Latest sports news: Could Carmelo Anthony have been the Pistons’ missing piece? Khabib-Ferguson (surprise!) canceled again

One thing I firmly believe is that winning is circumstantial. The culture, chemistry, competition, team makeup, talent, and lack of injuries all need to be just right for a championship team. Blunders in these areas have stopped some of the best players in NBA history, like Charles Barkley, Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson and Patrick Ewing.

Anthony said on an Instagram Live video with Dwyane Wade that he would have two or three rings if he was drafted by the Pistons. The 2003 draft is the most popular in the last 20 years. Anthony, Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh were all top 5 picks. After James went first, one pick was sprinkled in among the rest of the group. The Pistons selected Serbian 7-footer Darko Milicic second overall over Anthony. Milicic made minimal impact in Detroit.

It’s a difficult question to answer. The Pistons won the 2004 NBA Championship, lost to the Spurs in 2005, and failed in the Eastern Conference finals the next three seasons. If the Pistons had drafted Anthony, would they have still traded for Rasheed Wallace? That is doubtful, but Anthony would’ve provided the Pistons with the one weapon they were missing to make a longer run: an elite offensive threat.

Christian Wood, Marcus Smart, Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell all have been cleared of the coronavirus. Smart and Mitchell made their announcements with public posts. Pistons coach Dwayne Casey said that Wood was upset when his initial results were made public.

“He didn’t release it,” Casey told ESPN. “The worst part was it got out before Christian even had a chance to tell his mom.”

Knicks owner James Dolan and ESPN broadcaster Doris Burke are the latest high-profile public figures to test positive for COVID-19. Dolan has been in self-isolation and is experiencing “little to no symptoms,” the Knicks said in a statement. Burke says that she doesn’t have any symptoms now, but her fatigue from March 14 to 17 led to her getting tested.

“Looking back, those were my symptoms,” Burke said on Adrian Wojnarowski’s podcast. “We’ve heard so much about shortness of breath, fever, tightness in your chest, chills, body aches, etc. Really, my primary symptom throughout this was this extraordinary fatigue.”

A Khabib-Ferguson UFC fight is more mythical than Big Foot. A lightweight battle between two of UFC’s best is likely to be canceled for the fifth time.

Khabib Nurmagomedov is stuck in Russia’s lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s unable to fly to the U.S., where the fight would take place. The original location was the Barclays Center in New York on April 18, but that venue is unavailable to due to coronavirus concerns. Nurmagomedov said that the UFC told him that the fight “100%” wouldn’t happen in the United States, which led to him leaving the country. A new venue has yet to be announced.

In 2015, Nurmagomedov withdrew due to a rib injury, Ferguson had a lung issue in 2016 and a kidney problem in 2017, and Ferguson tore his knee ligament after tripping over a cable at a media event six days before the fight in 2018. Maybe it just isn’t meant to be.

The UFC is now looking at another opponent for Ferguson at UFC 249.

The Olympics will be held in Tokyo July 23-Aug. 8 of 2021, the governing bodies announced in a joint statement.

“A certain amount of time is required for the selection and qualification of athletes and for their training and preparation, and the consensus was staging the rescheduled Games during the summer vacation in Japan would be preferable,” said Mori Yoshiro, the President of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee.

The Paralympic Games have also been rescheduled for Aug. 24-Sept. 5 of 2021.