As expected, the NBPA voted Friday to unanimously approve the proposed restart of the NBA season, which will resume on July 31 at Disney World in Orlando and will include 22 teams and an eight-game regular season with a play-in tournament for the final playoff spots.

That schedule means the NBA Finals will go through mid-October, which subsequently entails a significant delay in the start of next season, as the league tries to figure out a way to fit in an offseason before another grueling 82-game schedule kicks off in earnest. The preliminary report was that the league tentatively planned on starting the 2020-2021 season on December 1.

According to the latest report from Shams Charania of The Athletic, however, the new season is “unlikely” to begin that soon, given that it would provide less than a month between the Finals and the start of training camp. There has been speculation that the league might shoot instead for a Christmas start date, although the NBA and the players’ union are still negotiating on that.

The NBPA told players on call today that the 2020-21 season starting on Dec. 1 is “unlikely” and plans to negotiate the date: https://t.co/OiSdQosgvU

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 5, 2020

The bubble scenario in Orlando will include a number of safety precautions amid the continued outbreak of COVID-19. Players will have to be tested daily, and although the league won’t shut down if someone tests positive, that player will have to enter a period of mandatory quarantine.

Resuming a full regular season so quickly after the Finals will present a number of other obstacles, all of which will have to be taken into account as the league tries to finalize the complex schematics of how it will move forward after a turbulent hiatus that will have long-lasting effects on the future of the NBA.

FX’s Atlanta is not currently airing new episodes, but a clip from one of its most memorable past airings has gained new appreciation online in the wake of recent protests about police violence against people of color. Donald Glover’s FX show is certainly not known to pull punches on racial issues, and it’s become a cultural touchpoint in recent days of protests as tens of thousands take to the streets to protest police brutality.

The cartoon, an ad for the fictional Coconut Crunch-O’s cereal, features cartoon children exploring what looks like a tomb with a police officer. The group then encounters a wolf, presumably the Wally the police officer on the box is admonishing.

The three children get the bowls of coconut cereal as Wally bursts out of his sarcophagus too late. As he approaches the children, though, he’s taken to the ground by the police officer, who insists he “stop resisting” and roughs him up while he’s cuffed on the ground. The children look on in horror, insisting Wally could have some cereal as the officer puts a knee into the wolf’s back and then, on his neck.

“He was trying to steal your cereal, right?” the officer asked, otherwise emotionally blank as the children tell him to stop and say he’s hurting the wolf. The scene is reminiscent of the disturbing images captured of George Floyd’s death, where a police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as he died screaming for help.

The commercial continues as usual, but the children look horrified by what’s taking place in front of them in an otherwise cartoonish scenario. The in-episode commercial made waves in 2016 when it first aired during an episode in which the show’s main character appeared on a fictional cable news show. The cereal commercial was among the fake “ads” that played during the episode. But as the nation has fixed its attention on another swath of images of police brutality the video recirculated on social media, the similarities between the in-episode critique on police brutality has popped up online across various platforms. It’s a reminder that the events that have made Americans leave their homes to protest have happened across American cities for a long time, and Atlanta is just one of the places where that kind of violence has been critiqued long before 2020.

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Other than like, fiber and plenty of water for that *particular* kind of bathroom problem.

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“It’s encouraging to see Zuck post this, but I’ll maintain my skepticism until some sort of action is taken by the company,” one Facebook employee told BuzzFeed News.

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A list for anyone who periodically gets the My Buddy and Kid Sister jingle stuck in their head.

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“Because he was black, they felt that they needed five cops to tackle him to the ground and drag him to behind the other cops.”

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Protests over the death of George Floyd have culminated in some of the largest civil rights uprisings in history. And white, wealthy areas like Santa Monica are no longer exempt.

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A Mexican man was found dead from blunt trauma to the head after being detained by the police for not wearing a mask in public.

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Tonight on the WWE Friday Night Smackdown open discussion thread:

Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles took very different paths to the Intercontinental Championship Tournament Finals, but they are the last two competitors remaining in what was an extremely impressive field.

Bryan chose to earn his spot in the championship round by defeating Sheamus in a grueling semifinal matchup. The Phenomenal One embraced the “work smarter, not harder” mantra by accepting a bye into the title match.

Will the two decorated competitors stay civil, or will the allure of championship gold set the stage for a more brutal title showdown? (via WWE.com)

Tonight’s card is about as stacked as Smackdown gets with Bayley and Sasha Banks versus Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross in a Women’s Tag Team Championship match, Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles in the finals of the Intercontinental Championship Tournament, Jeff Hardy explaining why he opened last week’s show with a weird car accident, and more.

As always, give a thumbs up to any comments from tonight’s open thread you enjoy and we’ll include 10 of the best in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of Friday Night Smackdown on Fox report. Make sure to flip your comments to “newest” in the drop down menu under “discussion,” and enjoy the show!