NBA

By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – The NBA Board of Governors did it. They voted in a new policy (set of rules) to curb the “load management” issue the league has been wrestling with since the ‘80s.

Here is the league statement issued earlier this week:

NEW YORK – (Official NBA News Release) – The NBA Board of Governors approved a new Player Participation Policy, which is intended to promote player participation in the NBA’s regular season. The new policy will take effect with the start of the 2023-24 regular season and enhance and replace the Player Resting Policy, which was implemented prior to the 2017-18 season.

The Player Participation Policy primarily will focus on star players. A star player for purposes of the policy is any player who, in any of the prior three seasons, was selected to an All-NBA Team or an NBA All-Star team. This definition also applies, following a given season’s All-Star Game, to any player who is named an All-Star during that season.

Under the policy, unless a team demonstrates an approved reason for a star player not to participate in a game, then, among other things, the team must:

• Manage its roster to ensure that no more than one star player is unavailable for the same game.
• Ensure that star players are available for all national television and NBA In-Season Tournament games.
• Maintain a balance between the number of one-game absences for a star player in home and road games.
• Refrain from any long-term “shutdowns” in which a star player stops playing games.
• If resting a healthy player, ensure that the player is present at the games and visible to fans.

The policy includes exceptions for injuries, personal reasons and pre-approved back-to-back restrictions based on a player’s age, career workload or serious injury history.

If you recall, I pontificated on load management in a prior column.

That said, I’m still awaiting load management guidelines from the NHL, as their players play one line and sit and rest for two or three others while the goal-keepers often alternate games.

I’m awaiting the PGA Tour’s load management to address the fact most players can take weeks or consecutive weeks off, or play only at course that suits their game.

I’m awaiting MLB’s system for regulating star catchers who rarely catch consecutive games, never a doubleheader as rare as they are these days. Or, how about a few more Shohei Ohtani’s to play a position and pitch at least a game a week?

How about 11 NFL football players per team who only play on one side of the ball? Pansies!

It seems to me, only the NBA players are criticized for sitting out now and then after having the living daylights beaten out of them by strong defensive players, then traveling for a game the next night or the night after.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Hope is an amazing and powerful human element. It is one of the two most powerful and lasting human conditions – hope and love. … There are thousands of “love songs” but fewer about “hope.”

“Don’t Stop Believing,” by Journey comes to mind. As does, “Land of Hope and Dreams,” by Bruce Springsteen. “I Will Survive” was a song empowering women in the late 1970s and Gloria Gaynor nailed it.

This week, as the 8,040th day passed from September 11, 2001 to September 11, 2023, we mouned once again. That’s 22 years of mourning, of time passing by from the day terror hit New York City, Wash DC, and the sticks of Pennsylvania with the attacks that resonating around the world.

Each year, we learn about another story, another family, another Ground Zero responder falling to cancer from that steaming pit of terror in downtown Manhattan. Each year, the surviving family members pay tribute to their loved ones, telling stories of their lives without their hero. It’s hard and it gets harder every year as some of the newborns or yet-to-be-borns turn 21 or 22 years of age. It’s gut-wrenching.

Every year since moving to Boston and learning of “the man in the red bandana,” known to all as Welles Crowther, a Nyack, NY bred lacrosse player who attended Boston College and accepted a job at Sandler O’Neill + Partners, L.P., which was a full-service investment banking firm and broker specializing in the financial services sector. Crowther always wanted to work on Wall Street, said his mother, Allison, to Tom Rinaldi of ESPN. But, Welles confided in his late father, Jefferson, that he’d go crazy looking at a computer screen for the rest of his life, noting his true calling was as a firefighter, a vocation or a calling he wanted to pursue in the City of New York. He’d already been training as a junior fire fighter in his hometown of Nyack, just north of the city in Rockland County.

Most know Welles’ story. If you don’t, please visit HERE.

In viewing and re-viewing the various features and September 11, 2001 accounts, I learned this year of the fact a few of the injured workers from offices high in the World Trade Center were sitting on the floor, as low as possible, avoiding smoke and intense heat from flames all around them.

They had given up hope. Some chose to jump, as told by my Holy Trinity HS classmate, Tom Junod in Esquire.

How could you ever blame them as they were experiencing unimaginable horror and were also physically injured, some in wheel chairs and unable to walk. They’d given up hope until they encountered Welles Crowther – who spoke to them in calm, confident and definitive terms.

