Sports this 'n' that

 The NBA is paying a steep price for deciding not to remain in bubbles in the regular season. COVID-19 is still a major problem.

Take, for example, the Boston Celtics, who've had three games in the last four days postponed due to COVID-related issues. As we hinted yesterday, Brooklyn's Kyrie Irving is being investigated by the league in relation to a holiday party that could very well have been a super-spreader event, for all we know. Including the Boston-Orlando game, three NBA games were postponed last night due to COVID.

Now, I get that these athletes don't want to be away from their families for extended periods, as they were when in the bubble at the end of last season. But you have to be smart about it.

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Governor Andrew Cuomo has green-lit travel to Orchard Park for Buffalo's divisional round game vs. Baltimore this weekend, since things worked so well last Saturday when the Bills beat Indianapolis. They're capping fan attendance at just under 7,000, but snow reportedly is in the forecast for the weekend, and traditionally, Buffalo gets hammered every time there's a snowstorm. Bring snowshoes!

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ESPN bloviator Stephen A. Smith really needs to stop provoking celebrity sports fans.

It wasn't so long ago that WWE superstar-actor-reality TV veteran Mike "The Miz" Mizanin got on the stump for his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers on First Take, and took Smith to promo school.

A little more than 3 years ago, actor-singer Jamie Foxx appeared on First Take pretending to be Stephen A.'s "twin brother", Cleveland. On Tuesday, Foxx appeared on Smith's new ESPN+ show, Stephen A.'s World, and, like The Miz, shredded Smith. Foxx, you see, was on to promote his new movie, "Soul", and to defend his hometown Dallas Cowboys, whom Smith has regularly haterized on First Take. 

And, yeah, he does go into his Stephen A. mimic as Cleveland to start.....

All this proves is that "Screamin' A. Cosell" doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to football. Never has, never will.