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heauxplesslydevoted · 4 years

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Silent Treatment (Ethan x MC)

Summary: Naomi decides that if Ethan isn’t going to treat her like a valued member of the team, she’ll teach him a little lesson.

Based on chapter 1, some spoilers for chapter 2, and my own speculation, so read at your own risk.

I highkey hate this but I’m posting it anyway

~v~

Naomi is quiet. No, she is unusually quiet. Ethan has seen her get silent when it’s time to buckle down and focus on a task, or if something is weighing heavily on her, but at this point he knows her well enough to know it’s neither of those. She’s withdrawn, and he doesn’t understand why.

Her presence is hard to miss, the young resident has enough charm and charisma in her pinky finger to dazzle an entire room. And she’s never this quiet. Naomi demands to be heard at all times. With unapologetic vivacity. With her hands. Eyes sparkling when she gets an idea, or fiery when she needs to dig her toes into something and fight. Nothing about Naomi Valentine is ever subdued, so why the hell is she so silent?

She didn’t speak much during the last few team meetings. He and Harper have led all of the conversations, bouncing ideas back and forth, building off of each other’s ideas. Occasionally, Naomi would offer input, merely to agree or disagree with a theory, before going back into her shell.

It’s even bleeding into their personal life. For the better part of the past 3 months, she’s stayed with him, the two of them holed up in his apartment in the Back Bay, but now she’s opting to stay at her own place. It’s been going on a few days now, this random despondence, and Ethan isn’t a fan of it. He’d take it a step further and say it's driving him crazy. This isn’t the woman he’s known for the past two years, even at her lowest was she never this reclusive.

As he walks down the halls of Edenbrook, he spots Naomi, her personality back to what it once was. She’s with Ines at a vending machine, and Naomi wastes no time animatedly talking to the now attending about a fun date she went on with her girlfriend.

Heart hammering wildly in his chest, Ethan swallows thickly as he listens to her talk. He’s missed the sound of her voice, the affectionate way her strong accent curls around her ‘r’s’ and dramatically elongates her ‘o’s’. It becomes clear that she’s willing to talk, just not to him. Ethan doesn’t like that idea at all, but it’s the only one that makes sense. And if that’s the case, he needs to get to the bottom of things and remedy the situation.

“Naomi, can we talk please?” He asks once Ines is no longer in their presence.

He doesn’t miss the way she bristles upon hearing his voice. But Naomi nods anyway. “Sure, what’s wrong?”

“Can we talk in the office?”

The walk back to the seventh floor is marked with awkward silence as Naomi refuses to initiate conversation with him. The more time ticks on, the more anxiety settles in Ethan’s chest. What’s going on with her that she refuses to divulge?

The office is unoccupied when they arrive, as Harper has already gone home for the evening. Naomi stands by the door, opting not to settle into a seat or even move further into the room. Everything about her body language reads that she’s poised and ready to strike at any given moment. He frowns. She’s never been this defensive against him, at least when they’re not in the middle of an argument. “What’s going on?”

“Are you okay?”

The question catches Naomi off guard. She blinks slowly before shrugging in nonchalance. “I’m fine, Ethan.”

“You’re fine? Really?”

“Is there a reason why I shouldn’t be fine?”

“Not really, but you haven’t been acting like yourself recently.”

Because you’ve been quieter than a church mouse for the past few days. You don’t talk during meetings, you’re silent when we interact with the patients, it’s like you’ve completely tuned out.”

With the way he’s been acting, Naomi is almost shocked that he even realized what she’s been doing. Wow, so maybe the great Ethan Ramsey hasn’t lost his attention to detail.

“Oh, so you’ve actually noticed?”

“I’m a diagnostician, I notice everything,” Ethan deadpans. He can feel the sarcasm wafting off of her. “What, was this an intentional act for my attention?”

“Intentional, yes. But for your attention? Not necessarily,” Naomi answers.

His eyes narrow at her, his gaze near piercing. She’s playing some sort of childish game with him, first with not speaking and now with the vague half answers. “Okay, so walk me through your thought process. Why has the cat stolen your tongue?”

“I decided that if my input wasn’t going to be valued during team discussions, I might as well not speak at all.”

Ethan gapes at her, confused. Where did that come from? “Naomi, what on earth are you talking about? When have I ever not valued your input?”

“I’m talking about the fact that for the past two cases, I’ve stood on the sidelines while you’ve either cut me off mid-sentence to talk over me, or ignore my presence altogether. I might as well blend into the wall.”

“That’s not–”

Naomi doesn’t give him the chance to refute. “Please spare me the attempt at arguing. Last week, Harper’s first day on the team, you literally had to circle back to me because you cut me off while I was speaking. And now, we’re working on a case, and you and Harper aren’t even taking this patient seriously! I’ve had to redirect the conversation and tell you guys to focus, because you two were too busy acting like bosom buddies, sharing anecdotes about hangovers, and stupid flamenco lessons, and dates you went on in the past, which is not only inappropriate and disrespectful to the patient’s time, it’s disrespectful to me.”

“So either you are completely oblivious, which I find hard to believe for someone as astute as you are, or you have no respect for me, not just as your colleague, but as the woman you claim to be in a relationship with,” Naomi continues. The floodgates have been opened and now that she’s started, she can’t stop herself. “And maybe it’s the latter, because I set that standard. I’ve let you go days, weeks, months without speaking to me with zero consequence, I’ve let you shut me out and slam doors in my face, make snide comments last year when we were treating Leland, I’ve let you have carte blanche over the pace of this relationship. I’ve always just been here and allowed your shitty social graces and piss poor communication skills to rule, and time and time again, you’ve gone unscathed, but now I’m just really tired of it.”

For the first time in a long, Ethan doesn’t have a clue what to say, and as always, Naomi is the woman who puts him in this position.

“Naomi, you can’t possibly think that I think so little of you.”

He can tell by the way her eyes darken that he put his entire foot in his mouth just now. The warning bells go off in his brain, and he scrambles to think of how he can correct this latest blunder.

Naomi bites down on her lip, and she’s actually shocked her mouth isn’t instantly flooded with the metallic taste of blood. She’s getting Punk’d obviously. The office is bugged, and Ashton Kutcher is going to jump out and announce his presence soon. That has to be it. Ethan has to be pranking her, because there’s no way a 38 year old man could ever be so dense, right? Surely his response to her grievances isn’t to dismiss her claims.

“You know what? You’re being obtuse, and we clearly aren’t getting anywhere, so I’m going to cut this conversation off now.”

She refuses to look like the psycho in this scenario and breathe any more life into this argument, and she’s not about to plead her case any further like she’s the one in the wrong.

Ethan’s eyes soften, and he takes a step forward, arms outstretched to touch, soothe whatever hurts he’s heaped upon her, but Naomi sidesteps, moving out of his reach.

If he wasn’t nervous at the start of this conversation, he is now. If the physical act of Naomi blatantly refusing to touch him wasn’t clear enough, the metaphorical chasm between the two of the just widened by a few yards as well. A chill races up and down the length of his spine.

“Naomi, I’m sorry,” Ethan says gently. “I…” His words taper off and he pauses, struggling for what he wants to say next. This has never been his strong point, being vulnerable.

And Naomi doesn’t offer him a lifeline. She’s not going to give him an out or assuage him of anything he’s currently feeling like she usually does. She’s laid out all of her cards, and things are in Ethan’s court at this point. Like always.

“I’m going home,” she announces. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

~v~

The sun is barely out when Naomi shows up for work in the morning. Most of the hospital is still, the last of the night shift heading out as she’s on her way in. She heads towards the residents’ lounge, wanting to put her things away before checking in on her patients and having a team meeting.

As soon as she opens her locker, she spots a gorgeous bouquet of red roses wrapped in newspaper invading the space. There’s no note attached to the bouquet, and she spared a quick glance around the room to see if anyone else is there. The lounge is empty, save for another resident in the corner, sleeping.

Naomi takes the bouquet out of her locker, careful not to smash the petals and holds it up to her nose, inhaling deeply.

Deciding to not put more thought into where they came from, Naomi simply cradles the bouquet in the crook of one of her arms, stuffs her bag into her locker, and continues on with her morning routine.

She’s passing by the nurses’ station on the 7th floor when someone catches her attention. “Oh Dr. Valentine! You have a special delivery.”

Her steps slow down as she approaches the front desk where Sarah, one of her favorite RNs is stationed. Sarah steps aside, revealing an even larger bouquet of roses, these ones white.

“Where did these come from?” Naomi asks.

“They were delivered about half an hour ago,” Sarah replies with a wink. “No note, though. I won’t let Dr. Ramsey know that you have a secret admirer.”

And that’s when it clicks into place. Memories of her fight with Ethan come flooding back, and it becomes clear that he’s the one gifting her these flowers. Before she even realizes she’s doing it, her eyes roll. If he thinks a couple of bouquets of roses are a good enough apology, he can think again.

Naomi plucks a white rose right from the center of the bouquet and hands it to Sarah. “For you.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“I insist,” Naomi says. “Happy Friday, Sarah.”

“Thank you, Dr. Valentine!”

Seeing the smile on the senior nurse’s face is almost enough to cleanse Naomi of the annoyance she feels towards Ethan in this moment. After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Naomi manages to scoop up this new batch of flowers – they’re in a vase, to which she adds her red ones – and finishes her trek to the office.

She isn’t expecting it to be covered in bunches of bright yellow sunflowers.

Their communal desk is covered in them, along with Ethan’s personal desk and the couch. “What on earth was he thinking?”

“I was thinking that sunflowers are your favorite flower,” Ethan answers, and Naomi jumps, startled at his voice. She whips around and sees him standing in the doorway. “And so I got up well before the sun was shining, went to the Boston Flower Exchange and bought every single one I could get my hands on.”

“And the roses?”

“White is supposed to be symbolic of new beginnings and forgiveness,” Ethan explains. “And you simply can’t go wrong with red.”

“If you think buying me flowers is going to cut it, you must not know me well,” Naomi says. Him buying her things doesn’t impress her, no matter how much she jokes about his money.

“No, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.” Ethan takes a cautious step into the room, shutting the door behind him. A sleepless night without her beside him forced Ethan to do a lot of thinking about how he wanted this conversation to go. A peace offering is always a good start. “And it got you to talk to me.”

Naomi scoffs and sets her flowers down. “Barely.”

“I’m sorry,” Ethan says. “I’m an idiot, and an asshole.”

“It’s good that we can agree on something.”

Okay, it’s clear that she is not going to give him any leeway. “You were absolutely right to call me out on my behavior towards you.”

“Why did you do it?” Naomi asks.

“I wasn’t thinking,” Ethan says simply. “I got so caught up in having Harper on the team, and it’s easy to slip back into old habits without even realizing.”

“It wasn’t a simple one time thing. It was more than once that you and Harper completely forgot I was even there. And I like Harper, I don’t think I could respect her more than I already do, and I have a very healthy sense of self esteem, but even the toughest person on earth wouldn’t like being in my shoes, on the outside looking in while you and your ex reminisce on old dates and inside stories. Ethan, you couldn’t handle a modicum of the shit I have willingly put up with in order to be with you.”

His stomach knots up at the thought of an ex-boyfriend of Naomi’s coming into his personal space, sharing personal jokes with her, ignoring him, and monopolizing her time. If the thought of it had him this twisted, he can’t believe he’s been putting her through that reality.

“You were right to call me out on my bad communication skills. I am terrible at relationships. I’m not using it as an excuse, it’s just the truth. But I’ve gotten complacent, which is unacceptable.” Ethan takes another step towards Naomi, and when she doesn’t instantly recoil, he takes it as a sign to get even closer. “The last thing I ever want to do is stifle your voice, or make you feel invisible. Naomi, you are...invaluable. To this hospital, to this team, to me, and I am so sorry that there was ever a time where I made you feel like you weren’t. You are the most important person in my life, and what we have is something I’ve never had with anyone else.”

“Okay, so start acting like it,” Naomi challenges. “I’m your equal and I demand every bit of respect you have to offer. Anything less than that cannot be tolerated anymore, personally or professionally.”

Ethan nods emphatically at her words. “Of course.”

“I mean it.”

“You have my word, Naomi. I’ll never let it happen again.” He closes the gap between them and cups her face in his hand. “Just please...never give me the silent treatment again. Yell from the rooftops, argue with me, I don’t care, but I can’t take not hearing your voice.”

“You needed to be taught a lesson,” Naomi says simply.

“I learned my lesson, and I hated it,” Ethan confesses, his lips dangerously close to hers. Naomi doesn’t budge, not even an inch. She’s terribly stubborn, even at the end of a fight. “It was torture.”

“Good.” Deciding to put him out of his misery, Naomi tilts her head up and captures Ethan in a kiss. He doesn’t waste a single second returning it. His free hand wraps around the small of her back, pulling her in closer. How did he go this long without touching her?

He doesn’t know how long they’ve been kissing, but he finally breaks apart from her long enough to bury his face in her neck, allowing her scent and soft skin to soothe any of his fraught nerves. She smells like home.

“Does this mean I’m forgiven?” Ethan asks.

“The jury is still out on that one.”

“You’re going to make me work for this, aren’t you?”

“Are you up for the challenge?”

Ethan untangles himself from their embrace and takes a step back, so he’s able to look Naomi in the eyes. He takes her hand and presses a soft kiss into her palm. “For you? I’ll do just about anything.”

~v~

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srhlsx · 5 years

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Rewritten & Reposted March 23, 2021

MASTER | Ch. 4 | CHAPTER 5 | Ch. 6

“I believe when we met you said you didn’t play volleyball.”

You finished pulling the stray strands of hair back into the sloppy top-knot you’d been practicing with all day. Smoothing some flyaways from your vision, you looked up to see Bokuto looking at you from the other side of the net. He had a glimmer in his eyes and the way he looked at you immediately made your mind think that you’d do just about anything if it meant he only looked at you.

Get. A. Fucking. Grip.

“No, I said I wasn’t a manager.” You corrected, straightening up to your full height but still needing to direct your gaze upwards to look Bokuto in the eyes. “You technically never even bothered to ask if I played.”

“I’m familiar with the sport.” Bokuto mocked in a high-pitched voice that was definitely not a good impression of you. “Is, I believe, what you told me.”

“Which is not a lie,” You smirked, bending your knees and jumping up a few times to warm up. When you landed, you licked each of your palms and leaned back to wipe at the bottoms of your shoes - an odd habit you had picked up in middle school that gave you a bit of grounding comfort before any match you played. “I am familiar with the sport. Just more than you expected.”

“A lot more if the other night is anything to go off of.” Bokuto nodded, an intrigued smile growing on his face as he watched your little routine. “So what’s on the line here?”

“You mean like a bet?” You asked, looking over your shoulder to see your teammates were prepared to get started. “Doesn’t seem fair to place a bet on something I’m confident I will be winning, Top Five.”

“You keep calling me that and I’m starting to feel like it’s an insult.” Bokuto laughed, shaking his head and crouching down to get in a good position. “How about, when we win, you start calling me by my name? Maybe give me your number while we’re at it?”

“Two prizes? That’s pretty selfish. Besides, I told you it’s a compliment.”

“Being the highest ranked player you know isn’t much of an accomplishment if you don’t call me by my name.”

“Highest ranking guy,” You corrected, holding up a finger to correct him. He tilted his head slightly to the side as he squinted at you. You looked him straight in the eyes, an unrelenting spark lit up. You extended your hand towards Bokuto before the serve was sent across the court, shaking his quickly. “But you’ve got a deal.”

29-30

The numbers glared at you from the side of the court. Kuroo had currently subbed himself out and was manning the scores while Bokuto, Akaashi, and Tsukki (you learned he preferred Tsukishima, but no way were you going to call him that with that knowledge) were on the court playing. They were on a break away, scoring two points in a row and getting ready to serve again for a chance at a third and winning the whole thing.

Somewhere in the middle of the game, a small audience had grown of other players from different teams who were wrapping up their own side practices. Kuroo chatted animatedly with two boys who were particularly eye-catching, one with blazing hair and stars in his eyes and the other with silver hair and a wingspan that a pterodactyl would envy. In particular, Kuroo and the libero from Nekoma who you recognized nagged at the taller of the two and pointed to your movements, instructing their teammate to mimic your defensive work as he watched.

“Rumi, Hana, call it.”

Your friend and the setter for your team looked over at you expectantly. Her hands rested on her hips and she breathed heavily. “Yes, sergeant?”

Hana stepped up to you as well, rotating her shoulder a few times as she looked to you for ideas on how to turn the game around. You looked over at the group of boys on the other side of the net, huddled together and laughing about who knows what, clearly not too worried about the game they were playing. That made you squint your eyes at them in an attempt at being menacing. It seemed to work as they all paused mid-laugh, feeling a drop in temperature, as they slowly looked over their shoulders to see your expression.

“If you leave the line open, he’s going to take it,” You breathed out, narrowing your eyes as you watched Bokuto and the rest of his team get set up for the next round of play.

“But we’ve been blocking the line fine,” Hana stated, unsure if she heard you correctly. “He’s been hitting cross shots all night and you are catching them fine.”

