It’s really hard for basketball to be anyone’s top priority right now. The NBA is on pause for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and with no end in sight, focusing too much on basketball, like most every other sport currently in a gigantic holding pattern, can be difficult.

For Pat Connaughton, this layoff gives him the opportunity to pour a little more time into his off-court career: real estate. The Milwaukee Bucks’ guard has always been in and around that world — his father was a general contractor, and he’d spend his summers working on job sites even though, as he told Dime, “I hated it.” His father eventually gave him the chance to focus on earning a college scholarship or keep working, and seeing as how he earned a full ride to Notre Dame and got selected by teams in two professional sports, his decision to put his time and energy into the former paid off.

But Connaughton still got a degree in business, and despite having a pretty good gig as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers, then-teammate C.J. McCollum mentioned real estate as an area of interest away from the hardwood, according to the New York Times. Knowing the field a little bit due to his upbringing and being cognizant of the fact that basketball won’t be able to pay the bills forever, Connaughton was immediately interested.

“As I got more involved, I just started to realize more and more, this is what I want to do,” Connaughton told me over the phone late last week. “I just need to find a way to alter it a little bit. My dad did luxury homes. He bought them, renovated them, built them from the ground up, whatever and sold them, and that’s how he made his money year in, year out. For us, we’re fortunate. We don’t have to make our money that way. We have a salary coming from a professional sport, so what are we doing? That business model changes a little bit. Sure, making some money on buys and flips with homes is all well and good, but can we think smarter? Can we find cash flowing properties, assets that we’re going to own for a long time? Can we build a real estate portfolio both personally, because I’m going to do it regardless, but as I saw the interest from more and more athletes, can we do it collectively?”

Connaughton is still keeping an eye on basketball, doing workouts every day that exhaust him, and spending time on some other things he enjoys — he loves Billions and had plans to watch Uncut Gems sometime after we chatted. This is nonetheless a unique period for him, someone whose life has always involved playing sports or training for games on the horizon, and has afforded him the opportunity to work on his off-court venture.

Now, with a chance to focus on something in the present that lets him prepare even better for the inevitable future in which he can no longer play basketball, Connaughton is investing plenty of energy into real estate. It’s not just for him: While he has a handful of properties in his portfolio, Connaughton works with other NBA players, too, so that life without ball can be financially prosperous for them, too.

“If we’re able to kind of be collective with it and I’m able to get some guys involved because of the trust that we have, and explain it to them on their level, because we know we’re coming from the same types of areas and the same types of backgrounds, and involved in the same types of interests, I think you’re able to build something that will be pretty cool down the line,” Connaughton said.

But before he gets to that point, Dime sat down with Connaughton to talk real estate, basketball, Netflix, and life in quarantine for someone who’s not particularly used to slowing down.

Generally, how well have you been holding up with just everything kind of coming to a pause in the basketball world?

I’ve been holding up as well as I think I can be. It’s funny, I just got done doing a workout that basically killed me, so I try to just do workouts that kill me every day, so I don’t have the energy to think about not doing anything or being bored or anything like that.

But I’ve been holding up. I think the hardest thing, obviously no basketball’s the hardest thing, but also, since the NBA shut down the practice facilities, not even really being able to go into a gym and work out on basketball-strict skill, I think is the toughest thing. I dribble around my house, I got a basketball out here. I try to cross up my best friend who lives with me and his fiancé, but they’re not the same as trying to cross up some NBA guys. So it’s just about trying to, I guess, maintain some sort of feel for the ball itself.

Your daily routine now, is it basically just your day off routine or a day in the offseason routine, just you’re doing that every day?

Yes, but just a little different. I mean, I was saying that last night to my buddy, I can’t remember the last time that I’ve been in the same five-mile radius for this amount of time. Even when I’m home in the off season in the Boston area, I got a beach house in New Hampshire, I work out 30 minutes away from my home where I grew up working out, I go to the gym at my old high school, I’m seeing friends in Rhode Island or Mass or Maine or wherever. I’m still on the move.

Now it’s like the offseason daily schedule simplified times 100. It’s wake up, cook myself breakfast, come get a workout where I feel like death after, but I feel accomplished. Go upstairs, cook lunch, and work on my real estate stuff, start to work on my foundation, the different business stuff that I have outside of basketball. Then all of a sudden it’s time to cook dinner, watch a show, go to bed, repeat.

