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Today, America lost one of its true political heroes with the passing of John Lewis. For more than 30 years, Lewis served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the state of Georgia. He took part in many key historic votes and fights over legislation that have shaped our country and world over the past two generations. But for most Americans, his legacy stretches back to the fight for civil rights, where Lewis marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders.

His personal bravery was truly exceptional. In 1963, Lewis was one of the key organizers of the landmark March on Washington where King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech. Lewis has rightfully been heralded by Democrats and Republicans alike for honoring the legacy of non-violent protests. At just 21-years-old, he was brutally assaulted by two white men in South Carolina while peacefully attempting to enter a whites only waiting room. In recent years, Lewis described how he stayed true to his principles of non-violence in the face of hatred and real violence: “We were determined not to let any act of violence keep us from our goal. We knew our lives could be threatened, but we had made up our minds not to turn back.”

One of the many Americans inspired by Lewis is former President Barack Obama. The direct line between the leadership Lewis demonstrated and the historic presidency of Obama is clear to anyone. So, it’s not surprising that Obama has written an incredibly powerful essay in honor of Lewis and his life.

“He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise. And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example,” Obama writes in his essay published on Medium.

Today you will hear many accounts of Lewis the lion, how he bravely stood up in the face of hatred and discrimination. All of that praise is deeply earned. However, Obama writes that another aspect of Lewis’ character that had a deep impact on him was how humble the icon remained, even knowing he was a living part of American history:

“Considering his enormous impact on the history of this country, what always struck those who met John was his gentleness and humility. Born into modest means in the heart of the Jim Crow South, he understood that he was just one of a long line of heroes in the struggle for racial justice. Early on, he embraced the principles of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience as the means to bring about real change in this country, understanding that such tactics had the power not only to change laws, but to change hearts and minds as well,” Obama writes.

Lewis remained active in politics right up until his passing on July 17, finally leaving this world after a battle with cancer. Although our nation is embroiled in a series of unnecessary crises: the coronavirus, a subsequent economic meltdown and the ongoing protests for racial equality, Obama says Lewis was inspired by the action the younger generations were taking to keep the forceful yet peaceful fight going for true equlity:

“Afterwards, I spoke to him privately, and he could not have been prouder of their efforts — of a new generation standing up for freedom and equality, a new generation intent on voting and protecting the right to vote, a new generation running for political office. I told him that all those young people — of every race, from every background and gender and sexual orientation — they were his children. They had learned from his example, even if they didn’t know it. They had understood through him what American citizenship requires, even if they had heard of his courage only through history books.”

Today, America sees the ending of a life permanently tethered to our deeply imperfect fight for equality for all its citizens. But the legacy of John Lewis will only grow stronger as his memory cements itself into our living history. There’s no greater time to honor his life’s work and to contribute what we can in our own way to the cause of justice. And as Obama wisely notes, doing it with a dash of humility and humanity is an even better way to honor people like John Lewis who worked so hard to help move the needle of justice toward the light.

Last week word spread about Bridger Walker, a six-year-old boy who went viral after it was revealed he had placed himself between his sister and an attacking dog, saving her life. Walker received 90 stitches for his efforts as well as the praise of a number of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Among those are a number of Avengers. Chris Evans was the first to Face Time with the boy, promising to send him an “authentic Captain America shield.” Evans was followed by Chris Hemsworth, then Tom Holland, who invited him to visit the set when they’re back to filming.

Now the first MCU star, Iron Man’s Robert Downey Jr., has joined his fellow heroes. As caught by Entertainment Weekly, the actor Face Timed with the boy, whose face was affected by the attack, to shower him with praise.

“Bridger, you’re a rock star,” Downey Jr. told him. “My name’s Robert Downey Jr., I play ‘Tony,’ that makes me an old friend of Cap’s. I heard he sent a shield your way: I’m going to do one better. You call me on your next birthday, I got something special for you. ‘Late. By the way – that’s a promise; a promise beats a shield.”

Walker’s story went viral after his aunt posted about the incident on Instagram. When asked why he bravely threw himself in front of the dog, Walker replied, “If someone had to die, I thought it should be me.” Anne Hathaway, not an Avenger but a DC alum, was one of the first celebrities to sing his praises.