“Yes, and?” You asked her, pointedly look at her. “He will hit where it is open. Trust me.”

“You don’t need to embarrass him.” Rumi said, stretching her arms with a laugh. “He’s pretty confident, sure, but he’s not completely blind, he might catch onto you.”

“Let him try,” You smirked.

You eyed Bokuto as Hana went back to prepare her serve for the next rally. Bokuto walked up to the net, hands up and prepared to go as he looked down at you with a smirk. He’d managed to get a few spikes to blast past you, but not nearly as many as he would’ve hoped in order to show off.

At first, Bokuto thought it was just luck that you were catching each of his shots and eating up the momentum. Even against Yaku and the Nekoma defense he was able to land more shots than he was against you. It was grinding his gears but exciting him at the same time. Every opportunity he had to land a point home, you met his attempts with equal enthusiasm. Somehow, between the blocking from your teammates and your insane reflexes, he scored fewer and fewer points each rally.

Hana served the ball, sending it easily over the net and to the back of the court where Tsukki was patiently waiting to receive it. The next few moments slowed down time with blinding clarity, a feeling you looked forward to when you were playing games like this.

As he had been doing all night, Akaashi sent the ball in a perfect arc towards where Bokuto was approaching. Hana and Rumi made it very obvious they were not going to be blocking the line this time and shut down the cross he had been going for.

Bokuto saw the opening, of course, and adjusted his body to be able to take the shot. He was thrilled at the chance to show off, it was wide open and the line was practically calling his name. “All right!” He yelled, winding up and slamming his hand into the ball with as much force as he could muster this late into the night.

Rumi was on the outside of the block and at the last second her hand twitched ever so slightly out of the way of the ball. If you weren’t paying attention, you’d never notice, but Akaashi and Tuskkishima did and immediately knew what they had been set up for.

You dashed to the sideline, having set up to look like you were prepared for a cross shot. Your arms were extended in front of you, bracing for the impact and sting of the shot, and as soon as the ball hit your arms you twisted them in the direction you wanted it to go and tucked your arms into your body to kill some of the momentum. In the next few moments you watched with heaving breaths as Rumi set the ball in a high arc and Hana leapt into the air. The resounding slam as the ball hit the floor on the opposite side of the next echoed in the space.

You had rolled backwards in trying to kill the speed and force of Bokuto’s shot, finally getting up to your feet as your teammates came up to you after scoring the point to tie everything up. Rumi reached out and ruffled your hair with a knowing smirk on her face.

“Don’t get too beat up about it, Bokuto-san.”Akaashi walked up to where Bokuto was still standing by the net. “I didn’t call it soon enough.”

“They played you.” Kuroo chuckled as he stepped up to them, nudging a grumbling Bokuto who was simply staring at you. “Besides, Shinzen girl’s are a nationals team, you can’t sleep on them.”

“They won the Interhigh final in straight sets,” Akaashi said, his tone flat but knowing. “Simply calling them a national’s team is barely covering it.”

Bokuto continued to keep his eyes on you even as Kuroo handed him a water bottle. Across the gym you were animatedly talking with Yaku and Hinata.

“That was so cool!” The red haired boy beamed up at you, his hands bunched into fists by his chest as he shook with excitement. “The way you went whoosh and then I thought you’d go bam but instead you went whack!”

“I know!” You matched the boy’s enthusiasm with your own squeal, leaning in closer the more you talked, eyes widening more and more as you jumped on the balls of your feet. “I for sure thought that he was gonna go bomp but instead I was like shoom the other way!”

“Oh my god, there’s two of them.” Rumi said, Akaashi looked at her sideways as she came up to their group and saw a mild look of horror on her face. “She speaks in onomatopoeias when she’s excited, one time she literally only said sound effects for like five minutes.”

Rumi and Akaashi watched as you and the red haired first year continued to talk over some of the plays you had made during the practice game. You waved a hand absently as Hinata imitated a receiving position, Yaku and you both reaching out to correct his arms.

“She’s amazing.”

Rumi glanced sideway in the direction of the voice that had spoken. Even though he was right next to her, Bokuto sounded lightyears away as he simply watched you. His eyes were bright and excited and his body almost looked like it was vibrating in anticipation.

“She is thrilling to watch.” Akaashi commented, also noting the way Bokuto was acting.

“Has…” Bokuto stopped to swallow, his throat suddenly feeling dry. He turned to Rumi, eyes finally tearing away from you a moment later. “Has she always been like that?”

“Like what?” Rumi chuckled. “Intense? Headstrong? Compet-”

“Magnetic.” Bokuto interrupted. He glanced as Akaashi, looking for reassurance that the word he used was appropriate - Akaashi nodded in return. “Has she always been so magnetic? I… can’t stop staring at her.”

Rumi laughed through her nose and simply raised an eyebrow, “You have no idea.”

“She’s a top three Libero,” Akaashi started, his comment making Bokuto whip his head in his direction. “She’s listed but never does any interviews or specials?”

Rumi chewed at her lip for a moment, thinking about how she wanted to answer. Glancing in your direction and seeing you were still deep in conversation with the libero from Nekoma - only now you had a little bigger of an audience since more players had shown up - Rumi turned back to where Akaashi and Bokuto were both still waiting for her.

“(Y/n) has… been through a lot in the last year.” She started vaguely, “Between all that happened, our coach really made an effort to make sure reporters and whatever didn’t bother her.”

“What happened?” Bokuto asked.

“That’s not my business to tell.”

#bokuto koutaro #koutaro bokuto #fukurodani #haikyuu!!#haikyuu #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu!! x reader #bokuto x reader #hq!! x reader #hq!!#hq

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corinthbayrpg · 4 years

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NAME. Leonidas Karatasos AGE & BIRTH DATE. Currently 33, reincarnated on August 11th, 1986 GENDER & PRONOUNS. Male & He/Him SPECIES. Kobalos OCCUPATION. Owner of Hypnos FACE CLAIM. Scott Eastwood

BIOGRAPHY

( tw: war, death, violence, drinking, assault, homophobia, fire, madness ) When Leonidas was born in a small village on the outskirts of Thebes in ancient Greece, he never would have imagined to still be alive an eternity later. He was a lively child, with a knack for games and jokes, a huge smile on his face and a devilish glint in his eyes. He was born into a family that had partaken in the village’s belief in Dionysus for years before he was born. They praised the god of madness and ecstasy day and night and constantly celebrated him. They were known to be just as ecstatic as their god was supposed to be, leading ritualistic dances and sing songs through nights and days. While they thought they believed in the only true religion, and praised the best god there was, outside of their little world many frowned upon them. They were belittled, as well as beaten and laughed at. Other people around Thebes watched them with both worry and disgust. And despite that, Leonidas never wavered in the strong belief that had been burnt into his mind from the moment he was born. It did not matter that the rest of the world thought he was one with a group of crazy people. He would still whisper about it into the ears of those who would listen once he was old enough, ready to spread the belief to anyone who had an open ear for him. He would still take a beating, and rise from it to celebrate another feast for Dionysus.

Though even within the group of the small village, Leonidas was often the one who didn’t like to be in the middle of it all. He liked being just outside of the light, dancing in shadows, and observing some of the more extreme rituals the others partook in. While he was a fan of a life with no boundaries, he sometimes felt bad for the fact that they would plug people from their own lives as if they were no longer needed. He would have gladly stolen a loaf of bread from them, but their entire life? It did not stop him from having fun, of indulging in those aspects of the belief that especially appealed to him. For Leonidas, there was no way he would ever leave them, and so he was still in the only space he thought he belonged when Dionysus finally listened to their prayers. Being granted powers by the god they had prayed to for so long now seemed almost like a surreal dream – but who would say no to the gift of immortality?

The villagers were gifted not only that but also the ability to trick whoever they wanted and conjure illusions by looking into another pair of eyes. The man who was in his mid-twenties at the time couldn’t quite believe his luck. Finally, he had an easy time paying back those that wronged him and those he held close to his heart. He reveled in getting to trick them, in driving them mad when he thought they deserved it. In the end, his first mortal life was still ended by another human who despised the villagers, and beat him until no life was left in his body. He was reincarnated into the village that had always been his home and would be his home once again. While living there, Leonidas loved to connect to the plants around him, learning about their healing abilities and how to use them, while still using his trickster abilities to their fullest. He was hardly seen without an amused sparkle in his eyes or a laugh on his lips. He was good at spreading joy, even better at masking his feelings when he didn’t feel it for once. Back in those days, he thought life could go on like this forever and ever. But of course, it did not. It was between 339 and 338 BC that his life was turned upside down by the war against Philip II of Macedon. Leonidas did not care much about the politics behind the war, though that changed once Thebes was overrun, his family of villagers ripped apart, and most of them sold into slavery. He had a burning hatred for what had happened to the perfect life he lived, and he swore he would never turn a blind eye to politics again. Rich men with great monologues should not rule over those less fortunate.

Leonidas was bought by a young man who was rich and striving to rise up in power to impress his father and his wife-to-be. Little did he know who he had let into his home, for Leonidas hardly wasted any time in using his powers to get himself out of slavery. He used mostly his glamour, but also his silk tongue to whisper promises and stories into his owner’s ears until he no longer believed him to be a slave, but an equal. It was by his side that he managed to get a foot in the door of the regime of Alexander The Great. However, the Kobaloi didn’t make it very far in his quest to undermine the regime, as he found his fate once more by a blade cutting his neck when the man who originally bought him was attacked.

Being reincarnated into the life of a man who became a soldier before he remembered his wish to drive anyone mad who let others fight for them, he once again found himself in the middle of a war. Despite using whatever trick he had up his sleeve, Leonidas didn’t make it far while Alexander The Great was fighting his wars. He fought and fell, just another soldier who died. By the time Alexander died, Leonidas had been reincarnated once more, already irritated with the sensation. He found himself still sticking in Greece, though no longer near his home that Thebes had once been. Now he found himself as part of the Aetolian League, residing in Athens. But the young Kobaloi never actually felt an alliance with anyone. Over time, he slipped from the Aetolian League to the Achaean league, changing his home and supposed alliance to be able to drive the conquering groups mad. He managed to make his way towards those leading wars and fights, giving suggestions on their strategies, while doing the same to the other side not long after. Leonidas, who had originally intended to help out those who were less fortunate, got lost in the pleasure of fueling chaos and madness. He would whisper his way into beds of important people, create illusions to get them to do what he wanted. He enjoyed it, and every death he died throughout the years was worth it. Soldier, advisor, lover, trickster.

But there was one thing that truly messed up his plans and his will to only live for the chaos he could create: finding his soulmate. It was the last thing he had expected to ever happen to him, someone who had very much enjoyed sexual freedom up until that moment, but it took only one look at the man’s face and his heart was captured in an instant – and would never let go of this feeling for the rest of his lives. While Leonidas was gifted an immortal life and reincarnation, the one he chose to fall for lived a very different timeline. The time they got to spend together was never enough before his beloved was called into a veil Leonidas could not quite fathom with his thoughts, forced to stay away from him. Sometimes they got to spend more years together, sometimes barely any time at all. It always seemed to take an excruciatingly long time before they got to reunite, and it drove Leonidas mad. They were apart more than they were together it seemed, and that was unfair in the eyes of the furious Kobaloi. Every time they got separated over the years, he would unleash his emotions in the form of more madness. He made his way through Europe but always made his way back to Greece as if feeling its call. He slipped from court to court, from regime to regime, often masking himself as a charming young man who only had everyone else’s best interest at heart. The reality was, he thrived on making everyone else suffer when his own heart was burning. He loved ruining lives because his own seemed so very broken. When he didn’t find himself among those more fortunate, he was often reincarnated into the life of a man who was fighting yet another war, the pain in his heart overshadowed by that of the violence real life had to offer.

That was his routine for too many centuries. Die painful deaths at war, see excruciating pain, find himself in slavery – or celebrate debaucherous feasts full of ecstasy and madness while driving the rich and influential against one another, and in between that, meet the love of his life only to lose him over and over again. From extreme high to extreme lows, it shouldn’t have been surprising that he suffered. Leonidas mind sometimes didn’t differ so much from those he had driven mad with his own powers. He was angry at the world and angry at the god who had given him these powers – apparently to do nothing more but suffer and see others suffer.

The Kobaloi was the reason for quite a few monarchs going mad over the centuries. Those who loved to torture and throw great feasts often found Leonidas in their court. None of them would have said phrases like “Qu'ils mangent de la brioche” or refer to choices that were sure to make people hate them. He was one of the people King Charles VI of France listened to when enough alcohol was coursing through his system, plenty of his more bizarre moments stemming from conversations with Leonidas. He left the court of King Charles VI in 1393 after a celebration later on known as “ball of the burning men”. Leonidas had fueled the idea of the king to show up to a wedding with some of his men dressed as wildlings, covered in pitch. Four of them ended up burning to death. Leonidas couldn’t have cared less.

Two centuries later, Leonidas was also the reason why Emperor Rudolf II developed a severe case of paranoia. The Kobaloi found it delighting to tell the man that everyone wanted to overthrow and kill him – while his words partly held truth, they were also partly an illusion to make the emperor insecure. And it worked. Leonidas watched from the sidelines as Rudolf II was called unstable and unpredictable. He helped the emperor find people to fuel his love for the occult, watching with glee how he threw himself into false information about the supernatural world, while the real problem was sitting right next to him. Leonidas left the man shortly before he was overthrown by his brother, having lost interest in the man once more. His next life he spent at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden, finding joy in a woman who so clearly held no interest in what was expected of her as a Queen. He helped her dress up in men’s clothing and covered for her when she led women into her bedrooms. It was her who brought him back to Greece eventually, where he settled in Rome until he was hunted and his life ended because some of his neighbors suspected him to be a witch.

With every death, with every monarch driven mad, with every war fought, and with every separation from the love of his life, his sanity seemed to wear thinner. Not many of his deaths were caused by his lack of carelessness when it came to his sexual desires, his celebrations, or his madness. While death had lost all meaning to him over the centuries, dying still didn’t become any easier. Leonidas absolutely hated it, and once again wondered why a god would have given him this sort of gift only to suffer.

Despite his despair, he mostly stuck to Greece since the late 19th century, noticing the call of the veil in Corinth Bay. He lived in the town for some years, before moving elsewhere, feeling unsettled and bored quickly. But he had seen so much of the world already, he didn’t know what else would be able to impress him. From time to time his old love for tricking people around him would burn up with a newfound, undying passion, and it was in those moments that Leonidas would often say he could never get tired of playing games.

But during this time period, he eventually completely lost that spark. Nowadays, he would say that a soul simply is not made to survive forever, and be reborn over and over again. He had seen too much sorrow, and no matter how much he held onto the side of him that was careless and fun-loving, seeing plenty of people he liked die didn’t help either. One could say he suffered through quite a few mid-life crises, those highs, and lows of his never easy to watch. When he lost his lover to death once more, cursed to spend another 100 years without him in the early 20th century, he was simply tired of it all. With no real meaning in life anymore, it sometimes felt like a nuisance to have to go on. Days seemed grey, and any joy of tricking people was lost on him all over again. Leonidas still did it, but it seemed to be as much of a nuisance as everything else. He had lost his fire and passion for life, and a part of him wished that he could just get rid of his reincarnation.

The last time Leonidas died, it was one of his more heroic deaths. He had saved a young woman from a group of men assaulting her, and was stabbed to death on his way home when they recognized him as someone who had kissed a man in the same bar as them not too long ago. Leonidas died, and his gloomy mind stayed with him when he was reincarnated in August 1986. While an older version of himself would have been ecstatic to see the way the world changed, became more open-minded, celebrated festivals and parties, he now attended without seeing any real meaning to it. Where was the point when he had done all of it over and over again? He was missing a part of himself and missing a life that wasmeaningful.

He did not think that Dionysus would ever come into play again. He had given up on his god forever ago, when he stayed silent through too much suffering and too many prayers. Therefore, being called to Corinth Bay where he had lived several times in the past with the promise of a war between Gods, he didn’t know what to expect. He wanted to be mad at Dionysus, mad at these gods fighting each other at the hands of others. While it’s not his first time in the city, he can’t remember ever seeing it crowded by so many supernatural creatures, or with so much brewing underneath the surface. He took over a place he had owned in the past, now a cocktail bar named Hypnos. It was no big trick for him to get the lease signed over to him once more, using the place to judge people, trick them, and figure out which side he really wanted to be on. He is ready to fight – whether he has done more than enough of that in his lifetime or not.

PERSONALITY

+ playful, open-minded, loyal - vengeful, irresponsible, cynical

PLAYED BY LISA. GMT+1. She/Her.

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New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/live-covid-19-global-updates-the-latest-news/

Live Covid-19 Global Updates: The Latest News

Here’s what you need to know:

Health workers preparing to test people for the coronavirus in the northeastern Indian city of Kohima on Saturday.Credit…Yirmiyan Arthur/Associated Press

The world recorded more than one million new cases of the coronavirus in just the last three days, the highest total ever in such short span, a reflection of resurgences in Europe and the United States and uninterrupted outbreaks in India, Brazil and other countries.