Has there been something of an adjustment period to that? Are you going stir crazy or, after a couple of weeks of doing it, has it been like, “Oh no, I can make do with this for the time being”?

I think the first few weeks, I thought I could make do with it for the time being. I think now I’m getting to the point where it’s getting, I wouldn’t say old because I still like it, I still enjoy my life, to say the least. But it’s just one of those things where, like I tweeted it a week or so back, this is a simulation of retirement. Just in retirement, you hope you’re able to hang around with your friends and see people and travel, etc.

It’s funny because I keep coming back to that. I mean at the end of the day, I didn’t realize how much of my life was predicated off my friendships and relationships with other people and how much interaction I had on a daily basis with a different amount of people. Now all that interaction’s coming, whether it be via text or email or phone call, FaceTime. I think with the uncertainty of when it’s going to end is the thing that kind of weighs on your mind most.

That makes sense. You’re an interesting guy because growing up and into college, it was, my guess, basketball in the fall and winter, baseball in the spring and summer. Then you get to the NBA, lose baseball and it’s just basketball full-time. When was the last time in your life you just had this indefinite window of just no sports on the horizon?

Never. I don’t think there was one point in my life. As far as long as I can remember, like you said, during the offseason I’m still doing things, I’m still being sports-related. When I was a kid I played sports as much as I could, knowing that obviously my parents were wanting to make sure I didn’t flunk out of school, so I had other priorities that I had to technically prioritize above sports. My dream was to make sure that sports became my number one priority someday, that I could do it as a living and get paid for it, put it as the top priority and look at my parents and say, “Well ,you can’t tell me to go do my homework now, because this is literally my livelihood.”

I don’t remember a time where I wasn’t playing sports. Even when I was a kid. I went from t-ball to play little tikes basketball on the lower hoops. Heck, I played flag football. I was always doing something sport related. I’ve never really taken a hiatus.

So you mentioned that your relationships lately have been via texts, calls, stuff like that. What’s been kind of the big conversation just with your teammates and texts with them, calls with them, has it been more basketball, then normal now that it’s gone, has been less because it’s just not going on? What’s that been like?

I think it’s been kind of a mixture of both. I think it starts off, no one really knows what’s going on. So I think you talk about basketball, you talking about when it comes back, you talk about making sure we’re all taking care of ourselves so that when it does come back, we’re ready. I think as it continues to drag on for two weeks, now it becomes more about making sure you touch base with guys, making sure everyone’s feeling all right, seeing what guys are doing on a daily basis to keep themselves occupied, because everyone’s into their own different stuff.

I think, honestly, now it’s just to a point where it’s like your group message will blow up once every few days. But I’d say it’s not as active as it once was, because no one has any new information to share. When new information comes to light, it blows up again and you talk about different stuff.

But I’d say for the most part, we as a Bucks team, I would like to think, stay in touch and have a pretty good relationship off the floor, better than most teams. But at the same token, when you’re not working towards the same cause that you started working towards the beginning of the NBA season, there’s not as much to talk about.

That makes sense. One last basketball question sort of thing associated with all of this, and that’s been the forced majeure stuff that we’ve heard in the CBA. Spencer Dinwiddie said he doesn’t think that players would come back if their paychecks got taken from them. You’re a business-savvy guy, I want to know what goes through your head when you hear about this clause and how, I don’t want to say it’s on the table, but it is possible that this could be impacting the paychecks that you guys would get every couple of weeks?

I like Spencer as a person, so I want to be careful about what I say. But I wouldn’t necessarily agree with him, I don’t think. Only because at the end of the day, everyone’s going to want to play basketball again, and not coming back doesn’t solve the problem of what’s going on financially from a business sense with the NBA. That’s kind of the way the CBA is set up. I mean, we as players throughout various past lockouts and negotiations, etc., that’s one of the things that the owners have the right to do. From a business standpoint, if I take myself out of being a player and I look at it from an unbiased opinion, if the owners aren’t making money, why would the employees make money?