(Via EW)

Things are, shall we say, a bit intense these days, with the country over four months into quarantine and cases spiking across the country and no end in sight, thanks in part to wearing masks somehow being a controversial act. People have been desperately searching for ways to cope, be it reading great writers, who try to make sense of what we’re going through, or, well, simply turning to drink. On Friday we got both when Susan Orlean, journalist and bestselling author of The Orchid Thief, went on an epic and hilarious drunken tweetstorm.

As caught by Entertainment Weekly, Orlean’s Twitter bender started out sober, with her worrying about Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who revealed she was suffering from cancer.

Four hours later, things changed. Orlean tweeted a single word: “Drunk.” It was then that the misspelling began: “Thank you for your support duri t this difficult time all misspellings are mine totally.”

She continued to tweet, revealing she had had some wine with neighbors and stumbled home.

She also met a newborn colt, who “thought my hand was his mom,” and thus, in her words, “has tasted life’s infinite tragedy.”

She said she was going to bed.

But she evidently did not.

Susan Orlean does not do this often, which may be why she was drunk tweeting.

She wanted some candy.

And she couldn’t find her cat.

Orlean, renowned for her verbal faculties, lost her way with words, but did become slightly self-aware.

But she could still perfectly articulate our shared frustration and outrage over it all.

Her family were possibly not as amused by Twitter, who shared and re-tweeted Orlean’s drunken tweetstorm like mad.

She tried to do some chores.

But she failed.

She was finally able to find some candy. Sort of.

She also remembered she’d made yogurt earlier in the day.

She again threatened to go to sleep.

But not before she assured everyone this was the real Susan Orlean and not, say, a Bitcoin scam hack.

Then she found her cat.

Orlean finally made good on her promise to hit the hay, and wisely grabbed a bottle of Tylenol before doing so, bringing our epic journey to an end.

On top of being an acclaimed writer, Orlean was embodied onscreen by Meryl Streep in the 2002 film Adaptation, in which screenwriter Charlie Kaufman attempted to turn her non-fiction book about flowers into a movie and instead made a movie about a fictionalized version of Kaufman, played by Nicolas Cage (who also played his doofus twin brother, who doesn’t exist), trying and failing to adapt it. One of its better scenes find Streep’s Orlean high as f*ck.

But this was actually funnier.

Naz Reid’s rookie season with the Minnesota Timberwolves ended earlier than he’d have liked. The COVID-19 pandemic put the NBA season on hold in mid-March and gave the league’s players a lot of free time to fill. Some famously didn’t even have a basketball hoop in their driveway or apartment, and so with team facilities closed everyone did their best to stay in shape and occupy their time.

For Reid, that meant playing a lot of video games. The strategy worked both as a way to pass the hours and stay in touch with friends, and with it game a trio of games he spent the most time with. The first is pretty obvious: NBA 2K. Madden was another sports sim he put in work with, along with battle royale shooter Fortnite.

“I’ve been trying to keep my mind off the court as long as I can because lord knows everybody’s itching to get back on it,” Reid told Uproxx Gaming. “So you want to get back on it but you can’t right now, so you’re trying to find new hobbies and just stay focused and stay positive.”

Reid let us tag along with him during one of his gaming sessions back in April, and I got to virtually spend an afternoon with the Timberwolves big. Unlike my crash course into NBA 2K20, which was punctuated by getting dunked on by WNBA star Ariel Powers, we thought an afternoon on Twitch with Naz Reid should be more of a cooperative endeavor. And since I would need a lot more work on the digital court than I would in a first person shooter, we choose Fortnite.

The goal was to turn me into a respectable Duos partner, and after some technical difficulties were sorted out we got to work.

“I’m a squad guy. I really like playing with friends,” Reid told me later. “If I ever play by myself, it’s late night when I have nothing else to do and I just want to play something else.”

My goal was to follow his lead, and so we followed the same path each time: head to The Agency, get away from everyone else and start loading up on weaponry.

“For me, I always start in a place called the Agency. I want to get the best guns as quick as possible, in case I run into trouble,” Reid said. “And then, whatever the case may be, you may not run into as many people but at least you’ll have the guns and whatever’s happening, you can handle it.”

It’s not exactly revolutionary advice, but it’s not a stretch to apply basics when it comes to playing with a stranger like me. Fortnite is a game of survival, and in Duos you attempt to outlast teams as the game’s map gets smaller and smaller. Our strategy became pretty simple: fly down to The Agency, take out the NPC guards.