The number of new cases is growing faster than ever worldwide. Deaths and hospitalizations in some countries are also beginning to rise, a warning signal of the widespread impact of the current wave. The pandemic has sickened nearly 37 million people and more than one million people have died globally, according to a New York Times database.

A hot spot has emerged in the United Kingdom, which has suffered the highest number of virus-related deaths in Europe. France and Spain are also experiencing a second wave of soaring cases. Argentina, which has seen more than 90,000 new cases in the past seven days, is a hot spot in South America, as are Brazil and Colombia.

However, the United States one of the largest contributors to the surging global tally. On Friday, the country recorded more than 900 new deaths and more than 58,500 new cases, the highest number of new cases it has reported in a single day since mid-August. That tally included single-day case records in nine states: Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, New Mexico, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming. Five of those states announced more cases this week than in any other seven-day stretch of the pandemic, as did Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin.

Within the United States, uncontrolled outbreaks continue to spread in the Upper Midwest and Rocky Mountains, and the Northeast is seeing early signs of a resurgence. In Wisconsin, a long-dormant field hospital at the state fairgrounds is being readied for patients. In New York, officials fear clusters in some neighborhoods and suburbs could spread further.

Still, the number of new cases nationally remains below the levels seen in late July, when the country averaged more than 66,000 per day. Deaths, though still well below their peak spring levels, averaged around 700 per day in October. That is far more than the toll in early July, when the country was in the beginning stages of reopening.

The new highs in the United States come one week after President Trump himself tested positive for the virus and was hospitalized. Though he has returned to the White House and said repeatedly that he feels “great,” he has continued to play down the effectiveness of masks and routinely sidelined his own public health experts. Mr. Trump plans to resume his schedule of campaign rallies and events, which often violate local guidelines on social distancing. He hosted a large outdoor gathering at the White House on Saturday.

Globally, the United States has led the ranking of nations with the highest number of coronavirus infections since late May. However, the spread of the virus in India — which has roughly four times the population of the United States — has put the country on course to overtake the United States. Infections are rippling into the rural corners of India, with more than 500,000 cases in the past seven days among the nation’s 1.3 billion people. In comparison, U.S. has added more than 330,000 cases over the same period of time, according to a New York Times database.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Capitol Building on Friday. On Saturday, she offered little enthusiasm for Republicans’ $1.8 trillion coronavirus relief proposal. Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California on Saturday panned the administration’s latest proposal for a coronavirus relief package — and at $1.8 trillion its largest — telling her Democratic colleagues that a number of divisions remained in her negotiations with the White House, including over aid for families and state and local governments.

“This proposal amounted to one step forward, two steps back,” Ms. Pelosi wrote in a letter to House Democrats. “At this point, we still have disagreement on many priorities, and Democrats are awaiting language from the administration on several provisions as the negotiations on the overall funding amount continue.”

Ms. Pelosi’s lackluster response signaled that the administration’s renewed urgency for a relief package had not managed to bridge the sharp divides and political headwinds that have imperiled efforts to infuse the shuddering economy with tens of billions of dollars in relief.

The $1.8 trillion proposal that Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, put forward on Friday was the administration’s largest offer since bipartisan negotiations began in late summer. The proposal came just days after President Trump abruptly ended negotiations and then reversed course.

Multiple Senate Republicans have voiced concern that any agreement that passes muster with the speaker and her top lieutenants will be too costly for them to secure an agreement.

Ms. Pelosi ticked off a number of stark divides with the administration, including the lack of a national strategy to contain the spread of the virus, and what she deemed to be inadequate funding for child care and supplemental unemployment insurance benefits. Ms. Pelosi also said the administration had not agreed to her push for tax credits to help families.

Democrats have also demanded billions of dollars for state and local governments, and Ms. Pelosi said the administration’s funding level “remains sadly inadequate.”

President Trump returned to the White House on Monday.Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

President Trump, whose progress in recovering from Covid-19 remains unclear, plans to host hundreds of people on the South Lawn of the White House on Saturday afternoon for his first in-person event since announcing that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.

The president is expected to address the crowd from a White House balcony, one of the people familiar with the plans said. His campaign also said that he would hold a rally in Florida on Monday.

Outside medical experts cautioned over the possible spread of the coronavirus at the event, saying that an inappropriately expedited return to the public for Mr. Trump could risk infecting others. It remains unclear how serious Mr. Trump’s illness is, though he has said repeatedly that he feels “great.”

The White House has not been transparent about the severity of Mr. Trump’s illness, which makes it hard to know how long he should isolate. But Mr. Trump was hospitalized Oct. 2 and received treatments that are typically reserved for those who are severely ill. That suggests he may need to isolate until Oct. 21.

One person familiar with the planning for the White House event said that all attendees will be required to wear masks on the complex and would have to submit to temperature checks and a questionnaire in the morning.

But Saturday’s event will also be the first large-scale gathering held at the White House since the ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 26 to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, after which infections among White House staff and other attendees were announced almost daily. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious diseases, said the White House had held a “super spreader event,” an apparent reference to the nomination ceremony.

Both that event, and the one planned for Saturday, violate Washington, D.C.’s mandates prohibiting gatherings of more than 50 people. But because the White House is on federal property, it is exempt from such rules.

In the week after the nomination ceremony for Judge Barrett, the White House also decided not to trace the contacts of guests and staff members.

During the outdoor portion of the ceremony last month, few people wore masks or kept their social distance. But experts say a reception held that day inside the White House was even more risky. There, President Trump mingled with Judge Barrett, her family and prominent Republicans. It is unclear whether the event on Saturday will include an indoor gathering.

On Friday, the Washington, D.C. government set up a new Covid-19 testing site just outside the White House, underscoring concerns by local officials that the administration’s actions were potentially compromising public health for the rest of the nation’s capitol.

“We recommend that if you have worked in the White House in the past two weeks, attended the Supreme Court announcement in the Rose Garden on Saturday, September 26, 2020, and/or have had close contact with others who work in those spaces, you should get a test for Covid,” said a sign at the testing site.

At least one testing site in Washington reported that those seeking a test doubled to 600 on Oct. 5 as residents responded with concern to the cases stemming from the White House and Capitol Hill.

Mr. Trump tends to reject anything that can be read as a sign of weakness or lack of control. At first, Mr. Trump would not wear a mask in public. Now, his behavior and comments after his own hospitalization, amid a widening outbreak within his circle, have also exposed a White House that flouted the basic precautions endorsed by its own health experts.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has mounting pressure to speak out against the Trump administrations handing of the coronavirus. Credit…Pool photo by Alex Edelman

Pressure is mounting on the leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to speak publicly against the White House’s manhandling of C.D.C. research and public health decisions, with demoralized career scientists talking of quitting if President Trump wins re-election.

The situation came to a boiling point this week when William H. Foege, a giant in public health who led the C.D.C. under Democratic and Republican presidents, called for its current director, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, to “stand up to a bully” — he meant Mr. Trump — even at the risk of being fired.

“Silence becomes complicity,” he said in an interview, after a private letter he wrote to Dr. Redfield leaked to the news media.

Dr. Redfield’s recent memo clearing Vice President Mike Pence to participate in the vice-presidential debate on Wednesday, even as the White House became a coronavirus hot spot, infuriated health experts. Nearly a dozen current and former C.D.C. officials called the letter highly inappropriate.

And Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Senate health committee, said she told Dr. Redfield in a private telephone conversation last month that he had to take a stand.

“What I said to him was that my concern was about the agency’s credibility today — and the agency’s credibility that we need as a country in the future,” Ms. Murray said in an interview. “This isn’t just about right now. If we lose all the really good scientists there, if people don’t believe the C.D.C. when they put out guidance, what happens in the next flu outbreak? What happens in the next public health crisis?”

C.D.C. scientists know that their work will invariably collide with politics, but they have never seen anything quite like what is happening under Mr. Trump.

The White House successfully pressured the agency to revise guidelines on matters like school reopenings, church gatherings and whether cruise ships can sail. The C.D.C. was forced, over the objections of its own scientists, to post guidelines that suggested asymptomatic people should not be tested. (That was ultimately reversed.) And the White House thwarted a C.D.C. plan to require individuals to wear masks on all U.S. commercial transportation.

“What has happened at C.D.C. has been horrifying to see,” said Dr. Mark Rosenberg, who pioneered public health research into gun violence at the C.D.C. but was pushed out after Republicans in Congress effectively cut off funding for his work. “It’s been terribly demoralizing to people who have been working 16 and 17 hour days for weeks or months at a time while taking on Covid-19.”

Dr. Redfield declined to comment.

Current C.D.C. employees contacted would not speak on the record for fear of reprisal, but the sense of despair is clear. Many view public health as a calling, and remain at the agency knowing that they could earn much higher salaries working in industry.

Most current and former C.D.C. officials acknowledge that Dr. Redfield is in a terrible position, working for a president who regards the agency’s scientists as members of a so-called deep state out to get him. Unlike Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top epidemiologist, he is a political appointee and lacks Civil Service protections. And unlike the F.D.A. commissioner, he cannot turn to a powerful industry constituency like pharmaceuticals to back him up.

Some say it would be unwise for him to step down, for fear of his successor.

“What happens if 50 of the top scientists at C.D.C. say, ‘We’ve had it, we’re leaving?’ Does that leave the country better off or worse off?” asked Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, who served as the C.D.C. director under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and regularly met Dr. Redfield for lunch before the pandemic. “I suspect that Dr. Redfield is asking himself the same question.”

In Malaga, Spain, this summer. Last week, the central bank said the country’s economy could contract 12.6 percent this year.Credit…Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

What faint hopes remained that Europe was recovering from the economic catastrophe delivered by the pandemic have faded as the virus has resumed spreading rapidly across much of the continent.

After sharply expanding in the early part of the summer, Britain’s economy grew far less than anticipated in August — 2.1 percent compared with July, the government reported on Friday, adding to worries that further weakness lies ahead.

Earlier in the week, France, Europe’s second-largest economy, downgraded its forecast for the pace of expansion for the last three months of the year from an already minimal 1 percent to zero. The national statistics agency predicted that the economy would contract 9 percent this year.

The diminished expectations are an outgrowth of alarm over the revival of the virus, which has prompted President Emmanuel Macron to announce new restrictions, including a two-month shutdown of cafes and bars in Paris and surrounding areas.

In July, with infection rates down and lockdowns lifted, many European economies expanded strongly as people returned to shops, restaurants and vacation destinations. The most optimistic economists began celebrating a so-called V-shaped recovery, featuring a bounce-back just as steep as the plunge that preceded it.

But Spain’s central bank governor said this week that new restrictions to slow the virus’s accelerating spread could produce an economic contraction of as much as 12.6 percent this year.

And the European Central Bank’s chief economist said on Tuesday that the 19 countries that share the euro currency might not recover from the disaster until 2022, with those that are dependent on tourism especially vulnerable.

President Trump on the Truman Balcony of the White House on Monday after being discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

President Trump’s campaign has started airing a television ad focused on his coronavirus infection, an attempt to reset the way voters view the president on a major issue in the election.

A majority of voters have a negative view of Mr. Trump’s handling of the virus, according to public opinion polls. The spot seeks to use his release from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as evidence that he is on top of a virus he has repeatedly played down.

“President Trump is recovering from the coronavirus, and so is America,” the ad’s narrator says. “Together, we rose to meet the challenge, protecting our seniors, getting them lifesaving drugs in record time, sparing no expense. President Trump tackled the virus head-on, as leaders should.”

The ad then cuts to an interview with Dr. Anthony S. Fauci from the end of March, when the virus was just starting, saying, “I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.” Dr. Fauci, the country’s top epidemiologist, has tangled with the White House for much of the year over its coronavirus response.

The ad concludes: “We’ll get through this together. We’ll live carefully, but not afraid.”

Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, has been released from the hospital, a week after testing positive for the coronavirus.Credit…Al Drago for The New York Times

Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, said in a tweet on Saturday that he had been released from the hospital that morning, one week after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Mr. Christie is one of at least a dozen people who tested positive in the days after attending a Sept. 26 Rose Garden event for Judge Amy Coney Barrett and had huddled with President Trump and his close advisers during debate preparations just days before Mr. Trump tested positive.

Mr. Christie, who is overweight and has a history of asthma, said last week that he had checked himself into Morristown Medical Center in consultation with his doctors.

“I am happy to let you know that this morning I was released from Morristown Medical Center,” he wrote on Twitter. “I want to thank the extraordinary doctors & nurses who cared for me the last week. Thanks to my family & friends fro their prayers.”

He ended his message with an intriguing pledge: “I will have more to say about all of this next week.”

I am happy to let you know that this morning I was released from Morristown Medical Center. I want to thank the extraordinary doctors & nurses who cared for me for the last week. Thanks to my family & friends for their prayers. I will have more to say about all of this next week.

— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) October 10, 2020

Since the early days of the pandemic, the White House has regularly used rapid coronavirus tests to screen staff members and guests for the coronavirus because they are fast, portable and easy to operate.

These tests, however, frequently miss infections in people without symptoms. Nevertheless, those who tested negative would often skip other precautions, like wearing a mask or social distancing.

And while officials had given the impression that Mr. Trump was getting tested every day, the White House has since conceded that tests were not as frequent and has refused to reveal the last time Mr. Trump tested negative.

Guests at the reception for Judge Barrett were said to be tested. Part of the event was indoors, and photographs show few masks among the guests there, or later in the larger outdoor portion.

The president also huddled with advisers for maskless preparation sessions ahead of the first presidential debate on Sept. 29.

Several of those involved besides Mr. Christie have said they have since tested positive, including Kellyanne Conway, a former White House adviser; Hope Hicks, a current adviser; and Bill Stepien, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager.

Police officers in Palm Tree, N.Y., handing out face masks to residents this week.Credit…Kevin Hagen for The New York Times

In Palm Tree, N.Y., a town of 26,000 residents where life revolves around family, religious services and prayer, the percentage of coronavirus tests coming back positive is at least 15 percent, among the highest in New York. There are more than 200 active cases, enough to place this Orthodox Jewish community northwest of New York City into a state-ordered “red zone” with strict new restrictions on synagogue capacity and public gatherings.

Yet on Wednesday, as men and boys streamed out of prayer services at Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar for the holiday of Sukkot, most were not wearing face masks.

Dina Aker, 67, walked by the synagogue, also not wearing a mask. Her husband, 73, caught the coronavirus in May, despite being mainly confined to their home, she said. That left her feeling that there was no utility to masks and that new lockdown measures would only prolong the disease’s spread.

“I pray every day, ‘Please, my lovely God, make it finish,’” she said.

The peaceful scenes during Sukkot, where families gather in open-air, leaf-covered booths in a celebration of the fall harvest, were interrupted by a loudspeaker atop a town police car outside a shopping center, with a recording in Yiddish and English warning of a spike in cases in the area and emphasizing the importance of wearing masks.

A police officer standing near the car handed out disposable masks.

Public health officials and experts say that factors driving an uptick in the ultra-Orthodox enclaves north of the city include a distrust of scientific messaging and secular authority, a dedication to communal life, dense living conditions, and fatalism about the virus brought by a traumatic spring of death and sickness.

Supporters during a Trump campaign rally at the Fayetteville Regional Airport in Fayetteville, NC.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

This week, Joseph R. Biden Jr. dismissed President Trump’s reluctant attitude toward wearing masks as “this macho thing.”

Tomi Lahren, a conservative commentator and Fox Nation host, countered that Mr. Biden “might as well carry a purse with that mask.”

Some experts who study masculinity and public health say the perception that wearing masks and following social distancing guidelines are unmanly has carried a destructive cost. The virus has infected more men than women and killed far more of them.

Men’s resistance to showing weakness — and their tendency to take risks — was demonstrated by scientists long before Covid-19. Studies have shown men are less likely than women to wear seatbelts and helmets, or to get flu shots. They’re more likely to speed or drive drunk. They are less likely to seek out medical care.

Some initial research indicates a similar pattern is playing out with the coronavirus. Surveys have found that women are more likely than men to wear masks in the United States.

If you wear a mask, said Peter Glick, a professor of social sciences at Lawrence University, “the underlying message is: ‘I’m afraid of catching this disease.’”

This is not a new problem for those who work in public health messaging.

It tends to be more difficult to reach those who identify strongly with traditional masculine characteristics. As an example, the more someone identifies with those masculine traits, the less likely that person will be to use condoms during sex, according to Stacey Hust, an associate professor of communication at Washington State University.

“I think that translates really clearly into why some men choose not to wear masks,” she said. “It’s really about not wanting to show weakness or fear, not wanting to show any vulnerability.”

Police officers on duty at a protest this week in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn over new restrictions.Credit…Mark Abramson for The New York Times

A federal judge on Friday allowed Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to move forward with new restrictions on gatherings at synagogues and other houses of worships, finding that the rules did not violate the free exercise of religion for Orthodox Jews.

The ruling in federal court in Brooklyn came after Agudath Israel of America, a national Orthodox Jewish organization, sued Mr. Cuomo this week over an executive order detailing restrictions to address rising coronavirus cases in neighborhoods with large populations of Orthodox Jews.

