B10 N THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTSTHURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020
PRO BASKETBALL SCOREBOARD
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Team GP W D L GF GA Pts
Liverpool .....31 28 2 1 70 21 86
Man City .....30 20 3 7 76 31 63
Leicester .....31 16 7 8 59 29 55
Chelsea .....30 15 6 9 53 40 51
Man United... 31 13 10 8 48 31 49
Wolverhampton 31 12 13 6 44 34 49
Tottenham ....31 12 9 10 50 41 45
Sheffield United 31 11 11 9 30 31 44
Crystal Palace. 31 11 9 11 28 36 42
Everton ......31 11 8 12 38 46 41
Arsenal ......30 9 13 8 41 41 40
Burnley ......30 11 6 13 34 45 39
Newcastle ....31 10 9 12 29 42 39
Southampton.. 30 11 4 15 38 52 37
Brighton .....31 7 12 12 34 41 33
Watford .....30 6 10 14 28 45 28
West Ham ....31 7 6 18 35 54 27
Bournemouth.. 31 7 6 18 29 50 27
Aston Villa ....31 7 6 18 36 59 27
Norwich .....31 5 6 20 25 56 21
Friday, June 19
Norwich 0, Southampton 3
Tottenham 1, Man United 1
Saturday, June 20
Watford 1, Leicester 1
Brighton 2, Arsenal 1
West Ham 0, Wolverhampton 2
Bournemouth 0, Crystal Palace 2
Sunday, June 21
Newcastle 3, Sheffield United 0
Aston Villa 1, Chelsea 2
Everton 0, Liverpool 0
Monday, June 22
Man City 5, Burnley 0
Tuesday, June 23
Leicester 0, Brighton 0
Tottenham 2, West Ham 0
Wednesday, June 24
Man United 3, Sheffield United 0
Newcastle 1, Aston Villa 1
Norwich 0, Everton 1
Wolverhampton 1, Bournemouth 0
Liverpool 4, Crystal Palace 0
Thursday, June 25
Burnley vs. Watford
Southampton vs. Arsenal
Chelsea vs. Man City
Saturday, June 27
Aston Villa vs. Wolverhampton
SOCCER
BUNDESLIGA
Team GP W D L GF GA Pts
t-Bayern .....33 25 4 4 96 32 79
Dortmund ....33 21 6 6 84 37 69
RB Leipzig... 33 17 12 4 79 36 63
Monchengladbch 33 19 5 9 64 39 62
Leverkusen... 33 18 6 9 60 44 60
Wolfsburg ....33 13 10 10 48 42 49
Hoffenheim... 33 14 7 12 49 53 49
Freiburg .....33 12 9 12 44 47 45
Eintracht .....33 12 6 15 56 58 42
Hertha Berlin.. 33 11 8 14 47 57 41
Schalke .....33 9 12 12 38 54 39
Union Berlin... 33 11 5 17 38 58 38
Mainz .......33 11 4 18 44 64 37
Cologne .....33 10 6 17 50 63 36
Augsburg ....33 9 9 15 44 61 36
Fortuna Dusseldrf 33 6 12 15 36 64 30
Bremen .....33 7 7 19 36 68 28
SC Paderborn. 33 4 8 21 35 71 20
t-clinched title
Tuesday, June 16
Monchengladbach 3, Wolfsburg 0
Bremen 0, Bayern 1
Freiburg 2, Hertha Berlin 1
Union Berlin 1, SC Paderborn 0
Wednesday, June 17
Eintracht 2, Schalke 1
Dortmund 0, Mainz 2
RB Leipzig 2, Fortuna Dusseldorf 2
Leverkusen 3, Cologne 1
Augsburg 1, Hoffenheim 3
Saturday, June 20
Bayern 3, Freiburg 1
RB Leipzig 0, Dortmund 2
Hoffenheim 4, Union Berlin 0
Fortuna Dusseldorf 1, Augsburg 1
Hertha Berlin 2, Leverkusen 0
Mainz 3, Bremen 1
Schalke 1, Wolfsburg 4
Cologne 1, Eintracht 1
SC Paderborn 1, Monchengladbach 3
Saturday, June 27
Dortmund vs. Hoffenheim
Leverkusen vs. Mainz
Monchengladbach vs. Hertha Berlin
Wolfsburg vs. Bayern
Eintracht vs. SC Paderborn
Bremen vs. Cologne
Freiburg vs. Schalke
Augsburg vs. RB Leipzig
Union Berlin vs. Fortuna Dusseldorf
NATIONAL WOMEN'S
SOCCER LEAGUE
CHALLENGE CUP SCHEDULE
All Times E.D.T.