Now obviously as a player, I think about it like, people come to watch us play. We’re part of the attraction to why people come and watch, come watch for any other reasons besides the guys that are on the floor. So if you think there is value there and you think with some of the things that, when you look at other businesses and because of how unique of a time it is with the government putting things in place that prevent real estate people from evicting tenants and stimulus packages for small businesses and different things like that, I guess you could make an argument that you would want to see the same thing happen.

But at the end of the day, I try to stay in my own lane. We as basketball players are fortunate to get paid to play the sport that we love to play, and we are fortunate to get paid a pretty penny to say the least. So regardless of what happens and when it happens, I think we all want to get back to playing. We’re all excited to get back to playing, not just for ourselves and for the money that we make, but more importantly, for the fans and the kids and the people that look up to us because of what we’re able to do and what professional sports means to the culture of not just the United States, but the world.

So let’s get into real estate a bit. Right now, are you focusing more time and energy to usual so you can just keep building and building and building your experience in that field? Or are you generally keeping it the same and going like, “Well this is temporary, when basketball starts back up, I’m not going to be able to dedicate this much time to it, I don’t want to get too far into it right now”?

No, I’m definitely putting a lot of time and effort into it. I think I put more time and effort into it than most guys know, reason being is I just try to utilize my time as efficiently and as smartly as I can. We’re on planes a lot. Say what you want, the season is busy, but there’s a lot of time where I can be re-watching movies, I can be playing cards, I could be doing a number of things. To everybody that likes doing those number of things, I like doing those numbers of things once in a while, too. But part of what I’ve always tried to do with my life, I mean heck, I played two sports for as long as I damn well could. I’ve always tried to utilize my time as most efficiently as I can.

So now, I just try to make sure that I’m learning more about real estate on a daily basis. But also trying to right now, during this specific time, trying to figure out how can we grow? What’s the next step for the company? I think at the moment obviously the company’s name is Beach House. That might change. I might try to make it more of something that has more of a story behind it, that the name relates to what we’re trying to do a little bit more. We might definitely try to grow to get more players involved.

I think one of the biggest things that I’ve seen with the real estate, but one of the biggest things that I’ve tried to be an advocate for and will continue to try and be an advocate for, is combating the 30 for 30 Broke, trying to get more professional athletes involved into the ventures, especially obviously the real estate venture that I’m doing, because of the wealth it can create longterm. Not just for us, for our families, etc. But it will help guys understand a little money today in the real estate world and doing it a smart way and doing it with somebody who you trust, because I’m part of the fraternity and I’m not seeking them out for their money, I’m not seeking anything. I only let guys involved that reached out to me, so just giving them an educational component as they get involved to make sure that they understand what’s happening, why it’s happening, where it’s happening, how we’re doing it, and why it’s going to benefit them longterm financially, so that when the ball stops bouncing because it’s going to stop bouncing for everybody at some point in time, they have made the right decisions and their finances are taken care of, they have another source of income down the line.

I think that’s somewhere where we’ve failed as athletes in the past, is to make sure that when our careers end, we’re set up for the future. We still have income, we’re not just trying to live off the salary that we created and dip into it year in and year out and have to completely change the lifestyles that you’ve been living, which will have to change a little bit, but how are you being smart with your money and how am I making sure that I get other pro athletes involved so that they could benefit from it as well.

No, totally cool. Totally cool. You did just kind of mentioned this, but what are you on the lookout for or is there something that you want to be uniform across all of the properties that are in your portfolio?

No, I think we’re opportunistic. I think from the business side, I started off in properties that I could afford, personally, because that’s the way it is. I’m a second-round draft pick, I wasn’t on a Giannis deal, if you will. But for me, I think from the asset classes, we’re opportunistic in real estate. Whether it’s multi-family, whether it’s mixed use, whether it’s office, retail, industrial, medical, I think you have to be opportunistic. I think diversifying amongst all those fields is great. Obviously at the moment we’re in some multi-family and those sorts of things are things that are easier to afford, we’re trying to be smart about the size of the deals.