After an emergency hearing on Friday, the judge declined to temporarily block the executive order ahead of three Jewish holidays over the weekend. She said she sympathized with the order’s impact on the Orthodox Jewish community, but rejected the argument that Mr. Cuomo had unconstitutionally targeted a religious minority.

“How can we ignore the compelling state interest in protecting the health and life of all New Yorkers?” said Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto of Federal District Court in Brooklyn.

When announcing the executive order, Mr. Cuomo set new capacity limits for houses of worship. In zones with the highest positivity rates, houses of worship would be limited to 25 percent capacity or a maximum of 10 people, while those in a less severe hot spot could have 50 percent capacity.

Lawyers for Agudath Israel, an umbrella group with affiliated synagogues around the country, argued that the new rules were unconstitutional because they prevented Orthodox Jews from exercising their religion. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn also filed a similar lawsuit against Mr. Cuomo on Thursday.

The judge’s decision means that Mr. Cuomo can impose the new restrictions as the lawsuit progresses.

A trial site for Regeneron and Eli Lilly in Mesa, Ariz.Credit…Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

In a five-minute video posted to his Twitter account on Wednesday, President Trump stood in front of the White House and offered a lavish endorsement for a treatment he had received while hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

“They gave me Regeneron, and it was like, unbelievable — I felt good immediately,” he said, referring to an experimental cocktail of monoclonal antibodies produced by the pharmaceutical company Regeneron. “I want everybody to be given the same treatment as your president.”

The president’s video raised many questions, including whether the antibody cocktail could have such a significant effect in such a short time. (Some physicians were skeptical.)

But for the question of how he planned to ensure that a therapy not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration would soon be available, he had an answer: “I have emergency-use authorization all set,” he said in the video. “And we’ve got to get it signed now.”

Vaccines, drugs and medical devices sold in the United States generally require F.D.A. approval. But for more than 15 years, the agency has had the authority, when certain conditions are met, to grant emergency-use authorizations, which allow the sale of unapproved medical products.

It has used such authorizations during several disease outbreaks, including H1N1 flu in 2009 and Zika in 2016, but the coronavirus has brought their deployment on a new scale.

Since February, the agency has granted more than 300 Covid-related emergency-use authorizations, and many observers expect that Covid vaccines will first be made available in the United States under a such a procedure.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain has not been able to shed the perception that after his bout with the coronavirus, “he’s lost his élan and brio,” as one analyst put it.Credit…Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

President Trump got a well-wishing phone call this past week from one of the few foreign leaders who knows what he’s been going through: Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, the survivor of a serious brush with the coronavirus this spring.

Mr. Trump seized on the call as another opportunity to boast of a swift recovery from Covid-19. But he should take little comfort from Mr. Johnson’s experience — and not just because the prime minister ended up in an intensive-care unit.

Six months after being released from the hospital, Mr. Johnson has yet to shake off questions about the effects of the disease on his energy, focus and spirit, and the idea that his illness has become a symptom of his broader political decline.

“It’s a metaphor for his government, and that’s affecting him personally,” said Jonathan Powell, who was chief of staff to Tony Blair when he was prime minister. “He looks like the wrong man for the job at this time.”

Despite his efforts, Mr. Johnson has not been able to recapture the public buoyancy that propelled him to a landslide election victory last December.

A speech he gave to his Conservative Party’s annual conference on Tuesday “was palpably a chance to shake off the sense that he’s half the man he used to be, that he’s lost his élan and brio,” said Andrew Gimson, one of Mr. Johnson’s biographers.

“But he hasn’t been able to shake it off,” Mr. Gimson said.

The C.D.C. order would have been the toughest federal mandate aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drafted a sweeping order last month requiring all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transit in the United States, but it was blocked by the White House, according to two federal health officials.

The order would have been the toughest federal mandate to date aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, which continues to infect more than 40,000 people in America each day. The officials said that it had been drafted under the agency’s “quarantine powers” and that it had the support of the secretary of health and human services, Alex M. Azar II, but the White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, declined to even discuss it.

The two officials said the order would have required face coverings on airplanes, trains, buses and subways, and in transit hubs such as airports, train stations and bus depots.

A task force official said the decision to require masks should be left up to states and localities.

The thwarting of the mask rule is the latest C.D.C. action to be stalled or changed by the White House. Late last month, the coronavirus task force overruled an order by the agency’s director to keep cruise ships docked until mid-February. That plan was opposed by the tourism industry in Florida, an important swing state in the presidential election.

Political appointees at the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services have also been involved in rewriting the agency’s guidelines on reopening schools and testing for the virus, bypassing the agency’s scientists.

#covid #World

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queeranarchism · 7 years

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The Purge Of Transgender People From American Life Has Begun

Sorry about the long post everyone. Huffingtonpost.com posted this article by Brynn Tannehill on 4 September 2017 and deleted it roughly 2 days later. To preserve the content, please share, reblog and above all copy-paste and post on your own and on different media. No need to credit me. Steal and distribute.

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Two years ago, the Family Research Council (FRC), an Evangelical Christian anti-LGBT hate group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), published a road map laying out a plan to morally legislate the transgender community in the US out of existence. I wrote about the danger posed by this plan in January of 2016 in an article titled “And Then They Came for Transgender People,” deliberately echoing the words of Martin Niemöller.

Today, the FRC has unprecedented access to the White House according to its President, Tony Perkins. Evangelical leaders associated and aligned with the FRC routinely pray in the Oval Office over President Trump, who keeps them as his closest allies. Five members of Trump’s evangelical executive advisory board, including the founder of the FRC James Dobson, signed the Nashville Statement. The Nashville statement dictated that transgender people should not be tolerated in society, and that anyone who tolerates them is not a Christian.

If ever the FRC was to have a chance to drive transgender people out of public life, this is it.

All the evidence says that they are taking advantage of this relationship to full effect against transgender people. Such a close relationship has resulted in an unprecedented regression of transgender rights. Heidi Beirich, the intelligence project director of the SPLC described the situation: “If anybody is winning big-ly from Trump’s policies, its these folks, right? It’s the anti-LGBT hate groups and their various allies among conservatives.”

Thus, let’s take a look at the steps the White House has taken so far to enact the Family Research Council’s five-point plan to rid the country of a small, vulnerable, minority with already limited legal protections.

1. States and the federal government should not allow legal gender marker changes.

This is the area where the least has been done. The most important places for transgender people to change their gender markers at the federal level are on their passports (issued by the Department of State) and with the Social Security Administration.

President Trump has yet to nominate a permanent commissioner to the Social Security Administration, and the acting commissioner is a career civil servant. Should the administration nominate someone aligned with the FRC, the current lenient policy could be endangered.

The State Department is headed by Rex Tillerson who, as CEO of Exxon-Mobile, steadfastly refused to implement corporate LGBT protections until it was mandated by an Obama Administration executive order. At the time, Exxon had the lowest corporate equality score in the history of the index. However, Tillerson’s State Department has reportedly struggled with dysfunction, unfilled positions, and low morale. State has often been sidelined by a White House seemingly intent on conducting foreign policy on its own.

Thus, in an organization struggling to achieve many of its primary functions, minutiae such as policy governing changing gender markers on birth certificates seems to be a low priority. This could change, however, if Tillerson resigns (as has been rumored), and is replaced by someone more ideologically aligned with the FRC.

2. Transgender people should not have any legal protections against discrimination, nor should anyone be forced to respect their identity.

One of the first acts of the Trump Administration was the Departments of Justice and Education revoking Obama era protections for transgender students. The DOJ also dropped its lawsuit against North Carolina, despite the state passing a law there preventing all protections for LGBT people. The Trump / Session Department of Justice has additionally argued in court that sexual orientation is not protected by Title VII. This affects most transgender people, since they are usually seen as LGB either before or after transition.

In February the Trump administration leaked a draft executive order which would have granted sweeping religious exemptions to Obama Administration executive orders protecting LGBT federal employees and contractors. Substantial pushback ensued, and a much weaker version was issued several months later. There has been a continued push by the FRC to issue an executive order like the leaked first draft.

In the end, though, the protections for LGBT federal contractors have been effectively gutted. On March 27th Trump signed an executive order that nullified an Obama administration initiative to ensure that federal contractors complied with labor and civil rights laws forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Trump has installed people with long histories of anti-LGBT statements in many top appointed positions in the Federal government. This includes Sam Clovis at the USDA, Jeff Sessions at DOJ, Ben Carson at Housing and Urban Development, Sam Brownback to the UN, John K. Bush, Damien Schiff, and Amy Coney Barret to the judiciary, Mike Pompeo at the CIA, Betsy DeVos at Education, Jim Bridenstine at NASA, and Tom Price , Roger Severino, Charmaine Yoest, Teresa Manning (who was a legal counsel at FRC), Valerie Huber, and Katy Talento at Health and Human Services (HHS).

Additionally, Trump’s appointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch, appears to be innately hostile to the idea of inherent human rights for LGBT people unless specifically enumerated by law. In an unpublished opinion he concurred with the argument that letting transgender people use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity is a threat to public safety. He was also one of the judges in the 10th Circuit in Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius, where he decided that companies should have the religious right to discriminate against classes of employees. At the Supreme Court, he has already argued that states have the right to discriminate against LGBT people, because they are not specifically protected by federal law.

Thus, a court with one more Trump appointee like Gorsuch is unlikely to halt whatever the federal government decides to do to transgender people.

And Justice Kennedy appears ready to retire in 2018.

3. Transgender people should not be legally allowed to use facilities in accordance with their gender identity.

The agency with the most power to do this at the Federal level is the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which regulates working conditions of federal workers, and to a lesser extent contractors. Currently, the OPM has a policy protecting transgender federal employees and contractors. The Trump administration nominated George Nesterczuk to the top position at OPM, but he withdrew his name from consideration on August 2nd 2017.

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The withdrawal of support from transgender students by Education and Justice is the most direct attack to date on access to public facilities. However, if the Trump administration were to appoint someone affiliated with the FRC like Kay Cole James (who headed OPM under President George W. Bush), to run OPM, it would be a clear signal of intent to impose a more hostile policy.

4. Medical coverage related to transition should not be provided by the government, or any other entity.

The Trump administration has done a great deal to ensure transgender people cannot access health care. They have appointed people who oppose all transition related care for religious reasons (Tom Price, Roger Severino, Charmaine Yoest, Teresa Manning, Valerie Huber, and Katy Talento) to top positions at Health and Human Services. They have reversed the Department’s position on Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which was previously interpreted to prevent discrimination in health care against transgender patients (i.e. their organization now takes the position that there is nothing illegal about discriminating against transgender patients).

This has potentially devastating consequences including: a religious right to refuse care to patients, a right to verbally abuse them through misgendering, and subjecting them to conversion therapy. One in six hospitals in the US are now Catholic owned, and in some states 40% of hospital beds are in Catholic hospitals.

Additionally, the Trump administration has ordered that new medical care for transgender service-members will cease. In 2015, OPM ordered that Federal Employee Health Benefit (FEHB) plans would no longer be allowed to exclude transition related health care for transgender federal employees. This could change quickly if the administration installs an anti-LGBT director at OPM.

5. Transgender people should not be allowed to serve in the military.

This is by far the most publicized attack by the administration on the transgender community. On July 26th 2017 President Trump tweeted that “transgenders” would no longer be allowed to serve the military “in any capacity”. A month later the White House issued a formal order to the Pentagon to end medical treatment, force out existing transgender service members, and forbid transgender people from joining the military. The DoD was not consulted, and Secretary of Defense Mattis had defended the policy allowing transgender people to serve. White House officials went on the record stating that this policy decision was purely political to score point with mid-Western voters.

The OPM is responsible for issuing most security clearances. If they were to refuse clearances to transgender federal employees and federal contractors, it would effectively complete a purge of the federal service of transgender people.

Conclusion:

Where possible, the Trump administration is doing almost everything they can to implement the Family Research Council’s strategy. Where they are not, it appears to be because they have not put people in place to implement it yet.

Deciphering how far this goes will depend greatly on who the next Director at OPM is. OPM controls policy for recognizing gender changes, access to facilities, FEHB plans, and security clearances. Watch this nomination process carefully; it is likely to signal how far this administration is willing to go to appease a group bent on cultural genocide.

Also, watch for Kennedy’s retirement. There’s a high probability that his replacement will be ideologically indistinguishable from Gorsuch regarding transgender people, given ultra-conservative organizations are doing the vetting for the Administration. Thus, it’s unlikely that the courts will do anything to intervene after Kennedy retires. As a result, the Trump Administration, and the FRC, may wait until Kennedy has been replaced to implement the worst of their agenda (such as revoking passports and security clearances) against the transgender community.

Finally, keep an eye on Rex Tillerson. If he leaves, and is replaced by a FRC-approved ideologue, passports are in danger. This is a red-line from a historical perspective. If the US State Department revokes the passports of people who have changed their gender markers and demands that they be surrendered, it’s a sign that the government doesn’t want transgender people to escape what happens next.

#transgender #transgender rights #huffingtonpost #Family Research Council #transphobia

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jaybear1701 · 7 years

Text

Cheer

A quick Wayhaught AU ficlet inspired by that cheerleader clip from the S2 trailer (y’all know the one). Enjoy!

“Heads up!”

Nicole threw up her hands and managed to catch the basketball hurtling on a collision course with her face. If she had been even half a second late, her nose would have been broken… again… and for very much the same reason as the last time.

Her palms smarted from the impact, but she covered up a grimace as she took a jump shot from the top of the key and hit nothing but net.

“That all you got, Cap?” She asked Xavier Dolls with a cocky smile. “I swear my great granny could throw a pass sharper than you.”

The point guard’s eyes narrowed, lips forming into an unamused line as he fielded the ball and casually dribbled it toward Nicole.

“Just making sure you’ve got your eye on the prize, Haught,” Dolls said. “And not other… distractions.”

His gaze slid pointedly toward the sidelines where the cheerleaders were warming up. Some stretched their legs in an impressive showcase of nimble flexibility. Others rehearsed memorized chants, projecting their shouts well over the constant ricochet of basketballs off hardwood and the noisy crowd slowly filling the bleachers.

It took all of Nicole’s will power, every single last drop, to not turn her head back toward a particular set of cheerleaders rehearsing a dance routine, their hips sensually gyrating and snapping to the driving beat of a bass-heavy track.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nicole said, praying that Dolls would attribute the flush spreading across her cheeks to exertion from pregame drills and not from watching said cheerleaders. Or rather, one cheerleader in particular. One with long brown hair that seemed to float in slow motion with every twist and turn. One who made Nicole’s palms sweat with the way her midnight blue and white crop top and skirt fit snugly over the curves and plains of her toned body. One who, for months on end, could turn Nicole into mush with nothing more than a simple smile and wave.

“Uh huh.” Dolls canted his head to the side, not buying her feigned ignorance in the slightest. “You should tell her, you know.”

“Tell who what?” Nicole deflected, feinting movement to her right before cutting back left and stealing the ball from Dolls mid-dribble. She drove the ball up the paint, swift and sure. This, at least, came easily for Nicole. Much easier than admitting her apparently obvious crush on one Waverly Earp.

Nicole launched herself in the air for a layup she normally could perform in her sleep, but made the mistake of glancing to the side at the last second in the hopes that Waverly was watching. To Nicole’s surprise, Waverly was not only watching, but walking toward her. Nicole’s stomach dropped and she faltered. Not by much. But enough for her shot to miss its mark. Nicole stared in humiliation as the ball hit the bottom of the metal hoop with a loud clang and rebounded back down, just barely missing the top of her head. The ball bounced toward Dolls, who placed a hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh.

“Sorry.” Waverly winced as she approached Nicole. Her sinfully short skirt swished with every step and Nicole swallowed, hard. “Didn’t mean to distract you.”

“You didn’t,” Nicole answered, perhaps a bit too quickly, mortified. She tried her best to ignore the smirks coming from the rest of her teammates. She inwardly groaned, dreading the inevitable ribbing she would never hear the end of later. “I’m just um…”

“A wee bit nervous?” Waverly asked with an understanding half-grin. “I’d be too. Provincial championship and all.”

“Uh, yeah, maybe a bit.” Nicole awkwardly scratched the back of her head. “Big game.”

Truth was, she wasn’t nervous, not about the game at least. She felt nothing but confidence that she and the guys would give it their all. That, no matter what the scoreboard said at the final buzzer, they’d be winners. They were first co-ed team in Calgary, from the little podunk town of Purgatory no less, to reach the final. No, it wasn’t the game that made her pulse race and her stomach flutter. Not the game at all.

“You shouldn’t be,” Waverly insisted. She reached out and gently brushed Nicole’s fingers with her own. “You’re gonna be amazing. Like always.”

Nicole melted from the softness of Waverly’s touch and the affection in her warm brown eyes. “Thanks Waves.”

“Anytime.” Waverly smiled brightly before her features morphed into a mock stern expression. “But just so you know, win or lose, I still expect to see you bright and early tomorrow for our study session, missy.” She wagged a finger. “Or else.”

