Del Rey recited a poem entitled “Salamander.” Recording in a fruitful backyard, Del Rey continued for nearly two minutes in the vintage-filtered video she shared with fans. The release of the Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass audiobook will precede its hardcover version which Del Rey revealed would be released later this fall and include additional written work.

The collection arrives two months after Del Rey revealed the title of her next album to be Chemtrails Over The Country Club. She revealed its title in a video that addressed comments she made about the recent success of women on the music charts. Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass is out now via Simon & Schuster Audio. Get it here.

In recent years, it appears that Netflix has settled on a particular strategy with regard to its television programming: Many of the streaming network’s series are ending after three seasons. Why? Because series get more expensive to produce after three seasons, and after three seasons, they’re also less likely to bring in new subscribers. It’s not a hard and fast rule — there are obviously exceptions with its juggernaut series like Stranger Things, The Crown, probably Witcher — but it’s common to see otherwise popular series end after three seasons (like Santa Clarita Diet and even Dead to Me).

With Netflix producing so much new content, and canceling so many new series, here is a quick glimpse of the status of all the English-language scripted programming on the streamer. This list covers all the scripted programming that aired in 2020, or series with statuses that are still pending.

After Life: Renewed for Season 3
AJ and the Queen: Canceled after one season
Altered Carbon: No word on Season 3
Another Life: Renewed for Season 2
Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love: No word on Season 3
Atypical: Renewed for a fourth and final season
The Baby-Sitters Club: No word on Season 2
Big Mouth: Renewed for seasons 4, 5, and 6
#blackAF: Renewed for Season 2
Black Summer: Renewed for Season 2
Blood & Water: Renewed for Season 2
Bojack Horseman: Ended after season 6
Bonding: Renewed for Season 2
Brews Brothers: No word on season two
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Renewed for fourth and final season
Cobra Kai: Picked up from YouTube and renewed for Season 3
Criminal: No word on Season 2
The Crown: Renewed for Seasons 4, 5 and a 6th and final season.
Cursed: No word on season 2.
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance: No word on season 2.
Dead to Me: Renewed for a third and final season
Dear White People: Renewed for a fourth and final season
Disenchantment: Renewed for parts 3 and 4
Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings: No word on Season 2
The Eddy: Limited series; second season unlikely
The English Game: Limited series; second season unlikely
F is for Family: No word on season 5
Family Reunion: Renewed for Season 3
Gentefied: Renewed for Season 2
GLOW: Renewed for a fourth and final season
Grace and Frankie: Renewed for a seventh and final season.
Greenhouse Academy: Cancelled after four seasons
The Haunting: Renewed for Season 2 under the title, The Haunting of Bly Manor
The Healing Powers of Dude: No word on Season 2
Hollywood: Limited series; second season unlikely.
Homemade: No word on Season 2
I Am Not Okay With This: No word on season 2
The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show: No word on season 2
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson: Renewed for Season 2
The Kominsky Method: Renewed for a third and final season
The Last Kingdom: Renewed for Season 5
The Letter for the King: No word on season 2
Living with Yourself: No word on season 2
Locke & Key: Renewed for Season 2
Love, Death & Robots: Renewed for volume 2
Lost in Space: Renewed for a third and final season
Lucifer: Renewed for season five and six, which will be its final season.
Malibu Rescue: Renewed for Season 2
Medical Police: No word on season 2
Messiah: Canceled after one season
The Midnight Gospel: No word on season 2
Mindhunter: Delayed indefinitely
Mr. Iglesias: No word on season 3
Narcos: Mexico: No word on season 3
Never Have I Ever: Renewed for Season 2
October Faction: Canceled after one season
On My Block: No word on Season 4
The Order: No word on Season 2
Outer Banks: Renewed for Season 2
Ozark: Renewed for a final, two part season 4
Paradise PD: Renewed for part 3
The Politician: No word yet on season 3
Queen Sono: Renewed for Season 2
Raising Dion: Renewed for Season 2
Russian Doll: Renewed for Season 2
Self Made: Limited series; second season unlikely.
Sex Education: Renewed for Season 3
The Society: Renewed for Season 2
Space Force: No word on Season 2
Special: Renewed for Season 2
Spinning Out: Canceled after one season
The Stranger: Limited series; second season unlikely.
Stranger Things: Renewed for Season 4
Sweet Magnolias: No word on season 2
Team Kaylie: No word on season 4
13 Reasons Why: Ended after season 4
Top Boy: Renewed for Season 2
Trailer Park Boys: The Animated Series: No word on season 3
Trinkets: Renewed for a second and final season
The Umbrella Academy: No word on season 3
Unorthodox: Limited series; second season unlikely.
Virgin River: Renewed for Season 2 and 3
Warrior Nun: No word on season 2
White Lines: No word on season 2
The Witcher: Renewed for Season 2
Unsolved Mysteries : No word on season 16
Wu Assassins: No word on season 2
You: Renewed for Season 3