Only once did I have an extremely embarrassing incident. It actually happened right after we won our first Duos match, which perhaps gave me far too much confidence considering I only managed a single kill while Reid did all the driving and strategizing. In our second game I landed on part of The Agency’s roof where there wasn’t access to get inside the building. I tried to jump down to a better location and accidentally fell all the way to the ground level, where I was subsequently pegged by guards and killed.

Reid, the nicest competitive athlete I’ve ever encountered, didn’t seem the least bit annoyed when I did that too far away from him to revive me in time, thus causing us to be eliminated almost immediately. His instructions were very gentle and usually involved something to the effect of “there’s someone shooting at us over here” or “grab that and get on the back of this helicopter.”

I was more than willing to play second fiddle to someone that clearly has spent more time in the Fortnite universe than I have, but I did get in some decent kills and watched his back faithfully as we zipped around the map looking for enemies to eliminate.

While playing we talked about other games he frequently plays as well.

“Mainly 2K and Madden because those are the games that my friends play,” he said. I mentioned my own experience playing with NBA and WNBA stars, who get special logos next to their gamertags and garner a lot of attention on the 2K courts. Reid said he and his friends always get more attention than they’re looking for.

“They send me invites, everything. And it’s like ‘I don’t even know you,’” Reid said. “It is kinda fun, though. My friends think it’s cool so whenever we want to start up a game we can, whenever we want.”

My initial good luck seemed to run out for a while, and some matches were more fruitful than others we did manage to win two out of the half dozen or so we played. Something tells me my low ranking may have helped us when it came to matchmaking, but I’ll take the wins where I can get them.

Since we played, though, Reid has been forced to change his strategy. The Agency got blown up in an in-game event back in June, so it’s not quite the weapons haven it once was for us. With the Timberwolves stuck outside the Orlando bubble, though, it will be a long offseason of gaming while the rest of the NBA settles things in Orlando. But take it from me when I say he’ll have plenty of people willing to play with him while he waits.

On Friday night it was reported that John Lewis, towering civil rights icon and longtime congressman, who never lost his activist spirit, died after a six-month battle with cancer. He was 80 years old.

The son of sharecroppers, Lewis turned to activism early in life, having met both Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. by the time he was 18. He was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders, who defied segregation on cross-country buses, participated in lunch counter sit-ins, and, at only 23, was a keynote speaker at the landmark 1963 March on Washington. He endured untold beatings, including during “Bloody Sunday,” when Lewis and fellow activist Hosea Williams led 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Lewis’ skull was fractured by the troopers who awaited them at the other side. The violence enacted on peaceful protesters shocked the nation and galvanized support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Lewis later entered politics, first as a member of Atlanta city council in 1981. In 1986 he was elected to represent Georgia in the House of Representatives — a position he held until his death. He never lost his activist spirit and, in 2011, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by America’s first black president, Barack Obama.

Obama was one of many who took to Twitter to honor a legend who helped change America.

“Not many of us get to live to see our own legacy play out in such a meaningful, remarkable way. John Lewis did,” Obama wrote, followed by a link to a much longer eulogy on Medium. “He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise,” the 44th president wrote in the post. “And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example.”

Berenice King, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, also paid tribute.

As did others in the political sphere.

Many in the entertainment industry also mourned his loss and celebrated his life.

John Lewis was recently the subject of a life-spanning documentary, entitled John Lewis: Good Trouble. You can rent it here.

The Indiana Fever have effectively been rebuilding since Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings retired in 2016, but this season, they will begin a new phase of that rebuild that prominently features Catchings once again. The former MVP and WNBA champion is now Indiana’s lead executive after serving in a VP role the past three seasons. Catchings hired women’s basketball lifer Marianne Stanley to be the team’s head coach this offseason, and added even more young talent to one of the league’s deepest, greenest rosters. They will be challenged to glean much from year one of this new era during a 22-game regular season at the WNBA clean site at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

As with all young teams, however, it’s a trial run for many of the players on the roster. Catchings and Stanley will need to see how the pieces fit, who makes the most of the bizarre 2020 season, and who improves despite the circumstances as they think about the future of the Fever. A few positive COVID-19 tests postponed their arrival in Florida, but they are now in the Wubble and gearing up for July 25.