“Or else what?” Nicole arched an eyebrow. “You gonna punish me?”

The tips of Waverly’s ears turned pink. “Maybe.”

“Promise?” Nicole didn’t know what possessed her to say it, but now that it was out there, she couldn’t take it back. She would have cringed and apologized if not for the adorable way Waverly began to sputter, her eyes growing wide.

“Um,t-that’s,” Waverly shook her head. “Y-you don’t actually have to come over. I know it’s going to be a late night and–”

“I’m kidding, Waverly,” Nicole assured her, secretly pleased she wasn’t the only one flustered. “Of course I’ll be there.”

In all honesty, a portal to hell itself would have to open up in the ground and swallow Nicole whole for her to miss a tutoring appointment with Waverly. Not only did the sessions do wonders for Nicole’s grades in Canadian history–something the American transplant had desperately needed–they let Nicole spend as much time as possible with her favorite person.

Biting the corner of her lip, Waverly glanced down at her bright white cheer shoes before shyly peeking back up at Nicole. “Really?”

“Really.” Nicole held Waverly’s gaze until the shrill sound of a whistle cut through the air.

“Haught!” Her coach yelled. “Quit yer flirtin’ and get back to your drills.”

Her teammates guffawed and Nicole was sure her face was burning brighter than her newly cut hair.

Waverly, whose cheeks were also tinged a dark pink, awkwardly tucked her own hair behind her ears. “You’d better get back to it,” she said.

“Yeah,” Nicole agreed, apologetic. “You too.”

She turned on her heel, sneakers squeaking on the polished wood, and made it a few steps away before Waverly called out, “Nicole!”

Nicole swiveled back in time to watch Waverly march up to her, determination etched across her face. Before Nicole could react, Waverly braced her hands on Nicole’s shoulders, rocked up on the balls of her feet, and kissed her cheek.

“For luck,” Waverly whispered, breath puffing against Nicole’s skin. “Go get ‘em, Haughtshot.” She smiled brightly one last time before bounding back toward her squad.

Nicole remained rooted to the spot, her mind wiped blank from the sweet scent of Waverly’s perfume: honey and wildflowers. Somehow, she resisted the urge to touch her still tingling cheek as a slow grin spread across her face. Euphoric shock coursed through her, making her both giddy and determined. Fired up. Ready to go.

Before she could bask in it for too long, someone playfully clipped her shoulder. She turned to see Dolls giving her an annoying smirk as he dribbled past.

“So, now are you gonna tell her?” He asked.

Nicole didn’t answer. Instead, she shook her head and stole the ball from Dolls again. Ran a fast break toward the hoop on the opposite side of the court, the speed of her dribble matching the thundering pace of her heart. She didn’t look toward the sideline. She didn’t need to. Nicole felt Waverly’s eyes on her, rooting for her every step of the way.

And this time, when she leapt into the air, she scored.

#wayhaught #wynonna earp #waverly earp #nicole haught #wayhaught fanfic

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usatrendingsports · 7 years

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How Dan Hurley lastly chilled out — and Rhode Island roared louder than ever

KINGSTON, R.I. — Dan Hurley’s holding court docket in his workplace, riffing on his awe of Brad Stevens. Massive fan now. However again then, when Hurley was sucking wind by means of a debut season at Rhode Island? He actually did not need to be one other devotee of all people’s favourite teaching prodigy.

“Whenever you meet that man, like I did not need to like him,” Hurley mentioned.

It was the 2012-13 season. Butler was in its one-year stay-over within the Atlantic 10 in between leaving the Horizon League and becoming a member of the Massive East. Rhode Island’s solely matchup towards Butler that season got here 20 video games into its schedule. It was a street recreation, and URI was a nasty group.

First, some fast context. Hurley has spent greater than 20 years as a basketball coach. He lifted New Jersey’s St. Benedict’s Prep into a spot of nationwide status on the highschool degree, having coached future professionals J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson, amongst different McDonald’s All-People. Hurley went 223-21 there in 9 seasons. In 2010, he took the Wagner job — and turned this system from a five-win to a 25-win group in two years. In 2016-17, Hurley acquired to 25 wins once more, this time with Rhode Island. The Rams gained a recreation within the NCAA Match, providing up their finest season in virtually twenty years.

However all that is secondary to what Hurley calls his best achievement, from again in 2013.

“My declare to fame will not be something at Benedict’s or right here or Wagner, it is me and Bob (brother Bobby Hurley) had been so f—— out of our thoughts there,” Hurley mentioned of the Butler recreation. “That was the Eight-21 group. I believe we had been up 5 at halftime. They usually needed to grasp on to beat us. However that wasn’t the declare to fame. We acquired [Stevens] to take his jacket off and loosen his tie through the recreation and begin appearing extra like us. We did not see it till the sport was over, on movie. And the folks in Hinkle had been appalled by our conduct, I believe.”

“Folks see this monster, however then there may be this amazingly lovely aspect.” Dan Hurley

The NBA’s rigors have not ruffled Stevens — now teaching the Boston Celtics to the second-best file within the Jap Convention — however Hurley did.

He tells the story together with his typical dose of self-deprecation. It is that Hurley household fervor. Persuasive, viral, infectious. It will get in your system earlier than you notice it. This is not essentially humorous, both, regardless that the Stevens bit is clearly amusing. Hurley tells the story with amusing now as a result of it is simpler to see himself for what he was — for a way most individuals see him nonetheless. Sideline anger administration — lack thereof — plagued the youthful son of highschool teaching legend Bob Hurley Sr. and led to a household intervention two years in the past.

That fervor, that mania? That is the previous Dan Hurley. That is the man who was once infected by the hysteria of his thoughts, the person who used to persecute officers prefer it was a bodily operate, the maniac who needed to confront tv play-by-play announcers after the actual fact as soon as he found they had been criticizing his conduct throughout their telecasts.

That man’s gone. Effectively, most of him.

USATSI

“I am a dwelling, respiratory contradiction,” he mentioned. “Folks see this monster, however then there may be this amazingly lovely aspect.”

Hurley’s a little bit of a low-talker in dialog, away from the court docket. He’s attempting to evolve as a coach and as an individual, to be somebody not so simply charged into an emotional fever. He is aware of it would take years to shed his fame.

“I believe previously, it is had a damaging impact on our group, particularly down the stretch of vital video games when there’s sufficient strain on gamers to make large free throws, make large photographs, make good selections,” Hurley mentioned. “To have a madman working round when that is taking place in all probability does not provide them the help they wanted.”

It is mid-February and Hurley, who just lately turned 45, weighs 198 kilos. Initially of the season he was precisely 200. It is a signal of progress. In years previous, he’d be 10-13 kilos thinner by this level on the calendar; the stress of the season and sporadic disappearance of his urge for food would wreck his weight and cramp his mind.

“For those who’re going nice you are attempting to guard it, and in case you’re struggling you are attempting to get out of it,” Hurley mentioned.

Hurley’s taking higher care of himself. He reads the Bible daily. He tries to not eat after Eight p.m. He is off dangerous meals and is exercising each day. The phrases “yoga” and “teacher” gently fall out as he lists what’s turning him right into a hopefully improved human being. (Daniel Hurley doing downward canine: Let the mid-life renewal course of begin.) Physique and thoughts betterment is an on a regular basis purpose. Hurley’s additionally taken to meditation and has traded out guzzling Purple Bull in favor of consuming natural mushroom espresso he believes stabilizes his each day rhythm.

It has been a self-induced pressurized journey since Nov. 12, 2010. That was Hurley’s first recreation as a university head coach, his dwelling debut at Wagner. On that evening, an hour previous to tip-off vs. Lafayette, you’ll have discovered him his workplace “scared shitless” with the lights off, trying to clear area so he might lay down and management his respiratory.

“I might actually, in yr one or two of doing this shit, I might be lights out, hiding below my desk two hours earlier than, 90 minutes earlier than I needed to take the stroll all the way down to put the go well with on and head on the market,” Hurley mentioned.

The lights nonetheless exit earlier than a recreation now, but it surely’s two hours earlier than the tip, and there’s no panic. Hurley finds the time, generally twice in a day, to meditate. He does it for readability. He does it to degree out. He does it to maintain Hyde out of the go well with.

“For me, it is how do I get my mind with the readability, the decision-making, how do I keep in a relaxed state so I could make good selections,” he mentioned.

Routine has depressed the stress — and for nearly any faculty basketball coach the phrase “season” is synonymous with stress.

Just a few occasions acquired Hurley to his turning level. Considered one of them was a cellphone dialog with Billy Donovan, now teaching the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder. In March 2016, Hurley was fervently courted by Rutgers for its job opening. He was strained to the partitions and torn about whether or not or to not depart Rhode Island. New Jersey is his dwelling state, his spouse’s dwelling state. Rutgers was the massive state faculty that might present a giant pay bump.

“I used to be on this bizarre, only a dangerous place the entire yr after E.C.’s knee damage,” he mentioned.

He is referring to E.C. Matthews, the Rams’ finest participant. Matthews’ knee damage careened the 2015-16 Atlantic 10 season for URI, which had been a classy preseason favourite. The Rams weren’t invited to a postseason match after shedding their opening spherical recreation of the A-10 match, having completed 17-15.

Hurley spoke to Donovan within the midst of attempting to determine whether or not or to not go to Rutgers. The dialog wound up having nothing to do with Rutgers.

“I am simply rambling, simply rambling on the cellphone,” Hurley mentioned. “Dude cannot even get a phrase in — possibly 10 minutes glided by. It was like, ‘It’s a must to examine your self. You are a multitude.’ … Billy’s factor was, ‘Your ego is a bit out of whack right here.’ Extra ego within the sense of: The entire world revolves round this basketball group and whether or not we’re profitable or not and no different part in my life mattered, is what he acquired from the cellphone dialog.”

At that stage Hurley wasn’t figuring out, his food regimen was terrible, he did not learn and he wasn’t a religious particular person. He was an obsessed sideline bully, a persistent harasser of officers and never within the typical college-coach method. Hurley’s demeanor began at over-the-top then might, and sometimes did, worsen from there.

“I wasn’t feeding my thoughts,” he mentioned. “I used to be all-consumed. Relationships weren’t vital to me. I used to be so consumed with Rhode Island basketball and the way we had been going to succeed and get to a championship and win within the NCAA Match as a result of that is the one factor that mattered. He was identical to, ‘Hear, man, your desk’s tipped over. Non secular, emotional, bodily, psychological, and if they don’t seem to be all actual steady, you are going to be a multitude and a horrible chief, and you are not going to be very pleased.”http://ift.tt/1OPItWM;

Hurley was conditioned to grip, to blurt, to scream, to animate, to emphasize, pressure, fear, overreact and overanalyze. That technique introduced him from highschool coach to constructing an Atlantic 10 contender, a five-year profession rise that has no parallel over the previous three many years in faculty basketball. However the identical issues that allowed Hurley to bark his method up the ladder additionally introduced him to a mid-life skilled disaster. When your father has made it into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame for being arguably the best highschool coach ever, behavioral decorations embed themselves deep within the psyche. Bob Hurley Sr. took basketball personally to the purpose it affected his life, for higher or worse, daily.

“I am a f—— full lunatic,” Dan Hurley mentioned. “However if you’re in there, man, for me and the best way I realized it from Senior and the best way I imagine the sport, that is the best way I gotta do it. My father can be 32-1 and after that one loss he would have a tough time functioning the subsequent day. Watching that rising up, that turns into part of you. It turns into a Hurley trait to be fueled by concern. The concern of failure. I believe that is the place the depth and the obsessiveness comes from.”

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However Hurley could not deny what the video was exhibiting. He’d watch movie together with his group, or in his workplace alone, and see how he stalked referees and placed on vaudeville shows. It was humorous till it wasn’t. His household spoke up too.

“Fairly actually, seeing myself in some video games previously, going again and watching the sport to do self-study on how we performed, I might be embarrassed at occasions once I would see me at my worst,” he mentioned. “After which my spouse, Andrea … a pair occasions after video games she was arduous on me. Like, ‘What are you doing? I am a bit embarrassed that you just acquired that demonstrative on the market.”http://ift.tt/1OPItWM;

Worry and self-loathing might solely carry him to that second: profitable however ashamed of the person on the tv display, realizing the reality his physique language was exposing recreation after recreation after recreation.

Rhode Island gained Tuesday evening 85-67 over Richmond to increase its win streak to 16. It is the second longest victory march in program historical past, quick solely of the 22 straight the varsity gained within the late 1930s. With a school-record 21 straight league wins, URI is the king of the Atlantic 10 now. Remarkably, Thursday will mark one full calendar yr since URI fell towards an A-10 opponent.

Hurley inherited a program in disarray from a funding and educational perspective; the group wanted two good years of APR scores to keep away from a postseason ban from the NCAA. URI’s gone from struggling to get Three,000 folks in its 7,000-seat Ryan Middle to promoting out video games vs. the likes of Duquesne and Davidson. Even video games with “low attendance” are bringing in roughly 80 p.c capability.

“I used to get 20 [tickets] — I could not give 20 away,” Hurley mentioned. “Now, they’re gone months forward. Everybody desires to return watch us. It is like an occasion now.”

That mania, that wrath, that underdog mentality suited Hurley properly at first, simply because it suited him at St. Benedict’s after which on Staten Island when he flipped Wagner. However one thing completely different was wanted to raise Rhode Island to nationwide prominence.

Tom Moore, who coached Quinnipiac for 10 years and was a longtime former UConn assistant, joined Hurley’s workers final yr. Moore has helped carry perspective to Hurley, who admittedly can have quick-trigger responses for lots of issues, together with participant self-discipline. (Regardless of this, he is solely had one non-graduate switch out of this system the previous 5 years.) Hurley’s temperament for intense accountability goes again to having the mindset of a highschool coach. With Moore round (he is a disciple of one other notorious hot-temper coach, Jim Calhoun), Hurley mentioned he is been a greater decision-maker.

“I am nonetheless an intense coach, that is by no means going to alter, however a variety of the criticism I get this yr, possibly final yr might be fame criticism that I in all probability earned,” Hurley mentioned. “I am nonetheless paying for previous dangerous conduct.”

“It is going too properly. Shit has by no means gone this properly for me.” Dan Hurley

It is not simply with followers or most of the people. Hurley is working his option to the center with officers. He is acquired solely two technicals this yr, each of which he thinks had been unwarranted, significantly his T within the rivalry win over Windfall in early December.

“I do not assume I earned that one,” he mentioned. “I believe that was a fame technical. I believe each my technicals this yr had been fame technical fouls.”

Hurley used to complain in a proper capability 5 – 6 occasions a season when he’d ship video edits to officiating coordinators with questionable calls or accusations about being mistreated. That is uncommon now. He insists A-10 officers would say he is significantly better to cope with versus two, three, actually 5 years in the past.

“I settle for much more accountability for what goes on with my group,” Hurley mentioned as he flashed a responsible grin. “I imagine that we get nice officers and I imagine my background as a highschool coach, the place that is extra of a standard observe in highschool when it comes to trying to affect officers by being actual demonstrative, was one thing I’ve needed to develop out of since I have been in faculty. Yearly I’ve gotten higher. Am I the place I need to be? No. I am a lot nearer to getting there and I really feel like referees have had little or no to do with a lot of the losses, 99 p.c of the losses in my profession have had little or no or nothing to do with the officers.”

USATSI

Even final summer time Hurley approached Notre Dame coach Mike Brey whereas each had been out recruiting. Brey’s well-known for his devil-may-care sideline demeanor and easygoing fame. He’s the polar reverse of the Hurley archetype. Hurley needed to know the way he did it, simply to get some kind of extra perspective.

“It might’ve been bizarre for me to say, ‘However you are so f—— cool now, man. How do you retain your shit collectively like that?”http://ift.tt/1OPItWM; Hurley mentioned. “Actually, plus, I could not pull that off anyway.”

The informal cursing is the one factor he cannot, and doubtless should not, shake. Expletives aren’t a part of the vernacular, they’re are the vernacular, the courier of his dialog. Get in a room one on one with Hurley and inside 20 minutes you will end up talking in sailor too.

Self-reflection and a aware teaching flip has aligned with what ought to virtually actually be back-to-back NCAA Match appearances for Hurley’s program. That is solely occurred as soon as earlier than in URI historical past, within the late 1990s. The 21-Three Rams have top-of-the-line data in faculty basketball and appear a lock to take a giant bounce in seeding from the 11 they acquired final yr. If URI runs the desk within the A-10, a Three seed will virtually actually be on the desk.

The Rams at the moment are nearly on the level the place Archie Miller had Dayton and the place Shaka Good had VCU. With each of these coaches out of the league, URI is constructed to remain on the high of the convention as long as Hurley’s there. In discussing this, he can not help however recognize the newfound territory he is pushed himself into.

“It is going too properly,” Hurley mentioned. “Shit has by no means gone this properly for me. Since ever, in basketball. I’ve at all times adopted Bob, in highschool I used to be good — I used to be actually good however I wasn’t f—— pretty much as good as Bob. At Seton Corridor, like my final couple years, scored a thousand factors, but it surely’s at all times been arduous. I’ve at all times had [tough jobs]. Acquired fired as an assistant at Rutgers. Now within the midst of an historic season. For me, that is bizarre, man. I do not know learn how to act.”

