Bucks' Damian Lillard issues playful response to teammate Kyle Kuzma's boxing challenge
While Damian Lillard is mostly known for his accomplishments on the basketball court, the nine-time NBA All-Star is also an avid fan of combat sports.
Kyle Kuzma, who was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in February, was apparently aware of his teammate Lillard's passion for boxing and decided to challenge him to a bout.
In a social media post, Kuzma initially joked that Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo would face consequences if he departed Milwaukee at some point this offseason.
Speculation has swirled that the two-time NBA MVP could explore his options this offseason in pursuit of playing with a team that's better positioned for a deep playoff run.
"Me to @giannis_an34 if you leave next year," Kuzma wrote in an Instagram Stories post over a video of him in a sparring session.
Kuzma followed up that post by suggesting Lillard could be "next" teammate to draw his wrath. "Ding ding," Kuzma captioned another video of him wearing boxing gloves.
Lillard caught wind of Kuzma's challenge and responded in kind.
"When I'm healthy… I'm stopping you in the 5th… Long torso = BHop vs. De La Hoya," Lillard wrote in an Instagram Stories post.
Lillard's response was a reference to Bernard Hopkins' famous 2004 bout against Oscar De La Hoya. Hopkins was defending his middleweight title when he knocked out De La Hoya. The fight is largely remembered for it being the first time in De La Hoya's career he lost a bout via knockout.
The Bucks list Lillard as 6' 2" and 195 lbs. Meanwhile, Kuzma is listed at 6' 9" and 221 lbs.
De La Hoya was noticeably smaller than Hopkins when they were in the ring. De La Hoya, who is often referred to as "The Golden Boy," attempted to win a belt in a weight class that was heavier than he normally competed in.
Lillard recently underwent surgery to repair his torn left Achilles tendon. He suffered the injury in April during the Bucks playoff series against the Indiana Pacers. Shortly before the ACL injury, the star point guard had worked his way back from a deep vein thrombosis issue in his right leg. Lillard was sidelined for the Bucks' final 14 games of the 2024-25 regular-season.
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CNN
37 minutes ago
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Kennedy's HHS sent Congress ‘junk science' to defend vaccine changes, experts say
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Kennedy, who was an anti-vaccine activist before taking a role in the Trump administration, announced May 27 that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would no longer recommend covid vaccines for pregnant women or healthy children, bypassing the agency's formal process for adjusting its vaccine schedules for adults and kids. The announcement, made on the social platform X, has been met with outrage by many pediatricians and scientists. The HHS document meant to support Kennedy's decision, obtained by KFF Health News, was sent to members of Congress who questioned the science and process behind his move, according to one federal official who asked not to be identified because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The document has not been posted on the HHS website, though it is the first detailed explanation of Kennedy's announcement from the agency. Titled 'Covid Recommendation FAQ,' the document distorts some legitimate studies and cites others that are disputed and unpublished, medical experts say. HHS director of communications Andrew Nixon told KFF Health News, 'There is no distortion of the studies in this document. The underlying data speaks for itself, and it raises legitimate safety concerns. HHS will not ignore that evidence or downplay it. We will follow the data and the science.' HHS did not respond to a request to name the author of the document. One of the studies the HHS document cites is under investigation by its publisher regarding 'potential issues with the research methodology and conclusions and author conflicts of interest,' according to a link on the study's webpage. 'This is RFK Jr.'s playbook,' said Sean O'Leary, chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. 'Either cherry-pick from good science or take junk science to support his premise — this has been his playbook for 20 years.' Another study cited in the document is a preprint that has not been peer-reviewed. Under the study's title is an alert that 'it reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.' Though the preprint was made available a year ago, it has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. The FAQ supporting Kennedy's decision claims that 'post-marketing studies' of covid vaccines have identified 'serious adverse effects, such as an increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis' — conditions in which the heart's muscle or its covering, the pericardium, suffer inflammation. False claims that the 2024 preprint showed myocarditis and pericarditis only in people who received a covid vaccine, and not in people infected with covid, circulated on social media. One of the study's co-authors publicly rejected that idea, because the study did not compare outcomes between people who were vaccinated and those infected with the covid virus. The study also focused only on children and adolescents. The HHS document omitted numerous other peer-reviewed studies that have shown that the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis is greater after contracting covid for both vaccinated and non-vaccinated people than the risk of the same complications after vaccination alone. O'Leary said that while some cases of myocarditis were reported in vaccinated adolescent boys and young men early in the covid pandemic, the rates declined after the two initial doses of covid vaccines were spaced further apart. Now, adolescents and adults who have not been previously vaccinated receive only one shot, and myocarditis no longer shows up in the data, O'Leary said, referring to the CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink. 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37 minutes ago
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38 minutes ago
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To Play For Savannah Bananas Takes All Sorts Of Special Skills