WUBBLE ROSTER

Natalie Achonwa
Julie Allemand
Kennedy Burke
Lauren Cox
Kathleen Doyle
Candice Dupree
Stephanie Mavunga
Teaira McCowan
Tiffany Mitchell
Kelsey Mitchell
Victoria Vivians
Erica Wheeler

KEY PLAYERS TO WATCH

Teaira McCowan: It was lost because the 2019 rookie class — led by Rookie of the Year Napheesa Collier and NCAA sensation and dynamic scorer Arike Ogunbowale — was so remarkable, but McCowan put together a season that in many seasons would have been worthy of ROY consideration. What’s most fascinating about McCowan though is not her pure skill, but the way she stands in opposition of a changing game. McCowan, like other post stars Joel Embiid and Sylvia Fowles, continue to make a massive impact and survive on the court despite a sport that increasingly asks its bigs to be shooters and play-makers on offense rather than simply post anchors. McCowan didn’t take a single three-pointer in 2019 and no one should expect it in 2020, either. Instead, her strength, footwork, and touch inside make her a wildly efficient post presence whose size and shot-blocking ability mean she could nevertheless be one of the most valuable bigs in the WNBA as soon as this season.

Julie Allemand: This is Allemand’s first year in the WNBA after originally being drafted in 2016. She finally signed a contract to come to the United States this spring, and adds yet another skilled young guard to a jumbled Fever backcourt. Despite others vying for a similar role, both Catchings and Stanley have praised Allemand throughout training camp and discussed a sizable opportunity for the first-year guard. Allemand is coming off a run for the Belgian national team in which she averaged 10 points and five assists per game, powering Belgium to an Olympic qualification. If she’s already earned the trust of the Indiana coaching staff, we not only will get to see a lot of her, but it will play a major part in how the Fever view Mitchell, Mitchell, and Wheeler going forward.

Victoria Vivians: Continuing on the trend of strange new beginnings for the Fever in the Wubble, this will technically be Vivians’ second season, after she missed 2019 with an ACL tear. The former Mississippi State standout and No. 8 overall pick is still likely a major factor in Indiana’s future, but her rookie year was rocky and this is a strange time to be returning from injury. Getting the most out of Vivians is particularly important, however, because she is one of the only perimeter players with size on the Fever roster. At 6’1, she can play the wing, which will help with the team’s backcourt logjam. Expectations for Vivians should be tempered, but we know she can shoot the lights out (40 percent on over six attempts per 36 minutes as a rookie). If she can defend bigger players and round out her offensive game, Indiana’s future becomes so much clearer.

EXPECTATIONS

Catchings and Stanley have made clear they see the playoffs as a possibility, but the real focus is on incremental progress. This is what is so fascinating about Indiana: It’s two hyper-competitive, experienced women in the GM and coach seats, running a very inexperienced team. Nobody should underestimate their ability to get the most out of this team, but the future is bright regardless.

X-FACTOR

Erica Wheeler: Nobody stands to be negatively affected by the Fever juggling minutes among so many guards more than Wheeler, the 2019 WNBA All-Star Game MVP and a Most Improved Player candidate in her fifth season. Wheeler undeniably earned her starting spot on the team, but has always struggled to facilitate at the same level she’s reached as a scorer. Entering a contract year, her role and relationship with the team is worth watching. If all goes well, Wheeler will be in line for a big contract as the cornerstone of the Fever. If not, Indiana could be looking at a disgruntled star, with Wheeler instantly becoming a top free agent in 2021.

BIGGEST ON-COURT QUESTION

What does the front court look like? Though Indiana needs to sort out its back court, the front court is where the majority of its proven talent is. McCowan will be joined by the versatile veteran Achonwa, the league’s fifth all-time scorer Dupree, and 2020 No. 3 overall pick Lauren Cox. The Fever have done a great job balancing out the stable of bigs with players who bring different skills to the table, and what’s most exciting is to see how Cox’s play-making and shooting, even as a rookie, can open up the floor even more for McCowan as Indiana’s front court of the future begins to mesh.

Coming off their first conference finals appearance in nearly two decades, the Portland Trail Blazers were looking to capitalize on that run and take the next leap as a perennial contender in the West. But injuries and inconsistency conspired against them from the start. Zach Collins dislocated his shoulder in just the second game of the season, then Rodney Hood went down with an Achilles injury in December.

As much fun as Carmelo Anthony has been in Portland, it was a move borne out of desperation, a morale boost for a team that was barely treading water and for a fan base that was growing increasingly listless. But Melo turned out to be more than just a novelty act. He’s made meaningful, if irregular, contributions and is still capable of dangerous scoring bursts that keep opponents on their toes.