He can not help it. When Hurley might make this season, this program and this success about simply himself and his group, he rattles off the issues in his life which have motivated him and the individuals who he’ll without end be measured towards. In that second he seems to be as comfy as he has all afternoon. He seems to be pleased — as a result of he’s — like he is validated one thing he is been ready to show for his complete life.

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shilpapillai · 7 years

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Sporting a new look

10 Jan 2018

This is 2018. This year I am going to set some goals. Mostly short-term, which I can complete throughout the course of this year. A few that are mid-term and a couple that is long-term.

So here begins.

Today is January 10, 2018. For the month of January, my goal is to find a sport that interests me and follow it. At the end of this month, I will have a sport to follow routinely, every time I pick up a newspaper or open a news website.

I have not played any sport, not regularly and have never been one to follow tournaments or games. Not even one to follow on peer pressure. It will be interesting to find out what this passion is all about. To understand a sport, a skill, a form of art.

I feel I can do Tennis and football. Tennis because it seems so calm and rigid. It is watching a pendulum on a clock. Time stops yet it is moving. Tick-tock.

Football is constant movement. There is never a moment of rest. You follow the ball, wherever it goes. It builds focus and a strong power of attention. You forget everything else and ignore anything else that takes place around the ball.

Cricket can be quite agitating, and basketball I am clueless about. Rugby or baseball are also not options that I would want to immediately explore because of my lack of knowledge on either.

As a child, I used to watch some sport. At least more than I do now. I would watch the Olympic games – swimming was my favourite. I would also watch some tennis and of course, football – especially the world cup. Thanks to my father, we also got to watch a fair amount of wrestling, which I am not very sure was a good idea.

My school did not provide us sufficient facilities to pursue sports. Only the best were considered and offered the school’s support and facilities. The others, they may have felt, couldn’t be encouraged as the school had neither the means of skilled professionals nor the support from the board to enhance sports amenities. We had a basketball court that was used as a parking lot for school buses at the start and end of school day. We had a wide cricket/football ground that held fairs and musical shows in the evenings – perhaps what it was built for in the first place. I know there was a swimming pool somewhere in the big auditorium facility, but I have never seen it. The indoor auditorium which was used for the school assembly was converted to badminton courts during school hours. There was a section for gymnastics, karate and table tennis too.

The number of courts was shamefully disproportionate to the number of students. While the best of the lot got to continue with their practices, the less fortunate ones, those who didn’t do sports just sat or stood on the sidelines reading comics or engaging in class gossips. There were even a bunch of nerds who would bring textbooks to study during sports class.

Then soft games such as chess or caroms were also there – which I have dabbled in as well. Chess was something I remember playing since I was really little, it could very well be the first sport I played – regularly. Living with my retired grandparents in a quiet Indian town, my only access to these activities was the exposure I got when my older cousins came visiting during their school holidays. My cousin taught me chess at a very early age because he was plain bored at home and needed an opponent to play chess with. This was to my advantage because chess was something that I continued to play through my growing years.

Since I was of a generation that had no cable TV in my early childhood days, I was lucky to explore these activities which build a sort of discipline in our lives.

Having no TV meant that the only way to keep entertained was to go out and find something to play with. Our home and its surroundings become our playground. The neighbourhood I grew up in had very few children. And in this lot, there were even fewer girls. So I never had a doll party or hair braiding sessions or kitchen parties or tea sets and the likes. I only had the local boys to go play with if I wanted to. I used to be hesitant at the start and would watch them play from a distance.

One day, as I stood on the sidelines of a make-shift cricket field, one boy came up to me and told me to take a spot as a fielder. He said, “just make sure when you see the ball flying towards you, to catch it! That is all you need to do.” And well, that is all I did. I would run like the wind to catch it. I am not sure about the exact chronology of events, but I do remember at some point I was used as the batsman and bowler too!

I also played football. I was mostly the goalkeeper, I remember, and would get yelled at by the boys, but I still played. And how I ran! I didn’t care about the world! I would just run and run just so that I catch the ball and toss it back to the field. This one day, a neighbour of mine tried to cheekily get me to babysit her toddler daughter while she tended to her little baby. I cannot remember where the rest of her household was at the time (because she always had a lot of people around her all the time, having just recently delivered a baby). One of the boys shouted out to me as he galloped to the playground that we were going to start a game and to hurry up. But as I left the room after staring at the new baby for a few minutes, the mother called out to me and asked me “are you sure you want to go and play with those boys and soil yourself or would you rather spend some more time with the baby?”

I remember I felt torn. I stood there on the lawn and flicked my head left and right wondering what choice to make. I also remember, at that age (7 or 8), that it was unfair of this lady to ask me to stay back and babysit her child while I should be out and playing. So I took the right choice then and turned towards the main road and ran to the playground. Children always follow their hearts and that is the beauty of their souls.

Kabaddi. I was fire on the court! The neighbourhood boys had no chance of surviving my wrath on the field. The adults used to be shocked at how this shy, plump, Gulfie kid (a term for people who live in the Gulf who are considered to be too spoilt, too fussy and too proud to engage in local play or living) transformed into a vicious, thunderbolt on the ground. That stopped too. It could have been because our next door tenants moved to another place, or because the elders were worried about how I would end up squashing all the local thin, lanky fellows.

Then there was role play. We would play judge-lawyer, cop-robber, teacher-student and so on. I have also run restaurants where we would cook make-belief recipes using sand, mud, stones, leaves and flowers in vessels made of wood and coconut shells. Oh, how I loved them! Our restaurants were always full and popular and we always made the best food in town. Of course.

I have dabbled in some dangerous play as well. This one neighbour kid discovered from somewhere (perhaps other local boy gangs) on how to make mini bombs. He showed me the process which involved a wooden plank, a matchbox with matches and a splinter. I was really hooked! We were huddled up, this boy, his little sister and I, making short bombs one afternoon as my grandmother took a short nap and assumed I was lying down next to her in deep slumber.

The noise woke her up and checked on us from the window. She stood petrified seeing what we were up to and she yelled out to me to get back in the house. My partners in crime vanished before I blinked twice. That was the last I played with that kind of excitement, and with them. This kid later grew up to be quite notorious and infamous for his unruly behaviour. Nip it in the bud they say – this is one example.

It doesn’t end there. Sport also includes adventure and exploring the outdoors – like trekking and mountaineering. Living in the foothills meant that a hill climb is something of a norm. We climbed up the hill to visit relatives or to visit the local temple that was built on top of the hill. At her age, my grandmother would climb through rock and rubble, through dried leaves and thick shrubs to openings during her social calls like it was a cake walk. I struggled initially, tumbling down or stumbling over some long weed or having a plant stalk slap across my face and landing at our destination bruised and sore. But it soon grew on me and as I became more accustomed to the moods and manners of the hills, I was a pro. I would drag my sister and cousins on my expeditions. They would revolt and protest preferring to spend their holidays in bed or slumped in front of the TV and VCR (oh, that word! So ancient now…) but I was relentless.

Climbing up a hill isn’t a difficult task really. If you have a long, sturdy stick, safe footwear and the right spirit, you can run up the hill in no time. I speak with experience. Nowadays I cannot climb up 200 metres without gasping for air and seeing little stars revolving around my head.

Yoga is no sport, it is a way of life. I have done this too, with earnest. I know a lot of the moves, yet I haven’t been able to inculcate a habit out of it.

So, 25 years on, I think it is a good idea to rebuild an interest in sports. I may not engage as much as I involve – but that is a start. No?

#childhood sports memories selfhelp motivation positivity goodhealth goodlife

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junker-town · 7 years

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A day with Hornets assistant coach — and NBA lifer — Stephen Silas

See the intense work that goes into every game.

Stephen Silas, the associate head coach of the Charlotte Hornets, is the ultimate NBA lifer. He was literally born into the league in Boston, where his father Paul, a former NBA star and coach who spent more than 40 years in the league, was helping the Celtics win a pair of championships. Stephen can remember toddling around the Kingdome while his dad completed his playing career for the Sonics under Lenny Wilkens.

While born to a great player, Stephen has always considered himself the son of a coach. More than that, he wanted to be around his dad as much as possible, so he grew up going to practices in San Diego when Paul coached Donald Sterling’s Clippers. Later, he was a ballboy for the Knicks while his father was an assistant under Pat Riley.

Young Silas played games of HORSE on the Garden floor with Patrick Ewing’s son (little Patrick) and mopped sweat while Big Patrick was shooting free throws. He also learned an essential lesson in those years.

“Being on the sideline I knew I had to be quiet when Pat Riley was coaching,” Silas says. “Be seen and not heard was how I grew up.”

That may as well be the essential credo of assistant coaches everywhere. Do your work, stay on top of things, and keep out of the spotlight. Some teams go so far as to keep their assistants completely off limits. The Hornets are not one of them.

They’ve granted me access to Stephen while the team prepares for a mid-November game against the Celtics. I’ll be with him from shootaround through pregame and postgame, with a film session sandwiched in the middle, to document the largely opaque daily world of an NBA assistant coach.

His boss, Hornets head coach Steve Clifford, shrugged when I thanked him for agreeing to the project. He knows what it’s like to toil in anonymity. Silas, frankly, doesn’t need the extra publicity. He has interviewed for the head jobs in Charlotte and Houston and annually shows up on lists of up-and-coming coaching candidates.

If Silas is unknown to the general public, he’s practically family within the larger NBA ecosystem. He worked with the retired players’ association after graduating from Brown with a double major in sociology and management. Later, he cut his teeth as an advance scout working both the college and the pro circuit, where he first met Clifford almost 20 years ago.

When a job opened up on his father’s staff in 2000 with the Charlotte Hornets, friends suggested he hire his son. Paul wasn’t sure. Neither was Stephen, for that matter. Enough people convinced them it would be a good idea and Stephen had his first coaching job at the age of 27, then the youngest assistant in the league.

“To be Paul Silas’ son in the world of basketball wasn’t necessarily something I wanted to do right away, but it was a way in,” Stephen says. “Being my dad’s son has always been great. That’s one thing I’ve just had to deal with.”

Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images

Paul Silas

Father and son stayed together through stops in both Charlotte and Cleveland. Stephen later worked with the Warriors under Don Nelson before returning to Charlotte in 2010, where he’s been ever since.

After almost two decades on the sidelines, the 44-year-old Stephen has outgrown his father’s shadow. His fellow coaches find him to be thorough and meticulous. Players respond enthusiastically to his even-keeled, yet demanding, approach.

“He’s always been around the game,” says Hornets forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who has worked with Silas since his rookie season. “He knows it inside and out. He coached my cousin in Cleveland, Dajuan Wagner. It’s like damn, feel me? He’s old, but he don’t look old.”

In a league that is trending toward more and more toward specialization, Silas’ coaching profile is broader and more diverse. He’s done offense with Nelson and defense with Clifford, two of the game’s great tacticians. He’s worked individually with guards, big men, and wings. He’s coached summer league.

“There isn’t much in the NBA that I haven’t done,” Silas says.

There also isn’t anyone he doesn’t know. As we chat following a practice session at Emerson College, Silas nods toward an Emerson coach. “That’s my guy,” he says. “We met at Dave Cowens’ camp.”

9:30 a.m. Shootaround

There’s something about the cold quiet of the morning shootaround that says it’s time to go to work. There are no frills to be had in this environment, least of all heat. The players and coaches arrive on buses in their workout gear, while the support staff stocks their locker room with uniforms and equipment.

After watching film, the Hornets hit the court at 10 a.m. for a 50-minute walkthrough, which, like all NBA walkthroughs, is closed to the media. There’s 25 minutes of offense and 25 minutes of defense. Everything is planned in advance.

“When I first started, shootaround would be literally, shoot around,” Silas says. “You go and play some shooting games, maybe walk through four plays. And that’s it. Everybody get on the bus and go.”

Things change. Under Clifford, the Hornets are known for preparation and attention to detail. Before they get to the Garden, the coaches will have gone through a thorough scouting report that was compiled by one of the assistants.

“Cliff is so detailed,” Silas says. “He’s got it down. If we have an opinion, we’ll give it to him. As the years have gone on he’s leaned on us a little more.”

When Clifford got the Hornets job four-and-a-half years ago, he didn’t even bother to interview Silas. He simply asked him if he’d like to stay on staff. As the number two man, Silas runs practices on occasion and takes the lead in game-planning. During games, he’s responsible for substitutions.

“He can do everything,” Clifford tells me. “It’s healthy for the team to not have to listen to the same voice 82 times. I have so much trust and he’s so thorough and knowledgeable in what he does that I’m never worried. The preparation is going to be as good or better.”

Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

Stephen Silas talks with Kemba Walker

That’s in addition to his other duties, which include working individually with the wing players. If Silas has a speciality, it’s player development — Clifford was immediately drawn to how Silas interacts with players.

A special education major in college, Clifford notes something a former professor had told him about teaching: “If you gain the right type of communication with your group they will try hard to meet your expectations,” Clifford says. “That’s what he’s very good at. He has a way to gain their respect and establish the right kind of credibility so they know he can help them. There’s nothing more important than that.”

Silas is perhaps best known by hardcore NBA aficionados for his work with a young Steph Curry. He taught Steph his two-basketball dribbling routine and he gets a chuckle when fans come to the arena early to watch Curry’s pregame workout. Their relationship has deep roots.

Silas had known Steph since he was a kid growing up in Charlotte. His niece and nephew went to the same school and Paul Silas had coached Dell Curry with the Hornets. They were both sons of former players and hit it off immediately. Curry would come over on off days and watch games or eat dinner. They’d go to church together or go to the gym and get up shots.

“He’s like the perfect student,” Silas says. “He listens all the time, asks great questions, challenges you a little. You can tell him something and he’ll get better right after you tell him. He stretches you, which was good for me as a coach.”

After the walkthrough is completed, everyone heads back to the bus for the short ride back to the hotel. Now it’s time to think about a future opponent, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

12:30 p.m. Film work

Still in his sweats from shootaround, Silas has a tablet setup on a stand next to his MacBook, where he’s watching film of Cleveland’s game against Houston. We’re in a suite on top floor of the Ritz, where the team is staying. Being the number two man has its perks.

Like most teams, the Hornets divide the scouting work, with each assistant taking 20 games. Silas has the lead for the Cavs, which consists of watching five games worth of film and compiling his notes into the scouting report that goes to Clifford. He’ll then go over the report with the head coach before they present it to the group.

In his early days, Silas would travel with a plastic bag full of VHS tapes. He once spent a lonely Saturday night in a Los Angeles Walmart looking for two VCRs so he could make his edit on the road. Now the team has its own software for watching film.

As with everything, there is a routine. Silas likes to watch two games back-to-back, which helps him recognize patterns. He never watches live so he can skip past commercials and free throws. He keeps the sound on because he can occasionally pick up a tidbit or two based on what they’re talking about on the broadcast.

Once he has his five games he’ll compile the scouting report, which sounds a lot cooler than it actually looks. The report is only a few pages long, but it’s crammed with offensive and defensive keys, matchups, and individual play sets. Silas and the other assistants draw the sets in black ink and make notes in red because Clifford prefers it to computer generated diagrams.

“Our game plans are pretty substantial,” Silas says.

Before he even gets to the video, Silas will have received an email from the team’s advance scout, Drew Perry, who sees each team live at least twice. Perry tracks all the play calls and forwards them to the team’s video department.

The video team then syncs them with the film so they appear on the bottom of the screen. They also catalogue them for the scouting report software they use where Silas makes his notes on the tablet. After watching games all the way through, he can jump back and forth between specific sets, individual personnel, or outcomes.

Perry will also send along a playbook consisting of diagrams as well as his own notes. Silas flips through the diagrams that run on for several pages detailing how the Cavaliers try to score: early offense, secondary offense, post-ups, corner, high posts, Hawk cuts, UCLA cuts, zippers, catch and shoot, loop action and spread, Princeton, dribble hand-off, step ups, horns, middle pick-and-roll, side pick-and-roll, side out of bounds, deep corner out of bounds, baseline out of bounds, ATOs, and crunch time plays.

It’s literally everything you could ever want to know about how the Cavs run their offense in every conceivable situation. Even for someone who consumes a ton of NBA basketball, the diagrams look like hieroglyphics. For coaches, they’re an unspoken method of communication.

“Drew is unbelievable,” Silas says. “He’ll do seven different options on double drag, which is just two picks in transition. It’s a little bit of overkill, but it’s better to have more than less.”

Advance scouts are the true information brokers in this league. They see everything from play calls to player reactions on the bench and in the huddle. Silas learned the art of scouting from his days doing advance work and it was an invaluable apprenticeship. He used to diagram everything. Now, he instantly recognizes actions and traces them back to the root.

“Slice 4 Pop,” he says as the Cavs run through a set. “A Kevin Love play. This is actually a play they used to run for Amar’e Stoudemire in Phoenix where the small will pin down on Kevin Love coming up to the top.”