Saturday, June 27
North Carolina Courage vs. Portland
Thorns, 12:30 p.m. (CBS)
Chicago Red Stars vs. Orlando Pride, 10
p.m.
Tuesday, June 30
Washington Spirit vs. Utah Royals, 12:30
p.m.
OL Reign vs. Sky Blue, 10 p.m.
Wednesday, July 1
Portland Thorns vs. Orlando Pride, 12:30
p.m.
North Carolina Courage vs. Houston Dash,
10 p.m.
Saturday, July 4
Washington Spirit vs. OL Reign, 12:30 p.m.
Chicago Red Stars vs. Utah Royals, 10
p.m.
Sunday, July 5
Houston Dash vs. Sky Blue, 12:30 p.m.
North Carolina Courage vs. Orlando Pride,
10 p.m.
Wednesday, July 8
Utah Royals vs. OL Reign, 12:30 p.m.
Washington Spirit vs. Portland Thorns, 10
p.m.
Thursday, July 9
Chicago Red Stars vs. Houston Dash,
12:30 p.m.
Orlando Pride vs. Sky Blue, 10 p.m.
Sunday, July 12
Utah Royals vs. North Carolina Courage,
12:30 p.m.
Portland Thorns vs. OL Reign, 10 p.m.
Monday, July 13
Chicago Red Stars vs. Sky Blue, 12:30 p.m.
Washington Spirit vs. Houston Dash, 10
p.m.
TRANSACTIONS
BASEBALL
M.L.B.
American League
BOSTON RED SOX — Signed C Jose Garcia,
INF Cuba Bess, INF Jake MacKenzie, RHP
Merfy Andrew, RHP Jacinto Arredondo, RHP
Maceo Campbell, RHP Jordan DiValerio, RHP
Graham Hoffman, RHP Robert Kwiatkowski,
RHP Cole Milam and RHP Brian Van Belle to
minor league contracts.
DETROIT TIGERS — Agreed to terms with LF
Daniel Cabrera on a minor league contract.
TEXAS RANGERS — Signed RHP Tekoah
Roby and SS Thomas Saggese to minor
league contracts.
National League
COLORADO ROCKIES — Agreed to terms
with OF Zac Veen, LHP Sam Weatherly
and SS Jack Blomgren on minor league
contracts.
PITTSBURGH PIRATES — Signed SS Nick
Gonzales to a minor league contract.
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS— Signed 3B Jordan
Walker to a minor league contract.
BASKETBALL
N.B.A.
OKLAHOMA THUNDER — Signed G
Luguentz Dort to a multi-year contract.
N.B.A. G League
Named Martin Schiller 2019-2020 N.B.A.
G League Dennis Johnson Coach of the
Year. Named Bart Taylor 2019-2020 N.B.A.
.G League Basketball Executive of the Year.
FOOTBALL
N.F.L.
DETROIT LIONS — Signed G Jonah Jackson.
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS — Signed Jauan
Jennings to a four-year deal.