But I’d say overall, the thesis behind it and the overarching theme is just making sure we’re growing a cash flowing portfolio. Because at the end of the day, regardless of what asset classes we’re in, we want to make sure that our goal is to own these buildings and these structures, if you will, for a long time. Maybe you sell them and you buy a different one and maybe you trade in and trade out a little bit, but at the end of the day, the whole idea behind the things that I’m trying to get involved in, is we’re creating wealth for athletes for a long period of time, for hopefully generations to come, so that they are taking advantage of the fortunate position that we are in today with the sport that we’re playing and the money that we’re making.

So plenty of players obviously have off-court interests that have nothing to do with basketball. What is the best advice that you’ve gotten from someone in the league about just business in general, not necessarily real estate?

Taking advantage of the network you can build while you’re involved in the NBA. That was one of the reasons I went to Notre Dame in the first place. They do a great job, they preach four for 40: A four-year decision to go to Notre Dame will benefit you for 40 years to come. It’s not just because of the education, it’s because of the community and the network that Notre Dame has.

I would say the exact same thing, I’m double dipping. I’m utilizing the Notre Dame networks to the best of my ability because I was a two-sport athlete there. I had a call this morning with a real estate guy from Notre Dame who I’ve wanted to have as a mentor for a long time. He’s very successful and I was fortunate to talk to him this morning.

To the same token, now put that on even a little bit more. The NBA, when you’re a professional athlete, there are plenty of people that want to meet with you that I had no business of meeting with. I think that’s the thing that I’ve taken advantage of best since my rookie year. I heard it my rookie year, I heard people say, “Hey, you don’t know how long you’re going to be in the NBA. Don’t wait until it’s too late, when you’re not on a team anymore, to start thinking about networking with owners, businessmen, corporate sponsors, anybody and everybody that you think you might have interest in a field that they’re utilizing, have a conversation with them.”

It’s people skills, at the end of the day. It’s taking the time, putting in the energy and the effort to build a relationship with somebody. That relationship may not bring about any benefit to you forever. But at the end of the day, that relationship could also bring benefit to you forever. So, in my opinion, it’s being a good guy, it’s trying to make sure that you’re getting to know the people that you’re around, the people that dreamt of being in your position. It takes two seconds to have a discussion with a guy that’s sitting courtside, whose kid idolizes you, and you never know where that guy came from, what he does and how he could potentially help you in the future.

I know you spoke to SB Nation the other day, said you’re huge Billions fan. You found Tiger King pretty interesting. What’s the Pat Connaughton pandemic streaming guide right now?

Pandemic streaming guide is, I’m a big Suits fan, I’m a big Modern Family fan, which I don’t usually admit out loud, so that’s a hot take for you guys. It’s kind of my feel good show, my guilty pleasure show, if you will. And I’m a huge Billions fan. I’d say those three are my go-tos.

I look for movies on nights where I want to switch it up a little bit. My next movie to watch is Uncut Gems. I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard great things. But yeah, those three shows are kind of like my go-tos. I’ve actually seen Suits, I haven’t seen it all the way through, but I’ve seen a good amount of the seasons, but my best friend who I live with hasn’t, so I’m re-watching it with him because I like it that much.

Billions I’ve always been a huge fan of. I’ve been fortunate to visit set and meet some of the actors. So I’ve built a relationship with a few of them. I go back and forth with them on Twitter quite often. The new season is coming out in May, so I want to re-watch the end of the last season or the whole last season so that I just remember exactly where we take. Some day, I’m hoping to maybe be in a cameo on that show. I may or may not have made a wager with one of the directors about that and I’m just waiting to cash in on it.

Last question, I also saw that you’re still working and growing as a cook. What’s the signature dish right now and what do you hope it becomes as you get more and more comfortable in the kitchen?

Well, so I’m actually out of my element, to be completely honest with you. I fancy myself a pretty half-decent cook when I have a grill. I’m in an apartment building right now, which prevents me from having a grill. So I’m actually learning to cook other things without a grill, like tacos and some pasta dishes.

Look, if we’re being completely honest, I’m learning from my buddy’s fiancé, Erin, she’s the one that’s really helping us learn how to cook, so I might be taking too much credit for actually doing the cooking. But at the end of the day, I’ve got to take the time to figure out domestic values, if you will, on how to be able to, I guess, help out better around the kitchen than I have been able to in the past. I’m sure my mom would be mad that I didn’t take this much of an interest in it when I was in middle school and high school so that I could have helped her out a little more.