At least a dozen people were motivated enough to follow Crowther to the ONLY open staircase and the only path to a life-saving descent to the lower floors where fire fighters met them and escorted most to safety.

I thought about it again today, as the Boston College football Eagles took to their Chestnut Hill field to play No. 3 ranked Florida State, an expected, one-sided outcome of an Atlantic Coast Conference match-up that was tagged by BC as “The Red Bandana Game.”

On September 14, 2014, this columnist was fortunate enough to experience the inaugural “Red Bandana” game, a first for Alumni Stadium at BC. The opponent? The No. 9th ranked PAC-12 powerhouse, USC. The score? Boston College 37, USC 31. The contest was among the most exciting sporting events I’ve ever witnessed in person. How could it not be?

I remember, being new to Newton/Chestnut Hill back at that time, and watching this Boston College video. It sent shivers up my spine. Please notice the written script, rather than spoken words. I would place this on my MUST WATCH list.

Saturday marked the 2023 version of “The Red Bandana Game” and the BC Eagles came out fighting, taking a 7-0 first quarter lead and trailed by only seven, 17-10, at the half. Hope dwindled at the 11:20 mark of the third quarter with No. 3 Florida State leading 31-10.

That’s just not the way it goes at Boston College on “Red Bandana Game” day. Look up and 31-10 became 31-16, then 31-22 and 31-29 by the 5:19 mark of the fourth quarter.

“This is winnable,” wrote a friend of BC whose daughter graduated two or three years ago.

It was not.

Boston College fell short, but they did what Welles Crowther did for at least a dozen people. They had hope, showed hope. Hope was on display today. Certainly nowhere near the length Crowther was to endure, as it says in John:15 – “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his fellow man” which was later edited to say “friends” instead of fellow ma. That is a passage not lost by the late Jefferson Crowther’s telling of his son’s story.

It wasn’t lost on September 11, 2023.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND —> TIDBITS: The ever-helpful D1-Ticker noted former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr argued the NCAA’s current transfer restrictions violate antitrust law, writing: “After all, it’s the collective power of the NCAA and those 1200 institutions who have imposed punitive limitations on these student-athletes by limiting their ability to transfer. Of course, these limitations apply to absolutely no one else who walks the campus halls or treads on the sports fields of the universities. Administrators, coaches, professors, other students, literally everybody, can jump to a new school with no punitive limitation – except students wanting to play college sports governed by the NCAA. As much as athletes transferring may irritate the schools and fans, there is a fundamental right to do so without any sort of punishment or limitation.” Orr has a point, wouldn’t you say? …

BOSTON BRUINS @ 100: The Boston Bruins unveiled three commemorative Centennial jerseys to be worn during the club’s 100th year, to be celebrated this season of 2023-24. The new jerseys – which were unveiled live during the Centennial Takeoff fashion show event at Logan Airport’s JetBlue hangar – include a new primary home and away look, as well as a vintage alternate expected to be worn for select Original Six® matchups during the coming season.

Developed in conjunction with adidas and the National Hockey League, the Bruins’ Centennial uniform collection pays homage to the club’s 100-year history with both unique and nostalgic highlights. The home and away jerseys carry elements of recent black-and-gold sweaters, but with a festive twist, featuring sparkling “Centennial gold” in place of the traditional Bruins gold. Meanwhile, the alternate jersey, which features brown and gold, is inspired by vintage sweater designs from the club’s origins. All three styles will include a commemorative Centennial patch worn on the right shoulder to mark the historic milestone.

“For reaching such a monumental milestone – our 100th year – we really wanted to do something special with the sweater,” said Bruins President Cam Neely, in a club news release. “(We’re introducing) three bespoke jerseys, each featuring an original crest design as well as unique elements meant to honor a century of Bruins hockey.”

A spin-off of the recent black and white home and away jerseys worn by the Bruins, the Centennial primary uniforms feature new crests, coloring and striping. For the first time since the early 1990s, the club’s primary uniforms are adorned with complementary team crests – a gold-trimmed Spoked-B on the home uniform and a black-trimmed Spoked-B on the road uniform.

Whooo!

NLL DRAFT: One of the great, un-sung events of the sporting calendar, the National Lacrosse League Draft took place this weekend, near Hamilton, Ontario (Canada).