*This is the second in a multi-part series on the Savannah Bananas. The Savannah Bananas are a lot of things: a traveling circus; a close-knit group of players, performers, team members (not 'employees'); a family affair; and the best night you will have at the ballpark all year (non-October division). What they are most decidedly not: a way-station for ballplayers trying to find their way back to organized baseball. The Bananas are a social media phenomenon. There is a multi-part documentary on ESPN; reports on 60 Minutes; and a YouTube series, 'Bananaland: The Road To Cooperstown.' Not to mention that they maintain an active presence on TikTok. But while watching at home is interesting, the Savannah Bananas need to be seen in person to be truly experienced. If you are unfamiliar with the team and their story, my colleague here at Candace Oehler wrote a great piece about the team and their owners, Jesse and Emily Cole. 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Jesse, and his wife, Emily, run the Bananas as a team, as a business, and as a family. And, to that end, they work overtime to make sure everyone is taken care – financially as well as emotionally. Unlike professional baseball (including the major leagues), the Bananas work on year-round contracts. That means everyone in the organization – most specifically, the players – are guaranteed income for twelve months, not just six or seven as is the case in other professional ranks. The players are well-renumerated. While no one – not the players nor the owners – would divulge what each gets paid, it was intimated that the players make considerably more than typical minor league salaries (even taking into consideration the new minor league collective bargaining agreement that was introduced in 2023), but well below big league money. It is, without question, a living wage. Further, each player has full health benefits. As in organized baseball, all contracts are individualized based on what the player brings to the table. Baseball skills, fans-first focus, ability to create unforgettable moments, level of fan engagement – both on and off the field, including on social media – are all components of what a player may get paid. Social media, in fact, is a massive part of the equation. The Bananas have more than 10 million followers on TikTok (up from 8.4 million this time last year), nearly three million on Instagram (up more than 10% since last year), but a mere 216,000 on X, formerly Twitter (which may say something about the age of their followers). With so much of their fan engagement done via the socials, the club is always looking for players who have – or can create – a huge following. Currently, infielder Jackson Olson is the leader by a mile, with 1.9 million followers on TikTok. But many of his teammates clock in with hundreds of thousands of followers, including Alex Ziegler, who has about 630,000, and was discovered by the club doing his bat tricks on social media. The Bananas want their players 'out there' hyping the game, the team, and the whole Banana ethos. Jesse and Emily operate with the mantra: 'Fans First. Entertain Always.' So, when the Bananas first formed to be the team(s) they would become, the vetting process for players was thorough, but tricky. Would a collegiate or former professional baseball player be willing to rip off his shirt and stand topless in the batter's box? How would he feel about twerking his way from the on-deck circle to the plate? Could he break out into dance on the mound, and then make a competitive pitch? What would these players do to give the fans the time of their life? At first, Jesse and Emily and their staff had to work extremely hard, looking all over the world to find the right balance of players who had the skills – both baseball and entertainment – to be part of this group. Now, with the organization's global success, they receive 'thousands' of submissions each day that they have to cull to see who will make a good member of any of their teams. While the pool of potential players has gotten larger, choosing the right players has not gotten easier. At the end of the day, the Coles want to make sure they have a competitive game and an unparalleled show. The competitive aspect is what I was dubious about. How could a guy who does a backflip while catching a flyball really care about winning? How does a team truly set up to play defense behind a pitcher standing nearly 11-feet tall wearing stilts? Would a player who could steal first base on a wild pitch really take the game seriously? Would players really chase a ball from the pitcher's mound to the warning track to keep a runner from scoring in what we would call 'extra innings' but they call a 'showdown?' The answer to each question is: MOST CERTAINLY! The competition is very much real. Pitchers are trying to strike out batters; batters are swinging for the fences; runners are trying to take the extra base; and fielders are trying to get outs – even if they add a whole lot of flair to the process. In the concourse after a game in Mesa, Arizona, one Banana player told me that he was happy they had won that night, as they had now won the series, which took a little pressure off of the next day's game. Another remarked that last season's seven-game losing streak to the Firefighters still stuck in his craw. When a Banana hit a hard shot into hole at short, he busted down the line, and was none-too-pleased when the throw beat him by half a step. You could see the player's frustration from the press box. Just because he was wearing a bright yellow uniform and the game had a clock and the first base coach was breakdancing, doesn't mean that the competitive zeal with which he has played the game his entire life went away. But, within seconds of heading back to the dugout, the frown was gone, and his smile was back. There was no thrown helmet or pouting on the bench. In fact, by the time he was back among his teammates, he was once again part of the party. But while in the batter's box and while running down that line, his fire burned just as hot as if there were twenty scouts in the stands judging his every movement. [It should be noted that no one actually sits in the dugout. Every coach and player is in front of the dugout enjoying the party as much as the fans in the stands.] Jesse and Emily have grand plans to grow their game. This summer they will be in 40 cities covering 28 states plus Washington, D.C. They currently have five teams, and are looking to add a sixth. The resumes and videos keep pouring in. There is no longer a dearth of players to choose from. But, as they have from day one, they will be persnickety and exacting, discovering players that are 'genuinely positive, happy, and outgoing…who understand that you know our job is to bring joy.' Never resting on their laurels, they continue to be on the hunt for the perfect bunch of Bananas.