On the screen, all of this happens in a few seconds. A guard runs toward the baseline to set a screen on Love’s defender that will allow Love to catch the ball about 18 feet from the basket near the top of the key. Within that set are variations, and within those variations are options if the play breaks down. Silas can diagnose all that in less than the time it takes to watch the full clip.

On defense, he’s looking for coverage patterns. Do they shoot the gap on a stagger screen or lock-and-trail? Do they get up in the passing lanes and deny everything or lay back and pack the paint? Always, he is looking for tendencies in pick-and-roll coverage. “That’s the nitty gritty of offense,” he says. “Try to get two guys to the ball.”

Despite all those tactical adjustments, there is a fairly consistent collection of sets and calls from team to team. The difference is philosophy, as well as personnel. Right on cue, as the Cavs bring the ball up in transition, LeBron James waits a half-beat and then hits a trailing Love for an open three at the top of the arc.

“Those transition threes,” Silas says, shaking his head. They will be an adjustment for Dwight Howard, a traditional center in a world that emphasizes speed and shooting.

“Dwight is programmed to run back to the rim,” Silas says. “But with the game changing and more spacing [for centers], he has to be conscious of staying up. So when I do my writeup it will talk about all those aspects. Kevin Love running into that trail three.”

When his film work is done, Silas will have a few hours to himself before heading back to the arena.

5 p.m. Arrive at the Garden

Before every road game Silas will catch a ride with forwards Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Treveon Graham 30 minutes before the first bus leaves from the hotel. Guards Jeremy Lamb and Malik Monk will arrive around the same time, and the next part of the workday will commence.

They are his guys and they run the gamut of experience levels and roles. They all need something different from their coach. Silas is responsible for them and takes ownership over good plays and bad ones. The bad ones linger. Maybe he could have found another clip or talked through a coverage one more time.

“You’re always thinking about your guys,” Silas says. “Every guy is completely different. You can’t approach it the same way. Some guys are better learners on the floor. Some guys need 20 clips, they want to see everything. Some guys want 10 of their good and 10 of their bad.”

Each player gets his own individual time with Silas for a pregame shooting routine and going through more film on the bench on a laptop. The order is set and never deviates.

Graham is up first. The 24-year-old from Virginia Commonwealth caught on as an undrafted free agent last season after a year in the D-League. Graham earned a role off the bench in the absence of Nicolas Batum, but he’s out with a thigh contusion. Coach and player sit on the bench and talk.

“For him, it’s, ‘Are you good? Is there anything you need a little more work on?”’ Silas says. “If it’s a veteran that’s not playing much they’re completely different than a young guy who’s not playing much. They have to know you have their best interests at heart and you understand what they’re going through. If a guy’s not playing much you can’t hammer them all the time because they’re going to hate coming to work every day.”

Kidd-Gilchrist, a low-maintenance defensive stalwart, takes the court next. He always gets exactly what he needs. No more. No less. Before a game against the Rockets, Silas sent him a clip defending James Harden. The next day Silas asked if he got the text and MKG nodded. Silas laughs. “I can’t get a thumbs up, or an OK, or a black fist or something?”

That’s MKG: quiet and dependable. They’ve been together for six years and their connection grows deeper every season. “He’s more than a coach, man,” MKG tells me after finishing his pregame routine. “He’s a friend. He’s a mentor.”

Lamb, a thrice-traded former lottery pick from Connecticut who is off to the best start of his career, is up next. His emergence as a starter in place of Batum has been one of the team’s positive developments. It’s early in the season, but Lamb appears to finally be achieving a breakthrough six years into his career. Then again, it’s not that early. He and Silas spent much of the summer working out in Charlotte.

“It was real this summer,” Silas says. “That’s a win. A good summer is a win and now he’s had 11 really good games. He’s super confident, he works, and is very conscientious.”

Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

Stephen Silas

Lamb always has to get shots up after practices and shootarounds. They hit the same areas of the floor day in and day out. Devising a routine and sticking with it has been an important part of his development. And he’s always asking for clips. Silas makes it a point to mix in positive plays so Lamb can leave the session feeling good about himself.

“When you do have a coach who cares about you and really likes to develop players and make people better that’s huge,” Lamb tells me. “You don’t always find that in the NBA. People always talk about how hard players work and stuff like that. At the end of the day, they never get a day off. He’s always texting me, ‘What time do you want to go tomorrow?’ Even when I’m late, he’s there. It’s great having a coach that believes in you but also pushes you.”

Because he is a rookie, Monk gets the final pick and winds up with the last shooting slot right as the arena countdown clock gets to 90 minutes. “He got the best time,” Silas says with a bemused look. “Go figure.” Silas has to bring Monk up to speed quickly but not overload with him with too much information. It’s a delicate balance.

“This is completely different than anything he’s ever seen before,” Silas says. “It has to be enough but not so much that they don’t tune you out, which I would have done when I was 19 and someone was showing 20 clips of pick-and-roll protection.”

Monk, who is already getting important rotation minutes, is full of boundless energy and enthusiasm. On our way off the court for a quick interview, he stops to sign an autograph and winds up signing for every person in the section. This is still new and fresh and he’s eager to please. I ask Monk if Silas ever loses patience with him.

“Never. Never. Never. He doesn’t get mad,” Monk says. “You make a mistake, he’s going to tell you and you learn from it. In the tone that he talks. No get mad, no get frustrated, nothing like that. Coach Clifford is the one that gets mad.”

After their workouts, there’s still more time for film and final prep. The crowd is starting to arrive and the Garden is coming to life.

Gametime 7:30 p.m.

The gameplan has been well established since early this morning. On offense, they want to run multiple actions to try and gain an advantage against the Celtics’ switching defense. Any possession that ends with one pass or or one screen is probably not a good possession. On defense, they want to keep the Celtics’ new star point guard Kyrie Irving out of the paint and off the three-point line.

The Hornets catch a break when it’s announced that Al Horford won’t play because he’s recovering from a concussion. That solves one issue since Horford is a mobile big man who takes opposing big men out to the perimeter, and the Hornets prefer to pack the paint. His replacement, Aron Baynes, also isn’t as likely to switch on pick-and-rolls. They catch another break when Irving crashes into Baynes and suffers a facial fracture less than two minutes into the game.

The first half goes according to plan. The Hornets limit transition and dare the C’s to beat them from the outside. The offense runs through multiple sequences and keeps turnovers to a minimum. Even though All-Star guard Kemba Walker struggles with his shot, he still hands out 10 assists in the first half as the Hornets build an 18-point lead.

They’re still up a dozen points going into the fourth quarter, but that’s when things fall apart. Walker is suddenly the only player who can score and the Celtics make an inspired comeback to extend their winning streak to 12 games. It’s a brutal loss for the Hornets, even more so because it’s their fourth straight defeat and they won’t play again for five days.

As I head down the tunnel to catch up with Silas, Celtics coach Brad Stevens pulls me aside and says the Hornets were as prepared as any team they’ve played this season. “Whatever we did, they were on it,” Stevens says.

I relay the complement to Silas, who grimaces. “Great,” he says. “What does that get us?”

The Hornets mood is forlorn, even angry. Coaches and support staff walk by sporting thousand-yard stares. It’s only November, but these setbacks hurt. I ask Silas how he deals with the losses. “Not well,” he says.

He’s got family waiting for him and he’d rather not deal with any of that right now. There are postgame duties to handle on the plane ride home, and he’s already thinking of clips to show his guys. The Cavs’ report is waiting to be finalized when he lands.

The bus is leaving for the airport in 10 minutes, and it occurs to Silas that they’ve been on the road for a week and a half. As he searches for something positive, he says, “It will be good to go home.”

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techcrunchappcom · 4 years

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New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/live-covid-19-global-updates-the-latest-news/

Live Covid-19 Global Updates: The Latest News

Here’s what you need to know:

Health workers preparing to test people for the coronavirus in the northeastern Indian city of Kohima on Saturday.Credit…Yirmiyan Arthur/Associated Press

Multiple Senate Republicans have voiced concern that any agreement that passes muster with the speaker and her top lieutenants will be too costly for them to secure an agreement.

Democrats have also demanded billions of dollars for state and local governments, and Ms. Pelosi said the administration’s funding level “remains sadly inadequate.”

President Trump returned to the White House on Monday.Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

The president is expected to address the crowd from a White House balcony, one of the people familiar with the plans said. His campaign also said that he would hold a rally in Florida on Monday.

In the week after the nomination ceremony for Judge Barrett, the White House also decided not to trace the contacts of guests and staff members.

At least one testing site in Washington reported that those seeking a test doubled to 600 on Oct. 5 as residents responded with concern to the cases stemming from the White House and Capitol Hill.

“Silence becomes complicity,” he said in an interview, after a private letter he wrote to Dr. Redfield leaked to the news media.

And Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Senate health committee, said she told Dr. Redfield in a private telephone conversation last month that he had to take a stand.

C.D.C. scientists know that their work will invariably collide with politics, but they have never seen anything quite like what is happening under Mr. Trump.

Dr. Redfield declined to comment.

Some say it would be unwise for him to step down, for fear of his successor.

In Malaga, Spain, this summer. Last week, the central bank said the country’s economy could contract 12.6 percent this year.Credit…Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

What faint hopes remained that Europe was recovering from the economic catastrophe delivered by the pandemic have faded as the virus has resumed spreading rapidly across much of the continent.

But Spain’s central bank governor said this week that new restrictions to slow the virus’s accelerating spread could produce an economic contraction of as much as 12.6 percent this year.

President Trump on the Truman Balcony of the White House on Monday after being discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

President Trump’s campaign has started airing a television ad focused on his coronavirus infection, an attempt to reset the way voters view the president on a major issue in the election.

The ad concludes: “We’ll get through this together. We’ll live carefully, but not afraid.”

Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, has been released from the hospital, a week after testing positive for the coronavirus.Credit…Al Drago for The New York Times

Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, said in a tweet on Saturday that he had been released from the hospital that morning, one week after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Mr. Christie, who is overweight and has a history of asthma, said last week that he had checked himself into Morristown Medical Center in consultation with his doctors.

He ended his message with an intriguing pledge: “I will have more to say about all of this next week.”

— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) October 10, 2020

These tests, however, frequently miss infections in people without symptoms. Nevertheless, those who tested negative would often skip other precautions, like wearing a mask or social distancing.

Guests at the reception for Judge Barrett were said to be tested. Part of the event was indoors, and photographs show few masks among the guests there, or later in the larger outdoor portion.

The president also huddled with advisers for maskless preparation sessions ahead of the first presidential debate on Sept. 29.

Police officers in Palm Tree, N.Y., handing out face masks to residents this week.Credit…Kevin Hagen for The New York Times

Yet on Wednesday, as men and boys streamed out of prayer services at Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar for the holiday of Sukkot, most were not wearing face masks.

“I pray every day, ‘Please, my lovely God, make it finish,’” she said.

A police officer standing near the car handed out disposable masks.

Supporters during a Trump campaign rally at the Fayetteville Regional Airport in Fayetteville, NC.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

This week, Joseph R. Biden Jr. dismissed President Trump’s reluctant attitude toward wearing masks as “this macho thing.”

Tomi Lahren, a conservative commentator and Fox Nation host, countered that Mr. Biden “might as well carry a purse with that mask.”

Some initial research indicates a similar pattern is playing out with the coronavirus. Surveys have found that women are more likely than men to wear masks in the United States.

If you wear a mask, said Peter Glick, a professor of social sciences at Lawrence University, “the underlying message is: ‘I’m afraid of catching this disease.’”

This is not a new problem for those who work in public health messaging.

Police officers on duty at a protest this week in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn over new restrictions.Credit…Mark Abramson for The New York Times

“How can we ignore the compelling state interest in protecting the health and life of all New Yorkers?” said Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto of Federal District Court in Brooklyn.

The judge’s decision means that Mr. Cuomo can impose the new restrictions as the lawsuit progresses.

A trial site for Regeneron and Eli Lilly in Mesa, Ariz.Credit…Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

The president’s video raised many questions, including whether the antibody cocktail could have such a significant effect in such a short time. (Some physicians were skeptical.)

It has used such authorizations during several disease outbreaks, including H1N1 flu in 2009 and Zika in 2016, but the coronavirus has brought their deployment on a new scale.

Despite his efforts, Mr. Johnson has not been able to recapture the public buoyancy that propelled him to a landslide election victory last December.

“But he hasn’t been able to shake it off,” Mr. Gimson said.

The C.D.C. order would have been the toughest federal mandate aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

The two officials said the order would have required face coverings on airplanes, trains, buses and subways, and in transit hubs such as airports, train stations and bus depots.

A task force official said the decision to require masks should be left up to states and localities.

#covid #World

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emblem-333 · 7 years

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Ainge Knows How To Draft

Since the Boston Celtics obtained the first overall pick - of course having just dealt it to Philadelphia for their No. 3 pick and a 2-5 protected 2018 Lakers pick, if not conveyed becomes a 2019 Kings first…*whew* - We as fans of the green and white routinely this time of year bring up Ainge’s…spotty draft record. Well, thought to be spotty. People tend to measure you as a drafter not where you are picking or your current roster situation. What matters is: how many All-Stars, All-NBA players you’ve drafted and just by judging Ainge’s draft record off that criteria he’s been downright horrendous. Not plucking a single one of those elite players in the draft.

But Masai Ujuiri never picked an All-Star either. Jerry West never drafted an All-NBA caliber player or even a fringe All-Star when building the Shaq-Kobe dynasty. Why? Cause the Lakers weren’t picking in the early tens or in the middle of the lottery. When you’re atop the NBA landscape, picking twenty-three at the highest, Devean George is all you can hope. The Vlade Divac and Nick Van Exel’s of the world fall in the draft off on luck alone. Even their upsides don’t drastically change your franchise.

Ainge’s draft record suggest the same issues: from ‘04-‘07 Boston floated in and out of the playoffs, picking in the mid-to-late teens, having to cross their fingers for a team to pass up on a prospect they liked. Nine teams passed on Paul Pierce before Rick Pitino made the lone smart decision of his time as Celtics coach/GM.

For anyone that believes the NBA Draft after its top-5 is anything but akin to taking a shot in the dark while blindfolded is flatout wrong in their criticism of NBA GMs. Heck, sometimes the draft isn’t even five players deep. Last year Boston earned the third pick in a two player draft. The drop-off in terms of ceiling when having to pick between Jaylen Brown, Jamal Murray or Dragan Bender is obvious to the casual eye when you understand the hype surrounding No. 1 & 2 picks Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram going into the draft. This year they traded the number one overall choice, opting to pick between Kansas forward Josh Jackson and Duke forward Jayson Tatum, judging the drop-off from either of the two from the consensus number one to most scouts, Markelle Fultz, to be not all that steep.

While it is easy to lob snarky comments about Ainge’s draft record, it is worthy to note how often the Celtics find themselves picking below the middle-teens in his fourteen-years as general manager. The NBA Draft isn’t a plethora of talent hidden under the sexier, more desirably prospects like in the NFL. In the NBA, one or two “sure-fire” prospects go one and two, then the draft becomes a crapshoot where you’re more more likely to be hit by lightning than to find an All-Star. Fluky choices like Jimmy Butler (30th), Paul George (10th) are not common occurrences; and it is unwise to heap praise on otherwise unaware GMs for drafting someone who turned out to be special, but wasn’t taken because that team believed in that player *cough Phil Jackson *cough).

This year’s draft can be the same as last year’s, just the perception of certain players similar to the ones we were lukewarm on a year ago changed. People harshing the buzz about Josh Jackson and his inability to shoot, forgetting their utter indifference towards similar and superior 2016 draft choice Jaylen Brown. Guards who cannot shoot earn praise over a gym rat like Jamal Murray, who was selected amidst yawns from the talking head crowd.

Ainge usually had to pick from the rut of the litter, having to get creative in how to use useless assets from sheer wit…and mostly prying off dimwitted GMs. Hey, the greats in sports always made a living off ripping off the uneducated. The only reason the Lakers were able to get Magic Johnson is because the Utah Jazz wanted an almost forty-year-old Gail Goodrich. The reason Red Auerbach constructed the greatest front-court in league history is by flipping number 1 pick Joe Barry Carroll for pick number three and Robert Parish…uh….

In his first NBA Draft rodeo Ainge turned two useless copper pieces (Troy Bell & Dahntay Jones) for Kendrick Perkins. Brandon Hunter lasted only two seasons before being submerged in a black hole, never to be heard of again. The following year, Danny enjoyed his greatest draft class; is damning praise considering the names, but bare with me: Al Jefferson (15), Delonte West (24), Tony Allen (25), Justin Reed (40). Taking on Chunky Atkins and Linsey Hunter so the Detroit Pistons could trade for Rasheed Wallace, Boston obtained an extra first rounder in return. And while Big Al was never an All-Star, his highest honor was All-NBA Third Team in 2014, he averaged a double-double four times in his career, found himself on some decent low-seeded playoff teams as their second or third best player. Delonte was the starting SG for two sixty-win LeBron-led Cavalier teams, shot a respectful 44.9 fg% and probably slept with..ugh, almost said the wrong thing there. Hehehe.