The top lacrosse prospects from North America took the next step in their careers today as the National Lacrosse League conducted its annual Entry Draft, this year held at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre (TRAC).

Hearing their names called first were Dyson Williams (Oshawa, Ontario) by the Albany FireWolves, Adam Poitras (Whitby, Ontario) by the Las Vegas Desert Dogs and Callum Jones (Burlington, Ontario) by the New York Riptide.

The rest of the first round of the 2023 NLL Draft:

(4) Vancouver (from Las Vegas), Payton Cormier (Oakville, Ontario)

(5) Panther City (from Saskatchewan), Ryan Sheridan (Victoria, B.C.)

(6) Georgia, Toron Eccleston (Calgary, Alberta)

(7) Vancouver (from Philadelphia), Brock Haley (Brooklin, Ontario)

(8) Georgia (from Panther City), Jacob Hickey (Toronto)

(9) Vancouver (from Rochester via Las Vegas), Brayden Laity (Maple Ridge, B.C.)

(10) New York (from Halifax), Jake Stevens (Puslinch, Ontario)

(11) Calgary, Bennett Smith (Edmonton, Alberta)

(12) Saskatchewan (from Toronto), Levi Anderson (Calgary, Alberta)

(13) San Diego, Matthew Wright (Oakville, Ontario)

(14) Albany (from Colorado), Nicholas Volkov (Milton, Ontario)

(15) Rochester (from Buffalo), Graydon Hogg (Oshawa, Ontario)

(16) *Rochester (from Calgary), Ben MacDonnell (Oshawa, Ontario)

(17) *Albany, Zachary Young (Oshawa, Ontario)

(18) *Vancouver (from Saskatchewan via San Diego and Philadelphia), Connor O’Toole (Brampton, Ontario)

(19) *Georgia (compensatory selection), Kaleb Benedict (Onondaga, Ontario)

“We recognize the importance of this day to the players selected in the NLL Entry Draft,” said NLL Commissioner Brett Frood. “For our franchises, it is a chance to build and reinforce their rosters, and for fans it’s a peek at the next generation of NLL stars.”

If you haven’t noticed, take a look at the hometowns, cities, provinces and native country of ALL of the players.

BRUNI: Speaking as a former NBA spokesperson, we recently learned of the death of one of our own, Ms. Brunilda B. Gill-Nelson, known to many of us as the beloved, “Bruni Gill.” Ms. Nelson passed away September 4, 2023, most likely from complications from a stroke suffered in 2021. These notices are coming far too often. Friends and family will gather on September 30, 2023 and the family requested, “that everyone please come in color as the family will be dressed in blue. The celebration of life will begin at 10am (ET) and a memorial service starts a 11am at Elmwood United Presbyterian Church, 35 Elmwood Avenue, in East Orange, NJ 07018. … If you didn’t know Bruni, you never entered the NBA office at 645 Fifth Avenue. Hired as a receptionist, Bruni was a beacon for everyone who entered the office. Whether an employee – she knew every single employee’s name and what they did for a living – or a league sponsor, or vendor, or Olympic Tower worker, or player or team GM, or team/franchise owner – Bruni greeted you with a positive vibe, a sincere hello, accompanied by a smile that only Earvin “Magic” Johnson could match. Bruni was later promoted to the NBA Events Department where she performed miracles of event management with her colleagues, proven time-after-time-after-time again. No matter what the issue, Bruni was there and ready to solve it or help solve it. … Without a doubt, she is a Top 5 hire in NBA history – any office, any department, or at any team. There is no one who would dispute that fact. God Bless Bruni, Rest-in-Peace-and-Love with an entire organization and league’s support and condolences to the family. (Note: If you’d like further information or to contribute to the fund to support the memorial service, visit: HERE).

PARTING WORDS & MUSIC: Sometimes I wonder. When someone with the lifetime credentials of a Bruni Gill heads to the Pearly Gates, just what does St. Peter think and do?

A song by Elton John contemplates that situation. It hails from his glorious “Tumbleweed Connection,” and was written about a soldier of war passing to the other side.

This one is dedicated to our Bruni with the thought that if St. Peter needs a new receptionist, I’ve got just the beautiful soul to help out.

Here are buds Rich Pagano (Drums and Vocals), Jeff Kazee (Keyboard) and John Conte (Bass) doing their interpretation of the great “Early Elton” epic: