NBA Players Chris Paul and Trae Young Headline NBA HORSE Challenge

The lack of basketball activities have sports enthusiasts clamoring for some type of action to feed their hunger for sports activity. Well, the National Basketball Association has a short term answer with the upcoming NBA HORSE Challenge.

ESPN, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) announced that they are introducing the new NBA HORSE Challenge to feed their audience with some basketball activity. 10-time NBA All-Star Chris Paul of the Oklahoma City Thunder, 2020 NBA All-Star Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks and newly elected Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings are headlining the list of eight NBA and WNBA players and legends who will participate in the new NBA HORSE Challenge. The tournament will be shown exclusively on ESPN and can also be streamed on the ESPN App.

Starting on Sunday, April 12 at 7 p.m. ET, Paul, Young, Catchings, Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine, three-time WNBA All-Star Allie Quigley of the Chicago Sky, Utah Jazz guard Mike Conley Jr. and NBA Finals MVPs Chauncey Billups and Paul Pierce will match shots against each other in a single-elimination HORSE competition from their respective, isolated home courts. ESPN NBA commentator Mark Jones will be the official host of the challenge.

NBA HORSE Challenge participants will be divided into two groups of four. The winners of the first two games in each group will meet in the semifinals and then the winner from each group will move on to the championship round.  The four quarterfinal games will air on Sunday. The semifinals and the championship game will be played on Thursday, April 16, beginning at 9 p.m. ET.

The rules for the challenge will start with a coin toss at the start of each game, which will determine who shoots first, with the more senior player calling heads or tails. Players must describe each shot attempt, specifying the type of score they intend to make before taking a shot, such as a bank shot or swish. Dunking is not allowed. The first player in each game to accumulate the letters “H-O-R-S-E” after failing to match five shots is automatically eliminated from the challenge.

State Farm will donate more than $200,000 on behalf of the participants to charities that are specific to coronavirus response efforts. This donation builds on the more than $74 million that has been contributed by the NBA Family to date to support coronavirus relief efforts through its NBA Together campaign.

NBA HORSE Challenge Presented by State Farm participants:

Group 1:	Group 2:
Chauncey Billups NBA Legend, ESPN Analyst	Zach LaVine Chicago Bulls
Tamika Catchings WNBA Legend	Chris Paul Oklahoma City Thunder
Mike Conley Jr. Utah Jazz	Paul Pierce NBA Legend, ESPN Analyst
Trae Young Atlanta Hawks	Allie Quigley Chicago Sky

 ESPN NBA HORSE Challenge Presented by State Farm schedule:

Date	Time (ET)	NBA HORSE Challenge
Sun, Apr 12	7-9 p.m.	Quarterfinals Group 1: Trae Young vs. Chauncey Billups
		Quarterfinals Group 1: Tamika Catchings vs. Mike Conley Jr.
		Quarterfinals Group 2: Zach LaVine vs. Paul Pierce
		Quarterfinals Group 2: Chris Paul vs. Allie Quigley
	9-11 p.m.	Quarterfinals Encore Presentations
Thu, Apr 16	7-9 p.m.	Quarterfinals Encore Presentations
	9-11 p.m.	Group 1: Semifinals
		Group 2: Semifinals
		HORSE Championship Game

ESPN will televise the NBA HORSE Challenge as it continues its commitment to bring the sports community together through its #oneteam initiative.

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‘Do It For Your Big Momma’: Surgeon General Pleads with Black Americans to Stop Smoking, Drinking or Taking Drugs to ‘Slow the Spread’

At the beginning of this pandemic, it was rumored and spread around like wildfire that black people couldn’t get the coronavirus. Now, after several months of the crisis hitting the United States in a way not imagined, it turns out that, in most cases, the majority of deaths are black people. According to The Daily Mail, twice as many black and brown Americans have died of COVID-19 compared to their white counterparts, government data shows.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who just happens to be black, has pleaded with the African-American community and other communities of color to follow the government’s guidelines. The stay-at-home orders and social distancing suggestions were made to ‘slow the spread’ of the coronavirus, as those communities are being disproportionately hit by the pandemic. 

‘We need you to do this if not for yourself than for your abuela. Do it for your granddaddy, do it for your big momma, do it for your pop pop,’ the nation’s top doctor said Friday at the daily coronavirus taskforce briefing – later defending his use of slang.

‘But let me be crystal clear, we do not think people of color are biologically or genetically predisposed to get COVID-19, there is nothing inherently wrong with you,’ Adams said. ‘But they are socially pre-disposed to coronavirus exposure and have a higher incidence of the very diseases that put you at risk for severe complications of coronavirus.’

Earlier this week, New York had released data that showed black and Latino people were two times as likely to die from coronavirus than white residents. While in Chicago where 70 percent of the deaths have been black people, yet they only make up 30 percent of the population. Down in Louisiana, with New Orleans being another hot spot, 70 percent of the dead coronavirus victims have been black. while Black people only make up 32 percent of residents in that state. 

 

The Surgeon General continued his pleas, ‘As a matter of fact, I’ve been carrying an inhaler in my pocket for 40 years out of fear of having a fatal asthma attack,’ said Adams. ‘And I hope that showing you this inhaler shows little kids with asthma all across the country that they can grow up to be Surgeon General one day.’