Colombian pop sensation J Balvin continued his global success into 2020 with his recently-released concept album Colores. Following visuals accompanying his tracks “Amarillo,” “Blanco,” and “Rojo,” Balvin returns with a cinematic video to his downtrodden number “Gris.”

Directed by Colin Tilley, Balvin’s “Gris” video is a visualization of the feeling of heartache. Bathed in gray, Balvin struggles to cope with a breakup. The singer isolates himself in his room and reminisces on the good times he had with his ex. As Balvin’s mental state slowly deteriorates, the singer finds himself submerged in water, struggling to stay afloat.

The visual arrives following the Latin star’s highly-anticipated record Colores. With the full-length effort, Balvin returns to he reggaeton roots. Shining as a songwriter, Balvin opted out of features on the majority of the tracklist. In an interview with Apple Music, Balvin detailed how he managed to whittle a list of 40 songs down into a 10-track album: “What we’d do was we’d play the song and close our eyes, and each one of us would name the color that the song made us feel,” J Balvin said. “The color that prevailed, that was the song’s name.”

Watch Balvin’s “Gris” video above.

Colores is out now via Universal. Get it here.

---

View Entire Post ›

Tiger King may have wrapped up its seven episode run (minus an alleged special on the horizon), but the saga shows no signs of slowing down as the Netflix docuseries continues to dominate headlines and social media. In a new interview with People, friends and colleagues of Joseph Maldonado-Passage, a.k.a. Joe Exotic, talk about what it was like to watch his obsession with Carole Baskin spiral out of control and eventually land him in prison on a murder-for-hire charge.

“Carole was the first thing on his mind every morning and the last thing on his mind every night,” said Kelci “Saff” Saffery, a former staffer at Garold Wayne Exotic Animal Memorial Park. Others echoed the same concern as they watched Exotic launch an all-consuming war against Baskin in which he suffered a crippling financial loss after she successfully sued him for copyright infringement.

“When I first met Joe, he was all about the animals, and he was one of the most kindhearted, lovable, smartest guys in the industry,” says Maldonado-Passage’s friend Tim Stark, a former zoo owner. “When he started doing battle with Carole, I told him he was going to get his ass kicked. He just kept going on. He didn’t listen.”

“Joe wanted to be the big cat and he wanted to show Carole Baskin,” Stark adds.

While those close to Exotic have blunt words for People about watching the Tiger King star take a dark turn that ultimately landed him behind bars, Baskin doesn’t exactly come off smelling like roses either. Both she and Exotic are accused of losing sight of the animals while focusing on their feud.

Saffery mirrors that sentiment, saying both Maldonado-Passage and Baskin began their feud as animal lovers “standing up for what they believed was right. “But it started to not be about the animals. I don’t think that it was only about egos, but I do think they started to focus more on Carole and Joe and less on the bigger picture. And nothing came out of it. It’s the worst kind of love story.”

If all of this sounds like the backdrop for an insane drama filled with ego clashes and murder, well, there’s a reason why Tiger King is now one of Netflix’s biggest hit. In just its first 10 days, the docuseries already came within striking distance of Stranger Things 3, the streaming service’s current reigning champ. Of course, that’s based on Netflix’s unofficial numbers, but based on Tiger King‘s viral success, we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s drawing viewers in by the droves.

(Via People)

This week is a light week in the sneaker and apparel world, with just a few notable drops that caught our eye. Various brands are still shaking through their winter supplies, giving us an uneven selection of bright spring colorways and dreary and drab winter fits, but as the weather continues to warm up we can be sure to see larger selections of t-shirts, shorts, light layers, and bright seasonal hues.

Considering we’re living in a bit of a lost season, color is no matter. Go with what you’ll want to be wearing when people can actually see you again. Before we know it we’ll hit summer and all step out to rock our massively expanded quarantine wardrobes. Or just all embrace nudism or drab Yeezy earth tones. The future is murky. For now, keeping rocking that sweatshirt for three days straight — no one is watching.

Let’s dive into the best sneaker and apparel drops of the week.