During the current worldwide pandemic, movie studios are no longer providing box-office figures because theaters have been shut down around the nation and the world. Because we are less interested in the actual figures themselves and more interested in what people are watching over the weekends, each week we will dive into Most Streamed and Bestseller Lists on Fandango, iTunes, Netflix, and Hulu to pinpoint the weekend’s most watched films.

Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is set to open a day more than a month now, on the September 3rd Labor Day weekend (although, it will open a few days sooner in 70 other countries). Given Warner Brothers’ decision to do a rolling open as theaters open up around the country, and its decision to schedule it in the United States knowing that the pandemic will not be appreciable better by then, this all feels like it is almost set in stone.

Honestly, Tenet can’t come soon enough for those of us starved for good movies, because — aside from Disney+’s Friday release of Beyonce’s Black Is King, which undoubtedly did well with subscribers like Hamilton did — the situation is getting dire for at-home movie offerings. How dire? Six weeks after its VOD debut, a poorly reviewed Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried film that would have opened on VOD in the best of times is the top film on both Fandango and iTunes. I honestly have no idea why You Should Have Left has suddenly risen to the top spot, although I very much doubt that it is word of mouth, since it boasts only a 41 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes (and an even more miserable 25 percent audience score).

There’s not that much to speak of in the rest of the VOD charts, either. Dave Franco’s The Rental continues to do well on iTunes, sitting at number four (and it is very good). Meanwhile, on the Fandango charts, the sequel to 2018’s Deep Blue Sea 2 opens on VOD at number three. Deep Blue Sea 3 comes two years after Deep Blue Sea 2, which came 19 years after the original.

In the seventh spot on iTunes is The Secret: Dare to Dream starring Katie Holmes and Josh Lucas, which looks like a Lifetime Network reject (side note: I had no idea it was based on the bestselling self-help book, The Secret). It scored 26 percent on RT with critics, but a whopping 97 percent with audiences, although it’s a very small sampling of both. Meanwhile, Yes, God, Yes, which I have heard very good things about, is at number eight on the iTunes rental chart (and it sits at 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes).

Aside from Netflix, the other streaming networks don’t have anything particularly noteworthy, although one of the most criminally overlooked movies of this century, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, was recently added to HBO Max, and it is more than worth a look. It is a terrific film with one of the most impressive casts ever assembled. Peacock has a decent roster of films to choose from, as well. However, the movie I watched this weekend on the new streamer was Spellbound, Jeffrey Blitz’s 2002 spelling-bee documentary made available for the first time ever on a streaming network (to my knowledge, anyway). It holds up incredibly well.

Where it’s particularly depressing this weekend is in the Netflix top five, which doesn’t have a single decent movie for a reasonably intelligent person over the age of 18. Kissing Booth 2 continues to lead the way followed by the animated Animal Crackers. Kevin James’ Zookeeper is inexplicably at number three, despite being one of the worst films I have ever seen. Number four is the original The Kissing Booth followed by a new Netflix animated original, Latte and the Magic Waterstone, which has no buzz on it and only one review on Rotten Tomatoes, a rotten one from The NYTimes, which calls it “unimaginatively simple.”