Properly gauging the Hassan Whiteside experiment has proved much more problematic. Despite what his gaudy double-double numbers might indicate, he’s an imperfect fit in Portland. He’s been a reliable and engaged rim protector, but opposing offenses routinely run sets designed to isolate him out on the perimeter and free their shooters for open looks.

The result has been a below-.500 season and an uphill battle for a playoff spot. Things were looking pretty bleak before the season shut down, but now that chaos reigns supreme, they have just about as good a shot as anyone else in the bubble.

ROSTER

Damian Lillard
CJ McCollum
Carmelo Anthony
Zach Collins
Jusuf Nurkic
Hassan Whiteside
Mario Hezonja
Nassir Little
Gary Trent Jr.
Anfernee Simmons
Wenyen Gabriel

SCHEDULE

Fri. 7/31 MEM 4:00 PM
Sun. 8/2 BOS 3:30 PM
Tue. 8/4 HOU 9:00 PM
Thu. 8/6 DEN 8:00 PM
Sat. 8/8 LAC 1:00 PM
Sun. 8/9 PHI 6:30 PM
Tue. 8/11 DAL 5:00 PM
Thu. 8/13 BKN TBD

STANDINGS

1. Los Angeles Lakers: 49-14
2. Los Angeles Clippers: 44-20 (5.5)
3. Denver Nuggets: 43-22 (7.0)
4. Utah Jazz: 41-23 (8.5)
5. OKC Thunder: 40-24 (9.5)
6. Houston Rockets: 40-24 (9.5)
7. Dallas Mavericks: 40-27 (11.0)
8. Memphis Grizzlies: 32-33 (18.0)
9. Portland Trail Blazers: 29-37 (21.5)
10. New Orleans Pelicans: 28-36 (21.5)
11. Sacramento Kings: 28-36 (21.5)
12. San Antonio Spurs: 27-36 (22.0)
13. Phoenix Suns: 26-39 (24.0)

WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?/WHAT TO EXPECT

As Damian Lillard has repeatedly made clear, nothing less than the playoffs will do for this team, and they’re within striking distance of the No. 8 Grizzlies, but a condensed eight-game regular-season slate leaves little-to-no margin for error. But just qualifying for the playoffs obviously isn’t enough for a team that made the conference finals last year. With a more or less healthy roster, it’ll be tempting for them to harbor even loftier goals.

The problem, of course, is that securing the No. 8 spot likely means a showdown with the top-seeded Lakers, and despite what Charles Barkley might have us believe, it’ll be anything but a cakewalk to get past LeBron and company.

X-FACTOR

By all accounts, it appears both Nurkic and Collins will be in the starting lineup when the Blazers take the court in Orlando. Collins has been out since October, while Nurkic has missed almost a year and a half after fracturing his tibia. Their combined productivity will be the biggest X-factor for the Blazers in Orlando, as the team’s much-maligned frontcourt suddenly gets a gigantic boost in the form of two starters. Rust, of course, will be an issue, particularly for Nurkic, who has not played since suffering a leg fracture in March of 2019.

BIGGEST ON-COURT QUESTION

This is more or less a continuation of above. The question is just how long it will take for them to get their legs back under them. The good news is that, after a more than four-month break, just about everyone else is in the same boat. The pandemic has leveled the playing field for Orlando, and plenty of teams, like the Blazers, that were once considered long-shots to grab a postseason berth, are in prime position to make that happen.

America’s first real reckoning with the coronavirus pandemic came on March 11 when Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for COVID-19 and the NBA immediately shut its season down. Other sports leagues soon followed, and the coming days saw the rise of life in quarantine as states issued stay at home orders and tried to limit the spread of the virus.

Another big coronavirus news item that night was that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson both tested positive for the virus while filming a movie together in Australia. It was shocking news for a public coming to terms with what life would be like, and months later it may be difficult to remember how harrowing the news of their battle with COVID-19 was.

Which perhaps is why Wilson simply doesn’t understand why the concept of wearing a mask to help limit the spread of coronavirus has become a political issue in the United States. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wilson dismissed those who question whether they should wear a mask to limit the transmission of COVID-19 both for the wearer and others around them.

“Why wouldn’t you wear a mask if it’s good for your health?” Wilson said Friday in an interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Wilson detailed the various symptoms she dealt with while battling COVID-19, which included a 102-degree temperature, extreme fatigue, body aches, irritability, discomfort, and the loss of her sense of taste and smell. The ordeal was enough to make her very vocal about mask wearing and other preventative measures in the months since, and her personal experience is something she clearly doesn’t want to see repeated in others.

“I don’t understand why something that’s so easy to do has become an issue or something that people are coming up against,” Wilson said. Perhaps it was King that was most direct about the situation in her interview, though.

“You know the mask is uncomfortable. But you know what else is uncomfortable?” King asked. “Dying.”

[via THR]

Washington’s NFL team will have a new nickname and logo this fall after the team finally announced it would retire the racial slur for Native Americans it had used for decades despite complaints about its inappropriateness. That abrupt reversal for the franchise will also extend to its digital equivalent, as Friday brought reports that the team’s likeness and name in Madden NFL 21 will also be hastily changed ahead of its release next month.

EA Sports has been focused on player ratings this past week, as hype builds for the latest edition of its annual football sim, but a Kotaku report on Friday indicated that, behind the scenes, the game’s developers were frantically patching the team’s likeness and any reference to Washington ahead of its name change.

“We are pleased to see Washington’s decision to change their team name and visual identity,” a representative for Electronic Arts told Kotaku on Friday. “We are quickly working to update Madden NFL 21 to feature a generic Washington team, while we await final word on the updated team name and logo design.”

Since the new name’s announcement and logo has not yet been announced, the rep said the team will have a generic name and uniform until a later date, when the updated look and moniker can be downloaded for free in an update.

“Changes to the name and logo will come via title updates that will download automatically,” the EA rep explained. “The first changes will be available to our EA Access players and will include audio/commentary updates; motion graphics and presentation updates; stadium art, environments, crowd gear and signage updates; and uniform updates. Players may continue to see some outdated Washington references in other areas of the game at launch, but we are committed to removing all of those from the game in additional title updates coming shortly after launch.”

There’s a few more hoops to go through in the development of the game, but it certainly makes sense from a realism standpoint, as having a game go to market with a logo that has been deemed racist enough that Dan Snyder finally caved to public pressure about its appropriateness would be a PR snafu, to say the least. But the amount of work behind the scenes to make this happen — especially in the late-stage crunch associated with finishing any major video game these days — is certainly notable.

For many who have long decried the slur and its use, though, all that extra work will certainly be worth it to see it no longer associated with the NFL.

[via Kotaku]

The fallout from the NBA’s four-and-a-half month hiatus will have all sorts of long-term implications for the league and its future. For starters, it might permanently shift the regular-season calendar, as the 2020-2021 campaign will likely be delayed until late December or early January.

Crowning a champion this season will prove problematic to some, as the league is forced to adjust to unfamiliar conditions in the bubble location in Orlando where play will resume later this month. The lack of travel, lack of home-court advantage, empty arenas, the extended time off, and much more will all affect the on-court product in not-insignificant ways.

That is perhaps why the league has wisely decided, per Shams Charania of The Athletics, to base its regular season awards — MVP, DPOY, etc. — on performances up until the March 11 shutdown, excluding the eight-game slate that will kick off the restart in Orlando and determine the final playoff spots in each conference.

The NBA’s annual performance awards (MVP, Rookie of Year, Sixth Man, Defensive Player, Coach of Year, etc.) will be based upon regular season through March 11, when the season suspended, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 17, 2020

Sources: NBA has informed teams: “The decision to exclude seeding games from awards voting ensures a fair process in which players and coaches from all 30 teams will have the same opportunity to be honored…” League will soon announce voting process and plan to announce winners. https://t.co/lTyO11LtFN

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 17, 2020

The only clear-cut winner here is James Harden, who was leading the league in scoring at 34.4 points per game prior to the hiatus. The MVP Award is likely a two-man race between Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James, while Giannis also has a case for Defensive Player of the Year in a head-to-head matchup with LeBron’s teammate Anthony Davis.

Ja Morant had been the runaway favorite to win Rookie of the Year before Zion Williamson made his season debut for the Pelicans and threw some uncertainty in that debate with his stellar play. Sixth Man and Most Improved each have a trio of contenders, while Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year while likely come down to the teams that have accomplished the most despite their situations, i.e. Nick Nurse in the wake of Kawhi’s departure in Toronto and Sam Presti for his handling of the wild Russell Westbrook/Paul George/Chris Paul deal.