GOLF
WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
Through June 21
- Rory McIlroy, NIR ............9.05
- Jon Rahm, ESP .............8.11
- Justin Thomas, USA ..........7.42
- Brooks Koepka, USA .........7.39
- Webb Simpson, USA .........7.11
- Dustin Johnson, USA .........6.15
- Patrick Reed, USA ...........5.96
- Adam Scott, AUS ............5.81
- Patrick Cantlay, USA .........5.80
- Xander Schauffele, USA .......5.46
- Bryson DeChambeau, USA .....5.42
- Tommy Fleetwood, ENG .......5.40
- Justin Rose, ENG ...........5.23
- Tiger Woods, USA ...........5.21
- Marc Leishman, AUS .........4.66
- Tyrrell Hatton, ENG ..........4.64
- Tony Finau, USA ............4.57
- Gary Woodland, USA .........4.36
- Matt Kuchar, USA ...........4.34
- Sungjae Im, KOR ............4.14
- Louis Oosthuizen, SAF ........4.13
- Shane Lowry, IRL ...........4.05
- Hideki Matsuyama, JPN .......4.02
- Abraham Ancer, MEX .........4.00
- Paul Casey, ENG ............3.92
Little will be ordinary when the
abbreviated 2019-20 N.B.A. sea-
son resumes as expected on July
- Games will be played at the
Walt Disney World Resort inside a
so-called bubble, a plan that does
away with playoff basketball’s
normal hallmarks of rigorous
travel, home-court advantage and
the motivational fuel provided by
screaming fans.
How it will look and feel to the
participants once they get there is
a mystery. But in an era of basket-
ball defined by load management
— the practice of deliberately
holding stars out of some regular-
season games to keep them
healthy for playoff runs — there
exists a faction of N.B.A. players
who pride themselves on rarely, if
ever, missing a game. They will
now have to navigate their return
without being moored to the grind
of an 82-game season.
At the forefront of that group is
Utah Jazz wing Joe Ingles, 32, who
has played in all of his team’s
games since Dec. 16, 2015, the
longest active streak in the
league. When the season was sus-
pended in March, Ingles quaran-
tined for two weeks with his preg-
nant wife, Renae, and their infant
twins. Everyday life was dis-
rupted overnight, and Ingles,
without any idea when, or if, bas-
ketball would come back, turned
his focus to his family. Every
morning, he made breakfast for
his children, and he tucked them
in at night, enjoying parenting
pleasures that had been mostly
impossible during the season.
His professional life has re-
volved around the same practice-
game-practice-game routine
since he first signed a professional
contract at 17 years old. He has
spent his off-seasons from the
N.B.A. playing for the Australian
national team. In the past few
years, he became one of the
N.B.A.’s ironmen, tightly regulat-
ing his daily regimen to maximize
the amount of basketball he could
play. Before the pandemic, he
made a habit of getting to prac-
tices an hour early so he could get
a massage, stretch and do correc-
tive exercises. After practice, he’d
stay an extra hour for treatment.
“If I knew 10 years ago what I
know now, maybe I would still be
dunking,” he said.
Today, with a full gym at home
that includes a treadmill and exer-
cise bike, Ingles has tried to recre-
ate a recognizable groove for him-
self. Every night, he massages
himself after workouts with a vi-
brating foam roller or a massage
gun — he owns several — and
then, usually while watching a
movie in bed with his wife, slips
into NormaTec compression
pants, which aid muscle recovery.
“I had days where I was meant
to lift and I didn’t because it’s hard
to get that motivation when you’re
doing it at your house,” he said.
“I’m not going to a game tomor-
row, I’m not going to a practice to-
morrow. I’m just going to do the
same thing tomorrow. Again.”
A sprinkling of other players
who have similarly committed to
playing full seasons are dealing
with the N.B.A. shutdown and re-
sumption plan in their own way.
Since the league expanded the
schedule to 82 games, its current
normal length, before the 1967-68
season, going the distance has be-
come an increasingly rare
achievement, partially owing to
advances in sports science that
have informed teams about the
myriad harmful consequences
seven straight months of profes-
sional basketball can have on a
human body.
In the 2018-19 season, less than
4 percent of the league (21 play-
ers) appeared in 82 games. Inju-
ries, personal issues, coaches’ de-
cisions and scheduled rest can
take the choice of playing out of a
player’s hands, but those who are
healthy enough to have the option
to play at every opportunity know
they are a rarity.
“It’s very challenging. That’s
why there’s only a few that do it,”
said Houston Rockets forward P.J.
Tucker, 35, who hasn’t missed a
game since 2017. “You get a day off
when the schedule permits.”
Their motivations vary: Some
want to defy an injury-prone repu-
tation, fulfill a sense of duty to fans
and teammates, or avoid perma-
nently losing their minutes to a re-
placement player. Many also cited
their love of basketball and an ob-
sessive attentiveness to their
body as reasons they’ve em-
braced the monotony that invades
the N.B.A. lifestyle.
Since he was traded to the Phil-
adelphia 76ers midway through
the 2018-19 season, forward Tobi-
as Harris, 27, has checked in with
team staffers to look at his per-
formance analytics, since any de-
crease would suggest a need to
rest to prevent injury. But Harris
said that taking time off when he
feels well enough to compete
tends to have an adverse effect.
“I feel if I don’t play, it’s kind of
like hurting me a little bit,” Harris
said in an interview before the
shutdown. “I’m in a routine and a
rhythm. That’s the type of guy I
am.” Harris was inactive for the fi-
nal game of the 2018-19 regular
season, but still played in 82 total
games after logging 55 with his
former team, the Los Angeles
Clippers.
Phoenix Suns wing Mikal
Bridges, 23, has not missed a
game in his first two seasons as a
pro. He is disposed to a strict daily
routine, and once the season
stopped, he immediately mapped
out a plan that could best replicate
its physical drudgery while he
was home. Bridges did body
weight exercises and used
weights already in his home, and
used a nearby field for condition-
ing drills.
“I knew I wasn’t going to take
time off, but I didn’t know how
hard I should go,” Bridges said.
“Am I just going OD hard for noth-
ing? It was awkward because if
the season didn’t come back I
think I was going to keep working
out and then treat it like the sea-
son was still there.”
Denver Nuggets guard Monté
Morris, 24, sat zero games during
four years at Iowa State and has
not missed one since the start of
the 2018-19 season. “It’s really, re-
ally, really important that I stay in
my rhythm,” he said in an inter-
view. “I’ve always been a guy
who’s able to find a way. Even
when the gyms weren’t open.”
A couple of months ago, Morris
reached out to Ann Najjar, a box-
ing trainer, on Instagram and
asked her to fly in from her home
in San Diego to work out in his
backyard.
When the N.B.A. in early June
approved a proposal to send 22
teams to play in Florida, concerns
about spreading the coronavirus
were shared widely among play-
ers, including those who see play-
ing every game as an obligation.
“Going into a hub, I think the
hardest part for me is I know I’ll
do the right thing and I’m assum-
ing my teammates will, but we’re
all relying on 22 teams, 17 players
per team,” Ingles said before the
league last week distributed an
113-page guidebook of health pre-
cautions needed to make the re-
sumption work. He worries that a
player contracting the virus is in-
evitable. “I want to be there to
play the games with my team, but
I’m definitely not 100 percent
comfortable going.”
Players and team staff mem-
bers are expected to remain on the
premises nearly at all times and
cannot enter other people’s hotel
rooms, among other regulations
while in Florida. Ingles prioritizes
his family’s safety at such a pre-
carious time, but acknowledges
that he does not want to let his
team or fans down by not playing.
“I know people aren’t paying
money to come watch me play —
they’re coming to watch Donovan
play,” he said, referring to his
teammate Donovan Mitchell.
“But if I’m healthy and can get out
there, then I should play.”
Joe Ingles (2), who has not missed a game since Dec. 16, 2015, dribbling past DeMar DeRozan in February.
JEFFREY SWINGER/USA TODAY SPORTS, VIA REUTERS
For Some Players in the League,
There Is Never a Day of Rest
By MICHAEL PINA
“I’m in a routine,” Tobias Harris said of playing every game.
RICH PEDRONCELLI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Knicks, persistently in the
market for credibility, clout and
connections, made a move to ad-
dress all three shortcomings on
Wednesday by adding one of bas-
ketball’s best-known outsiders to
the team’s front office.
The new hire, William Wesley, is
more commonly known in N.B.A.
circles by his nickname, World
Wide Wes. He joined the Knicks as
an executive vice president and
senior basketball adviser, the
team said, but already had deep
ties to the organization’s leader-
ship.
Wesley is a longtime associate
of the Knicks’ president, Leon
Rose, a relationship that dates to
their high school days in Cherry
Hill, N.J. Most recently, Wesley
worked as a recruitment consult-
ant for Creative Artists Agency,
where he worked alongside Rose.
“We are very excited to an-
nounce the hiring of William Wes-
ley, someone that I have known
for over 40 years and consider to
be family,” Rose said in a state-
ment. “He is one of the most well-
connected and respected people
in the basketball community and
he will be a tremendous asset and
resource to both myself and the
New York Knicks.”
For decades, Wesley has been
known as one of the most powerful
outsiders in the industry. His actu-
al influence has been a source of
much speculation and puzzlement
— he rarely gives interviews or
talks about his business — and
has almost entirely been linked to
his networking ability.
But his meticulously low profile
belies what many have described
as the huge sway he wields in bas-
ketball.
Before joining C.A.A., the sports
and entertainment giant, a decade
ago to work alongside Rose, Wes-
ley was already known for his ties
to top N.B.A. figures like LeBron
James and Michael Jordan, and
for leading recruitment efforts on
behalf of college coaches, espe-
cially John Calipari, who is now at
Kentucky.
Wesley is occasionally seen at
major sporting events, often spot-
ted next to celebrities including
Jay-Z, and he was on the floor in
2004 trying to protect Metta San-
diford-Artest, then known as Ron
Artest, during the brawl that
broke out between the Indiana
Pacers and the Detroit Pistons in
Detroit.
“My long history with and re-
spect for Jim Dolan and Leon
Rose, as well as the chance to be
part of the New York Knicks,
made this an opportunity I
wanted to pursue,” Wesley said in
a statement. “I look forward to
joining the current staff and mov-
ing the organization toward a suc-
cessful future.”
The most pressing decision fac-
ing the Knicks’ front office is who
will be the team’s coach next sea-
son. On this front, Wesley’s hiring
may provide a signal. One of his
former C.A.A. clients, Tom Thi-
bodeau, has been heavily linked to
the Knicks’ job in recent months.
Beyond that, Wesley and Rose,
whose hiring was announced in
March, just before the N.B.A. sus-
pended its season, hope to lever-
age their relationships with play-
ers to lure them into making the
Knicks a prime free-agent desti-
nation again.
In recent decades, the Knicks
have had persistent problems at-
tracting star players. Aside from
trading for and re-signing a will-
ing Carmelo Anthony in 2011 and
2014 and acquiring Amar’e
Stoudemire in 2010, the Knicks
have mostly swung and missed on
many of their biggest targets.
Last year, Kevin Durant, who
opted to go to the Nets instead of
the Knicks, said in a radio inter-
view that the “whole brand of the
Knicks is not as cool as, let’s say,
the Golden State Warriors.”
Knicks Hire Outsider to Help Their Inside Game
By SOPAN DEB
William Wesley has long-
standing ties with Leon Rose.
JOHNNY NUNEZ/WIREIMAGE
For a few hours this week, soft-
ball had a shot at something it has
pursued for decades: the spot-
light. The USSSA Pride and Scrap
Yard Fast Pitch, two independent
professional softball teams that
feature some of the top players in
the world, began what was sup-
posed to be a seven-game series in
Melbourne, Fla., facing little com-
petition from other live sports.
Instead, the first day of the se-
ries ended with all 18 players for
Scrap Yard Fast Pitch cleaning out
their lockers and pledging to
never play again for the organiza-
tion, after its general manager
bragged to President Trump on
Twitter during the game that the
team was standing during the na-
tional anthem.
The tweet, sent from the team’s
official account by Connie May,
the team’s general manager, said:
“Hey @realDonaldTrump Pro
Fastpitch being played live... Ev-
eryone standing for the FLAG!”
Trump has frequently criticized
athletes who kneel during the na-
tional anthem to protest racial in-
justice and police brutality, a
movement started by quarter-
back Colin Kaepernick in the
N.F.L. that spread throughout the
league and led to bitter divisions
among sports fans.
After Monday’s game, players
said, they returned to the locker
room to discover a slew of text
messages and alerts about May’s
post.
“It was a shock,” said pitcher
Cat Osterman, 37, an Olympic gold
medalist. “An actual, genuine,
speechless shock took over our
locker room.”
Then the players started talk-
ing to one another, pinpointing
what they felt was most troubling
about the post: that May had spo-
ken for all of them without their
consent, and that she ascribed po-
litical intent to their actions dur-
ing the anthem that suggested op-
position to the Black Lives Matter
movement.
The tweet was quickly deleted,
apparently after it had drawn
backlash online. May and Scrap
Yard Fast Pitch did not respond to
requests for comment.
The players spent an hour dis-
cussing the issue in the locker
room, and decided that they could
no longer play under the Scrap
Yard name. “The more we talked
about it, the angrier I got, and I fi-
nally just said, ‘I’m done, I’m not
going to wear this jersey,’ ” Oster-
man said. “We were used as
pawns in a political post, and
that’s not OK.”
The players were supported in
their decision by the coaching
staff.
It was not the first time that
May’s politics had been a topic of
discussion among the team, which
is made up of 18 women ranging in
age from 22 to 37. When Scrap
Yard released a statement about
the killing of George Floyd while
in police custody in Minneapolis,
it read, “We believe black lives
matter, as do all lives,” causing
some consternation among the
players.
The tweet on Monday, though,
struck a raw nerve. “I never really
thought that she didn’t care about
my life or Kiki’s life until that
post,” said Kelsey Stewart, one of
two black players on the team,
along with Kiki Stokes.
May came to talk with the team,
and again repeated that “all lives
matter,” players said, a phrase
that has been criticized as a way to
invalidate the specific concerns of
black people.
“People got very, very angry,”
said Stewart, 25, who phoned into
the meeting after missing the
game for personal reasons.
Most Scrap Yard players are
white, but Stewart said they still
forcefully challenged May’s com-
ments both directly and on social
media.
“It was nice to know that Kiki,
who’s black, didn’t have to do all
the talking — that I didn’t have to
do all the talking,” Stewart said.
Stewart, who was set to play in
her first Olympics this summer
before the Tokyo Games were
postponed until 2021, said racism
in softball “has been an issue for
me as long as I can remember,”
from assumptions that she plays
outfield or is unusually fast to rac-
ist slurs on social media. The sport
is mostly white, especially at the
highest levels, and after Floyd’s
death that imbalance seemed
more urgent than ever, she said.
“I talked to some of my black
softball sisters like, we can’t be
quiet anymore — it’s not really an
option for us,” Stewart said.
The players said they felt confi-
dent in their decision despite the
fact that Scrap Yard is one of very
few organizations sponsoring top-
tier professional softball teams.
“We’re not going to tolerate that
in our sport,” Osterman said. “It
wasn’t as hard of a decision as ev-
eryone thinks it was, because we
knew it was the right thing to do.”
Team’s Tweet
To President
Leads Players
To Quit Series
By NATALIE WEINER
SOFTBALL