Next weekend, at least, there is something to look forward to in Seth Rogen’s American Pickle on HBO Max. Unfortunately, that’s about it, and the rest of August similarly looks barren.

Source: Fandango, iTunes, Netflix, Deadline

The Indiana Pacers have something of a dilemma on their hands. With Victor Oladipo working his way back to 100 percent and Domantas Sabonis leaving the bubble to seek treatment for plantar fasciitis, the Pacers have legitimate question marks about both of their All-Stars. With a crucial seeding game against the Philadelphia 76ers leading off their schedule in the NBA’s Orlando bubble, the team needed someone to come up big.

That someone ended up being T.J. Warren, who had the game of his life to lead the Pacers to a 127-121 win over Philly on Saturday. Warren, who has always had the ability to score in bunches, set a career-high with 53 points on Saturday evening on 20-for-29 shooting, including a 9-for-12 clip from three. The 53 points broke his old career high of 39.

Warren looked prime to have a big night from the get go. The Pacers’ forward went for 29 points in the first half, with 11 of those coming in the middle of an early 17-0 run that helped Indiana catch its breath following a flying start for Philly.

After a relatively quiet third quarter — Warren scored five points, and unsurprisingly, the Sixers were able to take an 87-81 lead into the game’s final frame — Warren went supernova when his team needed him most. The veteran forward dropped 19 points in the fourth, including a pair of monster threes at the end that stomped out any final hopes of a Sixers rally. The last triple in particular summed up his night, as Warren got the ball from comfortably behind the three-point line, flicked his wrist, and despite a contest by Furkan Korkmaz, got nothing but the bottom of the net.

Aaron Holiday’s double-double (15 points, 10 assists), a nice night for Oladpio (15 points, seven rebounds), and a good performance off the bench from T.J. McConnell (10 points, eight dimes) were all crucial, but it was Warren’s monster evening — which, so far, is the high-water mark for scoring in the bubble — that helped the Pacers fend off a gigantic game from Joel Embiid. The All-Star center feasted against a thin Indiana frontcourt, scoring 41 points on 15-for-23 shooting and ripping down 21 rebounds. The Sixers were +21 in Embiid’s 34 minutes, but despite a very nice game from Ben Simmons (19 points, 13 rebounds), were -27 in 14 minutes while the big man rested.

The win puts Indiana at 40-26 on the year, a full game up on Philadelphia (39-27) for the 5-seed in the Eastern Conference. It also gives the squad from Naptown the tiebreaker over the bunch from the City of Brotherly Love. The Pacers will next take the floor on Aug. 3 against the Washington Wizards at 4 p.m. EST. A little later the same day, the Sixers’ next tilt against the San Antonio Spurs tips at 8 p.m.

The Indiana Pacers will have star guard Victor Oladipo in their ranks when they start their journey in the NBA’s bubble. The Athletic’s Chams Charania reported on Saturday that Oladipo will, indeed, play for the Pacers after some considerable back-and-forth about his status while the NBA planned and made its return to play when the Pacers start their bubble run against the Sixers on Saturday night.

And, indeed, Pacers coach Nate McMillan said on Saturday that Oladipo will suit up and play against the Sixers.

It’s huge news for a Pacers team that tried its best to make a postseason run without him last year, falling to Boston in the opening round of the playoffs. With quite literally everything up in the air about the NBA’s postseason during an unprecedented season, any little bit helps and if Oladipo is healthy he will be a considerable advantage in the East for the Pacers as they battle for seeding in the coming days.

Charania reported “growing belief” that Oladipo would try to give it a go despite his initial decision in early July to opt out of the Bubble season. In the days since, he had practiced in five-on-five scrimmages and was growing optimistic he could play despite his surgically-repaired quad, which has kept his status up in the air since last season. Health is the biggest concern with everyone in the age of COVID-19, but it seems Oladipo’s physical health is officially good enough here to play.