‘But I more immediately share it so that everyone knows it doesn’t matter if you look fit, if you look young, you are still at risk for getting and spreading and dying from coronavirus,’ he warned.

from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/2xlXMWu

‘Do It For Your Big Momma’: Surgeon General Pleads with Black Americans to Stop Smoking, Drinking or Taking Drugs to ‘Slow the Spread’

At the beginning of this pandemic, it was rumored and spread around like wildfire that black people couldn’t get the coronavirus. Now, after several months of the crisis hitting the United States in a way not imagined, it turns out that, in most cases, the majority of deaths are black people. According to The Daily Mail, twice as many black and brown Americans have died of COVID-19 compared to their white counterparts, government data shows.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who just happens to be black, has pleaded with the African-American community and other communities of color to follow the government’s guidelines. The stay-at-home orders and social distancing suggestions were made to ‘slow the spread’ of the coronavirus, as those communities are being disproportionately hit by the pandemic. 

‘We need you to do this if not for yourself than for your abuela. Do it for your granddaddy, do it for your big momma, do it for your pop pop,’ the nation’s top doctor said Friday at the daily coronavirus taskforce briefing – later defending his use of slang.

‘But let me be crystal clear, we do not think people of color are biologically or genetically predisposed to get COVID-19, there is nothing inherently wrong with you,’ Adams said. ‘But they are socially pre-disposed to coronavirus exposure and have a higher incidence of the very diseases that put you at risk for severe complications of coronavirus.’

Earlier this week, New York had released data that showed black and Latino people were two times as likely to die from coronavirus than white residents. While in Chicago where 70 percent of the deaths have been black people, yet they only make up 30 percent of the population. Down in Louisiana, with New Orleans being another hot spot, 70 percent of the dead coronavirus victims have been black. while Black people only make up 32 percent of residents in that state. 

 

The Surgeon General continued his pleas, ‘As a matter of fact, I’ve been carrying an inhaler in my pocket for 40 years out of fear of having a fatal asthma attack,’ said Adams. ‘And I hope that showing you this inhaler shows little kids with asthma all across the country that they can grow up to be Surgeon General one day.’

‘But I more immediately share it so that everyone knows it doesn’t matter if you look fit, if you look young, you are still at risk for getting and spreading and dying from coronavirus,’ he warned.

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Name Checks Celebrities For ‘Reckless’ Social Media Posts During Pandemic

It is well-documented that the coronavirus pandemic has affected everyone from the poor to the rich. The social media posts of celebrities who aren’t suffering in a way that poorer individuals can relate to upsets Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who wrote an editorial for The Hollywood Reporter chastising some of the elite for their recklessness.

Here are excerpts from Abdul-Jabbar’s piece:

“In times of crises, fame can be a valuable platform for mobilization and inspiration, but COVID-19 has rewritten the rules, and too many famous faces need to stop and think before they post.”

 

“Evangeline Lilly shared a defiant Instagram post (2.3 million followers) on March 16 announcing that, despite President Trump declaring a national emergency three days earlier, ‘Just dropped my kids off at gymnastics camp. They all washed their hands before going in. They are playing and laughing.’ Naturally, there was a vehement backlash, and at first she held her ground, suggesting the virus was just a political ploy: “Don’t abuse this moment to steal away more freedoms and grab more power.” Basically, the kind of nonsense rants you’d expect to find scrawled on a cardboard sign on a freeway off-ramp. Ten days later, she apologized while assuring everyone that she and her family were self-quarantining.”

 

“On March 16, Vanessa Hudgens told her 38.7 million Instagram followers in a live stream, while applying makeup, that estimates that the outbreak might last until July sound like ‘a bunch of bullshit.’ Her estimate, based on her vast knowledge of pandemics, was, “Like, I dunno, I think it’ll last, like, a month?”

 

She added: ‘It’s a virus, I get it. Like, I respect it. But at the same time, like, even if everybody gets it, like, yeah, people are going to die, which is terrible but, like, inevitable?’ Despite her contrived and pandering middle-school sleepover-speak, Hudgens is 32. Like Lilly, she faced an angry backlash and apologized. Still, how many of those 38 million followers, emboldened by her dismissal of the virus, spent the next 24 hours going out, getting infected and infecting others? Death may be inevitable, but did it require her help?”

 

“Justin Timberlake, who has donated generously to the food bank in Memphis, posted a photo to his 58.5 million Instagram followers of his wife, Jessica Biel, and a dog in a beautiful snowscape with the caption: ‘Out here social distancing with the fam and a lot of these [tree emojis]. I hope you guys are staying safe and healthy. We need to stick together and look out for each other during this crazy time.’ To many people in a small space with their whole family or multiple roommates, or standing in line to buy toilet paper, that photo doesn’t feel like we’re all in it together. Celebrities shouldn’t be ostracized for their wealth, but they should be sensitive enough not to rub it in the faces of the fans who enabled that fortune.

 

“The most dangerous and insensitive celebrity of all is former Celebrity Apprentice host and current president of the United States. On March 29, when we had 2,500 deaths from the coronavirus, Trump tweeted about what mostly occupies his mind: ‘President Trump is a ratings hit. Since reviving the daily White House briefing Mr. Trump and his coronavirus updates have attracted an average audience of 8.5 million on cable news, roughly the viewership of the season finale of The Bachelor. Numbers are continuing to rise …’ While the numbers of the dead are rising, he’s giddy about his ratings. At the same time, many news outlets are debating whether or not to carry his briefings live because, according to doctors and health officials, he has ‘repeatedly delivered information that doctors and public health officials have called ill informed, misleading or downright wrong.’

 

“Like it or not, stars with their millions of followers do have the power to affect the course of this pandemic by what they say. Which is why it’s crucial that while they’re self-isolating, they also need to be self-editing. Saying ‘we’re all in this together’ is easy; proving it is the challenge.”

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