Tony Allen played a key role on the 2008 championship Celtics, 2010 finalist Celtics, western conference finalist Memphis Grizzlies in 2013 and is still a plus on defense to this day.

Delonte and Al helped the famous KG deal happen; West, along with Jeff Green (5th overall pick of '07), Wally Szczerbiak, later traded to Seattle for Ray Allen and Glen Davis, irreplaceable parts to the '08 & '10 teams.

The Celtics draft class of 2004 did more good on the trade market than on the floor wearing green and white; Ainge is known more for his shrewd trading, this is when “Trader Danny” and “Draft Picker Danny” became one for one night only. In 2005, Ainge fell in love with the letter “G” and tapped Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes and Orien Greene. Trash. Trash. Uber trash. I will say this: Gerry G helped Boston not get swept by the Bulls, being inserted into the starting lineup in Game 3 helped swing the series. And a revenge minded Rajon Rondo getting sidelined. Orien Greene posted a magnificent negative 0.7 win shares. I’m going to give Danny an “L” for Draft Day 2005.

In '06, slotted with the seventh choice, Ainge picked Randy Foye for the Portland Trailblazers in return for them taking Raef LaFrentz’ albatross. The next pick was Rudy Gay. Gay is fifth in the draft in win shares, behind Rajon Rondo (Ainge traded the pick that would become Rudy Fernandez for RR on draft night), Kyle Lowry, LaMarcus Aldridge and Paul Millsap.

Am I crying tears the Celtics didn’t draft the guy who’s improved every team he’s been on by just not being on it anymore? No. No, not really.

Foye hung around the NBA, drifting and compiling stats on piss-poor teams. Will proudly let it fly in garbage time, Foye became a way to for OKC management, desperate to appease an approaching free agency Kevin Durant, but not willing to spend, to act as if they were adding to a Finals contender; the Thunder fell one game short of reaching that NBA Finals that year. Forget all I said on him taking the easy way out, they deserved to lose KD.

Rajon Rondo transformed himself to a redundant starter on a team that didn’t need him, to the engine that made the Ford Model-T run. In 2010 he outplayed LeBron James -in his prime- in a playoff series (20.7 pts, 6.3 trb, 11.8 ast) - almost did it again in 2012 - (20.9 pts, 6.9 trb, 11.3 ast), was the third best player on a finals runner-up (13.6 pts 6.3 trb, 7.6 ast) and was only twenty-three after the 2010 Finals. After 2012, I firmly believed Rondo was the bridge to Boston staying relevant post-Big 3. When the stoic C’s returned for the 2012-13 season, revamped with Courtney Lee, Jason Terry and Leonardo Barbosa set the stage for Rondo to graduate from overqualified complimentary player to a contending team’s number one.

Only that didn’t happen. Statistically Rondo enjoyed one of his greatest season yet, 44.8 fg%, 13.7 pts, 11.1 ast, 5.6 trb, 1.8 stl; started the season on fire, but his double-doubles didn’t lead to team success. Rondo complied four triple-doubles (3-1 in those games), sixteen double-doubles and Boston was 20-23 in the middle of what Rondo’s career defining season. Half the year and Boston failed to play above-.500 ball. Post-Rondo injury: 21-17. Players improved too:

Brandon Bass Pre-Rondo Injury: 6.8 FGA, 44.6%, 7.4 pts, 4.9 trb

Post-Rondo: 7.8 FGA, 52.5%, 10.1 pts, 5.7 trb

Jason Terry Pre-Rondo Injury: 8.3 FGA 42.6 fg%, 36.1%, 9.8 pts, 2.2 ast, 0.9 stl

Post-Rondo: 8 FGA, 44.3 fg%, 38.4 3P%, 10.1 pts, 2.8 ast, 0.8 stl

Kevin Garnett Pre-Rondo Injury: 12.2 FGA, 50.1 fg%, 14.7 pts, 7.4 trb, 0.9 blk

Post Rondo: 13.1 FGA, 48.9 fg%, 14.8 pts, 8.9 trb, 0.9 blk

Paul Pierce Pre-Rondo Injury: 15 FGA, 42 fg%, 35.2 3P%, 5.5 FTA, 18.8 pts, 5.7 trb, 3.8 ast, 1.4 stl

Post Rondo: 13.1 FGA, 45.9 fg%, 41.7 3P%, 5.5 FTA, 18.3 pts, 7.1 trb, 6.1 ast, 0.7 stl

Either players improved noticeably or the Rajon Rondo injury didn’t affect their stats one-bit. Originally, I scoffed at the notion that the Celtics were better without Rondo. Now it’s not even a debate. Rondo hunted for assists, padded his rebounding stats and passed up easier shots - either because he never trusted his jump shot or he wanted to increase his assists totals. Rookie Jared Sullinger, veteran bench swing man Leonardo Barbosa fell to season-ending injuries as well, did more to cripple a thought to be promising last ride for Pierce-KG than their starting point guard.

It was his take no shit demeanor that made a name for himself on a team with three Hall of Famers that lead to his destructive behavior in Dallas, Sacramento and Chicago. The league also moved away from his style: a point guard that could pass extremely well, is a ball-stopper, can’t shoot and used to be a fantastic defender. Put him in the 1980s, early 90s and Rondo gets COMPs to Celtics Dennis Johnson. He was just born in the wrong time.

In 2008, Ainge drafted Jeff Green for the defunct Seattle Supersonics in the aforementioned Ray Allen trade. Jeffery Green went from an intriguing prospect in 2010 to one of the most frustrating players in the NBA. I’ve watched Jeff Green play on my team for two-in-half-years, there was a gear collecting dust in that head of his. Green had the body, athleticism and talent to be a top scoring wing, but he only wanted to play at a high level once every few weeks. In 2012-13 the majority of he time he spent his time at the four, Pierce flanking him at the three and Kevin Garnett at the five. Naturally, Green enjoyed statistically his best season, shooting 46.7% from the field, 38.5% from three-point and a career high in PER with 15. When those two left, his numbers became…empty calories. His scoring average went up on the year, but it was then Green became an asset with questionable value, not a building block for the future.

A damn shame. The three brightest moments of the Jeff Green-Boston era were his 43 point duel with LeBron in the middle of their twenty-seven game winning streak. Tom Heinsohn is known around Boston to make almost idiotic comparisons to legendary players with those who would later fall off the face of the earth (Greg Stiemsma = Bill Russell, Leon Powe is Moses Malone), for Jeff Green, Tommy thought of James Worthy. For that one night, he was James Worthy.

Second greatest Jeff Green moment was during the failed rally against the Knicks in Game 6 of the 2013 playoffs. Also known as: “Pierce and Garnett’s Last Stand”, with 5:45 left in the fourth, Boston down 75-68, Jeff Green, coming off a heart surgery less than a year earlier drove to the basket and drew a crucial foul and sent to the line. By then the Celtics have all but completely closed the massive 26 point deficit the Knicks owned with 9:31 left. In less than four-minutes, Pierce, KG and Green lead us back. Stepping up to the charity stripe, the crowd was long ago unglued from their seats. I watched at home, my stomach in knots, knowing his was probably the end of this era of Celtics basketball if not victorious. The raucous crowd not willing to let the KG era end chanted at the top of their lungs “JEFF GREEN JEFF GREEN JEFF GREEN”…and he missed the free throw. If I had to pick a singular moment to describe my experience watching Jeff Green: I’d choose that one. No matter how hard you believed, the teasing he put all of Celtics Nation through would never stop. His scoring came and went as it pleased.

The last one: a very sentimental moment for him and me as a sucker for happy endings. On an obscure late March night in Cleveland, the post-LeBron days miserable as they were unbearable to just watch, the 22-47 Cavaliers lead Boston by one measly point with 9.2 seconds left. Off an assist from Avery Bradley, Jeff Green took the feed and laid in the game-winner and went directly to a court side seat and hugged the person responsible for him being alive: his heart doctor. After being traded from the Thunder in 2011, it came out Green was in need of serious heart surgery. Sam Presti didn’t disclose that piece of information to Ainge while the negotiations were going down. As penalty, David Stern took a second round draft choice from OKC. Sounds fair. Team lies about a player’s medical records to get ahead, a second round pick fits the crime. Lenient jackasses.

From a story standpoint Jeff Green is a 'Lifetime’ special that writes itself. But when it came to actual substance, Green failed to reach levels even those hacks at HBO wouldn’t touch. I had high hopes for Green once he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies. A team with three established scoring options - that two years ago shocked the world by making it to the conference finals, I believed Green would thrive as a role-player tasked with only taking over games once in every while, the burden lightened on him and the spotlight almost completely off him. But the same trick-or-treat performances that made Boston fans pull their hair out, did the same to the Grizzlies faithful. Teams have learned the hard way that Jeff Green isn’t the answer to any of their questions; there isn’t a switch to be flipped or a fire yearning to ignite within him. He’s Jeff Green. Nothing more.

In 2008, the defending champion Celtics weren’t expected to add much in ways of the draft considering their low position, holding the final selections of the first and second rounds. For whatever reason, I still do not know, Ainge’s biggest blemish in the draft came from this draft by selecting 23-year-old gunner J.R Giddens over DeAndre Jordan, Goron Dragic and Luc Mbah a Moute. Giddens played only 38 games in his professional career and amounted to very little. When you find yourself in a situation that is likely to warrant little success playing it safe, a risk is what is in order to at least maximize the little opportunity you have. Ainge didn’t do that. He went for an experienced hand. This one falls into the “indefensible” category. Most likely the stigma of “Ainge is a bad drafter” stems from this choice and the infamous Fab Melo decision. The next year Boston found themselves without a first round pick (traded to Minnesota for Kevin Garnett; became pick 28: Wayne Ellington), picking fifty-eighth Ainge selected Lester Hudson, point guard, and hasn’t played a single second of professional ball since 2015. Another swing in a miss. And in such a great place in the draft too.

2010, off the heels of one of the toughest losses in my sports fandom, coming ever so close to squeezing one more title out of the Pierce-KG-Ray core, Ainge drafts a soon to be staple of the Celtics next generation: SG from the University of Texas Avery Bradley. First-Team All-Defense and has grown into a quality jump-shooter. Picked nineteenth. Interestingly enough, Eric Bledsoe was picked 18th, right before him at eighteen by the Thunder; traded for a first round pick that became…Fab Melo. See how this all ties together. Fifty-second pick was power forward Luke Harangody from Norte Dame, lasted two seasons before falling off the face of the earth. But if you land just Avery Bradley with your already low draft choice then you’ve exceeded all expectations. Albeit, low set expectations, but regardless, Avery Bradley would go in the lottery if the draft was redone.

The next year, Ainge again found himself picking his favorites in the undesirables bin: MarShon Brooks, guard out of Providence and E'Twaun Moore guard outta Purdue. Both gave the Celtics absolutely nothing. Brooks found himself packing for Brooklyn not too long after Stern called up his name, flipped for the equally forgettable JaJuan Johnson. Then sent back to Boston in 2013 in the Billy King very skilful deal that destroyed Brooklyn Nets basketball, later moved to Golden State with Jordan Crawford for picks that would later become Jordan Mickey, Ben Bentil and Deyonta Davis. Three “we’ll wait and see” fellas, I wish tremendous success for.

Moore did squat in Boston and Orlando. It was his third stop, Chicago, in the last year of his contract he became a quality energy shooter from deep. Nailing 45.2% of his threes, out of a measly 104 attempts. Earning himself a contract worth $34 million four-years. His three-point attempts doubled on the unstable Pelicans, making a respectful 37% of them and shooting a career-high 50.1% on 2s. While he did this for Chicago and New Orléans, E.T proves, yet again, that Ainge isn’t a dummy and can spot a penny in the rough - I was going to say “diamond in the rough, but I’m not that much of a homer.

On June 28th, 2012, after the AARP Celtics almost snuck into the Finals for a third time in five seasons, Ainge reloaded with Ohio State power forward Jared Sullinger at 16, Syracuse center and recently departed Fab Melo (who I’m ashamed to admit I liked when picked), and Kris Joseph, mostly known for being one of the throw-Ins for the Brooklyn deal a year into the future.

I was irrationally high on Sully after one game I saw him play at Ohio State in the tournament. I knew he was going to drop because of his back injury scaring off other teams, I kept my fingers crossed the Celtics would scoop him up. And they did.

Sully gets a lot of flack, is a frequent and an easy punching bag for Celtics & NBA fans for his weight issues, but for four seasons he was mostly productive, 16 points, 11.1 rebounds were his per 36 averages; basic averages 11.1 points, 7.7 rebounds. Before succumbing to a stress fracture caused mostly to his overweight stature, Sully averaged 14.4 pts, 8.1 trb, 2.1 ast, 0.7 stl, 0.7 blk, a respectable 21 DRB%, and an average 105 DRtg. Solid. Admittedly, his flaws became prevalent around this time too. Too short to guard opposing team’s centers, too slow to guard fours like Paul Millsap. He only worsened after the injury. Expected to miss the rest of the year, Sully went from an “untouchable” asset, to a laughingstock.

Yet, he returned after just twenty-four games missed, slowly worked his way back to the lineup, played adequately in the final three games of a four game sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers, putting up a 15 & 8, including a hopeful 21 and 11 in Game 4, off of 9 of 17 shooting. For me, hopes were high he’d turned a corner and could produce at a starter-quality level.

Over the summer of 2015, Ainge made moves to ensure Boston wouldn’t have to rely on Sullinger. Signing Amir Johnson, Jonas Jerebko, drafting Jordan Mickey and trading for Golden State Warriors center David Lee. Only Mickey didn’t progress, Lee was a net-negative on the floor and Steens had to save Amir’s knees for the homestretch of the season. So, Sully got the tap to start 73 games, 47 of those were victories, posted up 25 double-doubles and enjoyed his best season.

Considering where Sullinger found himself ripped for the plucking, four solid years was more than enough. Typically teams take either a draft & stash guy, or a player that never sees the floor and lives in the D (oh, I’m sorry. G)-League.

Fab Melo…I honestly thought he’d be a staple of our rotation. Give me a break, I was fourteen. How was I supposed to know he’d be a bad fit…for basketball in general. As Zach Lowe described the craziness of Melo being taken, it was a team that secured their guy with their late first round pick, had back-to-back picks and figured they’d take a gamble. Ainge did and somehow came out of the house with less than what little he had going in.

The next year, Ainge traded number thirteen pick Lucas Nogueria, an intriguing prospect in Toronto, moved to Dallas on draft night for Kelly Olynyk. Like Sullinger, Olynyk was a frequent punching bag for many Celtics fans, including myself. But all in all, he’s been a solid big man. No way was Ainge taking Giannis with that pick. All scouts had to go from him were grainy footage of this guy who was head above shoulders against competition that possibly wasn’t even in his age group.

Olynyk enjoyed an under the radar great year in 2016-17, averaging 60.8% on twos, 51.2% from the field, a career-high in True Shooting, 60.3%, DRB% (20.7 and AST% (15.2). And he got hot at precisely the right time in the postseason. After Game 2’s lost to the Bulls, Olynyk shot 59.2%, including his famous 10 for 14, 26 point performance in Game 7 to push the C’s over a very good Wizards team.

I don’t care anymore. The Kelly Olynyk pick is fine in my book, and he’ll most likely find a new team this summer. So let Game 7 be your last memory of the man-bun.

That’s pretty much it. After 2013 there’s a bunch of wait-and-see guys: Marcus Smart (still would take him over Payton), James Young (big bummer), Terry Rozier (shown brief flashes in the playoffs), R.J Hunter (bigger bummer), Jordan Mickey (monumental bummer), Jaylen Brown (promising), Guerschon Yabusele, Ante Zizic (hopefully we’ll see them next season), Deyonta Davis (traded), Rade Zagorac (not wasting a BBall.Ref search on him), Demetrius Jackson (maybe a third guard in the future??), Ben Bentil (let go because of the roster crunch. Bummer), and Abdul Nader (In Maine with Yabu).

Going into tonight’s extravaganza, Ainge holds the third pick. Most likely he’ll take either Kansas forward Josh Jackson, a feisty competitor that can’t shoot for shit, or Duke forward Jayson Tatum, a good-natured kid that can shoot for shit, but can’t defend. Ainge isn’t one to shy away from gambles; he’s been itching to make a move for a while. We’ll see who he picks. But his track record isn’t as bad as people say.

Number of Notable Hits: Perkins (via trade), Rondo (via trade), Olynyk (via trade), Al Jefferson, Delonte West, Tony Allen, Jared Sullinger, E'Twaun Moore

Notable Misses: Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, Orien Greene, J.R Giddens, Fab Melo

Notable We’ll Wait and Sees: Smart, Brown, Rozier, Nader, Zizic, Yabu

That’s seven notable hits, five notable misses and six notable we’ll wait and sees. Not bad considering Ainge’s average pick place is somewhere just below twenty.

#Danny Ainge #Boston Celtics #al Jefferson #Rajon Rondo #nba draft #sailboatstudios #kelly Olynyk #Trader Danny

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