Adidas YEEZY 700 V3 Alvah

Ye’s latest iteration of the YEEZY 700 sees the sneaker’s black and grey mesh upper overlayed with a TPU cage accent for a look that is both subdued and futuristic. The 700 seems to be Kanye’s sneaker of choice lately, as we’ve seen the silhouette consistently experimented with this year while the popular 350 seems to remains visually consistent. We’ll take experimentation over cookie-cutter consistency but what can we say? We miss the old Kanye.

The Adidas YEEZY 700 V3 Alvah is set to drop on April 11th for a retail price of $200. Pick up a pair through YEEZY Supply.

Air Jordan 7 Hare 2.0

No sneaker has ever said “EASTER!” as hard as the Air Jordan 7 Hare 2.0. Granted, no other sneaker has tried, but regardless, the Air Jordan 7 Hare will have you stepping out (figuratively speaking) in fly pastel style with it’s soft-toned grey-green faux-fur upper and bubblegum pink collar accents. The sneaker sits atop an iced rubber outsole, has white on pink Jump Man branding, with an angular “23” heel stamp.

The Air Jordan 7 Hare 2.0 gives off mad Bugs Bunny on Easter vibes… in a good way.

The Air Jordan 7 Hare 2.0 is set to drop on April 8th for a retail price of $250. Pick up a pair through Nike SNKRS or at Foot Locker.

K-Swiss x Commonwealth Classic 66

At first glance Commonwealth’s take on K-Swiss’ Classic 66 looks like an ordinary all-white sneaker, but the details are everything with this sneaker. There is nothing “ordinary” about this iteration of the Classic 66, its upper is composed of suede, leather, synthetic materials, and textile, each panel utilizing a different material, and assembled in a unique pattern that gives the sneaker’s an asymmetric look side by side. Additionally, the Classic 66 features a padded tongue and leather lining for added comfort, Commonwealth tag branding, and sits atop a creped rubber outsole.

In short: It’s only an ordinary white sneaker to people not paying attention.

The collaborative K-Swiss and Commonwealth Classic 66 is set to drop on April 9th for a retail price of $90. Pick up a pair exclusively through Commonwealth.

Nike KD 13 Hype

If Baz Luhrmann designed a sneaker, it would look something like the new Nike KD 13 Hypes. This sneaker is as gaudy and over-the-top as it gets thanks to the graphic gold-chain and flowers upper. The sneaker is apparently inspired by Kevin Durant’s pump-up playlist of southern trap bangers and soul classics that get him in the mind-set to dominate on the court — no word on how exactly gold chains and flowers play into the design though. Are the gold chains representing trap? Why are flowers representing soul music? Is it just supposed to inspire the spirit of the genres? That maybe works.

Regardless, rhey look fresh.

The Nike KD 13 Hype are set to drop on April 10th for a retail price of $160. Pick up a pair through the Nike SNKRS App.

Teddy Fresh Spring Shirt Collection

Teddy Fresh is still up and running amid the COVID-19 crisis and the label’s latest simple spring t-shirt collection is bright enough to bring the sunny outdoors of Spring right into your home. Who needs to be outside for Spring? Just slip on a Teddy Fresh fat striped t-shirt and you’ll emit enough good vibes to uplift your whole household. The latest collection is available in a variety of sizes from x-small to 3XL and the Teddy Fresh website is full of fit details to help ensure everyone can find the size that works best for them.

The Teddy Fresh Spring Shirt collection is out now. Shop the looks at the official Teddy Fresh webstore.

Awake NY Archive Sale

Awake NY is holding a special archive sale to aid coronavirus efforts in New York City, donating a portion of their proceeds to the New York Immigration Coalition and Make The Roady NY, two organizations that are providing aid and support to immigrant and working-class communities laid-off due to the coronavirus outbreak and social distancing measures in New York City. Awake NY will be marking down their fits by a huge 50-70 percent, so you’re likely to grab some really great outfits for super cheap.

The sale will be held entirely online and begins at 10 am EST on April 8th. Shop the looks at the Awake NY online store.

Palace Spring Drop 9

Palace keeps delivering the goods with its week nine drop of the now-massive Spring 2020 collection. The London label is keeping things winter-ready with a collection of branded split-tone hoodies, sweatshirts, and crewnecks, rounding out the collection with some graphic t-shirts and a snakeskin bucket hat. Most pieces in the collection drop in a variety of bright spring-ready colorways.

So hit the collection early or you’ll be left with nothing but the rejected colors.

The ninth Palace Spring 2020 drop is set for April 10th at 8 am PDT. Shop the looks at the Palace webstore.

Sports leagues around the world are working to map out a return to action in some form or fashion due to various COVID-19 shutdowns. In the United States, the NBA and NHL had to press pause late into their seasons, and it is unclear when they’ll be able to resume. Meanwhile, MLB did not start, MLS barely got off the ground, and while the NFL is going through its offseason, things like free agency and especially the draft have been impacted.

Other leagues around the world have struggled with this too, as evidencing in China, where its top basketball league has been unable to restart. But in Germany, a country that has received praise for how it has handled and contained the novel coronavirus, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for its top professional sports league.

According to the New York Times, the top executive of the Bundesliga revealed that plans are being put together to get the top two German football leagues on track to play at the start of May, while players for each club are already back in training.

The Bundesliga’s chief executive, Christian Seifert, said in an interview that plans were being put in place for games to return at all 36 stadiums by the beginning of May, with the remaining nine games of the schedule to be completed by the end of June, a time when some of Europe’s other top leagues may not yet have returned from their hiatus. England’s Premier League, soccer’s richest domestic competition, is unlikely to return until July at the earliest.

Understandably, these games would occur without fans in attendance, and the league would work to make sure that various proper protocols are in place to keep people safe — for example, Seifert made it a point to mention that supplies will not be moved to make sure footballers can get taken care of so they can play games. He also mentioned the league’s role in providing a sense of normalcy to Germans as life resumes after the virus.

“We are part of the culture in the country, people long to get back a short piece of normal life, and that could mean the Bundesliga plays again,” Seifert said. “This is why we have to play our role here, and that means to support the government and to talk with the government about when we will be able to play again.”

It will be a fascinating experiment to follow, as “play games but make sure everyone stays safe” is a road every league is exploring right now. And as an added bonus, the Bundesliga might be the most entertaining major professional sports league on earth — games frequently turn into goal-fests, it has some of the most exciting young talent on earth, and the top-five teams atop the table are separated by eight points with nine matches left to play. Going from no sports to getting the Bundesliga, of all leagues, back would be like going from 0-to-60 in the blink of an eye.

Even beyond all of that, seeing any sports right now would be great, as long as players, coaches, and various workers needed to make sure games can occur are able to safely make sure games can go on. The Bundesliga believes that day is coming soon, and here’s to hoping they end up being correct, if only because a misreading of this would be disastrous.

The Bulls are moving forward quickly in their effort to get out in front of the rest of the NBA during the league’s hiatus and land a new top executive to lead the front office. This week, reports from NBC Sports Chicago and ESPN indicate Chicago has already interviewed four candidates for the position, including two former Hawks general managers and two younger GMs on current NBA playoff teams, as well as one massive wildcard.

Initial reporting suggested the Bulls were predominantly targeting executives with NBA experience currently employed across the league. That list included Chad Buchanan of the Pacers, Bobby Webster of the Raptors, and Adam Simon of the Heat, each of whom declined the offer to interview with Chicago COO Michael Reinsdorf (who is also the son of 84-year-old owner Jerry).

So the Reinsdorfs moved on to the other current executives on their list, including Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas and Jazz general manager Justin Zanik. Both candidates are similar in that they’ve interviewed for multiple recent openings around the NBA (with Zanik momentarily serving as interim GM in Milwaukee), and both serve below top dogs with final decision-making power in Tim Connelley (Denver) and Dennis Lindsey (Utah).

The Bulls reportedly interviewed both Zanik and Karnisovas early this week, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and NBC Sports’ K.C. Johnson. Longtime Bulls reporter Vincent Goodwill, now a national analyst at Yahoo Sports! wrote on Tuesday that Karnisovas is the frontrunner.

“Karnisovas has a strong draft record and is known to be good in player development, two of the bullet points the Bulls have earmarked for their next top basketball executive,” Goodwill wrote.

That didn’t stop Reinsdorf from seeking out three new candidates from the ranks of former NBA execs. The Bulls reportedly also have interviewed former Hawks GMs Wes Wilcox and Danny Ferry, as well as two-time Executive of the Year (and later disgraced burner Twitter account user) Bryan Colangelo, per various reports on Wednesday.

While Ferry and Wilcox have been in the league for years, both have been unable to land top jobs since they were both ousted from Atlanta for separate instances of racial insensitivity. Colangelo, on the other hand, infamously stepped away from leading the Sixers after admitting that he and his wife failed to exercise proper judgment with regard to social media, as anonymous burner accounts exposed private information about the team.

So far, the Bulls’ top candidates appear to be the two most qualified, as Zanik and Karnisovas each have helped build perennial Western Conference playoff contenders in small markets, and appear ready to take full control of a franchise. But judging from the Bulls’ expansive process, they haven’t landed on one candidate yet, and are looking high and low — although, as many have pointed out, their search has yet to bring in a minority candidate.

Burgeoning Indiana songwriter Omar Apollo returns after a prolific 2019 with his first song of the new year. Apollo’s “Imagine U” arrives as an alluring, melodic anthem about modern heartbreak.

Produced by frequent collaborator Kenny Beats, Apollo’s “Imagine U” is a slow-burning effort. Wonky synths and a grumbling guitars provide an ardent backdrop for Apollo’s lovelorn vocals. “I miss you feelin’ on my waist, you never told me I was rushin’ / But my mind’s changin’ every day, I’m glad that you could even trust me,” Apollo sings.

In a statement, Apollo described his songwriting process for the track:

“I’m all about the feeling when it comes to music. The lyrics and melody came to me so naturally and I feel like free thinking is what’s missing in a lot of music nowadays. There’s a guitar part I played that’s pitched up as soon as the song starts that I love and when I first made the song that part was all I had. I was obsessed with it — I kept playing it on loop cause it felt so good to me. I was listening to a lot of daft punk at the time so I was really inspired by those themes.”

Listen to “Imagine U” above.

Omar Apollo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Of the many TV shows based on podcasts (seriously, there’s a lot!), Homecoming might be the best. True, there’s only been one season, but it was a really good season, and it’s coming back later this year with a new lead actress: Janelle Monáe. “There’s no replacing Queen Julia,” the actress-musician told Entertainment Weekly, referring to season one star Julia Roberts, but Monáe has an electric presence herself. And she’ll be joined by familiar faces from last season, including Hong Chau (excellent in Watchmen) and Stephan James, as well as fellow newcomers Chris Cooper and Joan Cusack

As for what season two is about: Jackie (Monáe) “wakes in a rowboat adrift a lake, with no memory of how she got there — or even who she is. Her ensuing search for identity will lead her into the heart of the Geist Group, the unconventional wellness company behind the Homecoming Initiative,” according to the official plot synopsis.

“It’s doing something that is unique in the television space,” Monáe said about Homecoming. “When I read these episodes, I was like, ‘Oh wow, this is still going to have a very special quality and take everyone in an unexpected place.’ It’s even more elevated this season — and even more suspenseful.” Homecoming season one was already super suspenseful, so I’m both excited for new episodes, and dreading them.

Homecoming returns to Amazon later this year.

Performing livestream concerts from home has become the new normal these days. Aside from artists going at it on their own, organizations and other entities have been hosting multi-artists performance series (like Indie Mixtape, for example). One of the latest, Isol-Aid’s Lunch Without Borders, went down yesterday, and one of the artists performing was Julien Baker. She made the most of her 17-minute set (which somebody graciously uploaded in full on YouTube) by debuting a new song called “Mercy.”

Her rendition of the track, featuring just acoustic guitar and vocals, was minimal and absolutely lovely. Before playing the song, she said of it, “It’s a new one. It’s not newly written, but it’s not on a record or anywhere. And it’s a song about other people showing you how to be a better person by being better people than you, at you, which requires a lot of humility, which is an important and necessary lesson, and probably one of many that we’re all learning.”

Baker wrapped up her 2019 by dropping a pair of new singles, “Tokyo” and “Sucker Punch.” She also has some new material this year, thanks to her inclusion on Hayley Williams’ upcoming album Petals For Armor (alongside fellow Boygenius members Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus).

Watch Baker’s full set above, with “Mercy” beginning at 14:07 into the video.