The Detroit Pistons have agreed to a record deal with Monty Williams to be the franchise’s new head coach, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The deal is for six years, $78.5 million, making it the largest coaching deal in NBA history, sources told Wojnarowski.

The deal has team options for years seven and eight and could reach close to $100 million in incentives, league sources told The Athletic.

Williams was fired by the Phoenix Suns earlier in May after a disappointing run in the playoffs. The Suns stormed to a first round 4-1 series win against the below strength Los Angeles Clippers, but then struggled against eventual NBA finalists, the Denver Nuggets.

Despite the mid-season acquisition of 13-time NBA All-Star Kevin Durant, to go with stars Devin Booker, Chris Paul, and Deandre Ayton, Williams could not guide his team past Nikola Jokić and Co. – eventually falling to a 4-2 series loss and bouncing out of the Western Conference semifinals.

The Suns fell at the exact same hurdle in the 2021-22 season, losing in seven games against the Dallas Mavericks, despite leading 3-2 in the series.

The previous year, Williams helped lead the Suns to its first NBA finals appearance since 1993, which ultimately led to defeat against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.

In his time with the Suns, Williams compiled a 194-115 regular season record in four years and won the NBA’s Coach of the Year award last season after the Suns won 64 regular-season games.

Williams replaces Dwayne Casey at the Pistons, who stepped down as head coach following the season to take a front-office role in Detroit. In five seasons with the team, Casey complied a 121-263 record and helped lead Detroit to the playoffs once in 2018-2019.

The Pistons are in a very different position to the Suns but Williams’ experience in turning things around in Phoenix could prove vital.

Detroit has a roster of players full of potential and it will be Williams’ job to get the best out of their young core.

Cade Cunningham, the 2021 No. 1 pick and Jaden Ivey, the 2022 No. 5 pick, will be cornerstones of the franchise for years to come and have already impressed in the NBA.

Alongside the star backcourt, Williams will look to get the maximum out of the likes of James Wiseman, Jalen Duren, and their future 2023 No. 5 pick to steer the Pistons towards the playoffs.

However, the former New Orleans Pelicans head coach won’t be expected to reverse Detroit’s fortunes overnight. The Pistons finished with the worst record in the NBA last season, ending up going 17-65 throughout the regular season.

In the 2021-22 season the Pistons finished with a 23-59 record, highlighting the job at hand for Williams.

The long-term commitment to the 55-year-old coach underlines the project being built in Detroit and the belief they have in the future of their players and new head coach.

British mountaineer Kenton Cool has set a record for the most Mount Everest summits by a non-Nepali after reaching the top of the world’s highest mountain for the 17th time.

Cool reached the peak alongside Dorjee Gyelzen Sherpa, a local guide who has himself summitted both Everest and K2 multiple times, and Richard Walker, executive chairman of the Iceland grocery store chain in the UK.

According to a post on Cool’s Instagram account, the trio reached the top of Everest at 1:30 am British Summer Time, which is 6:15 am Nepal time.

“Conditions on the summit push were incredibly cold, leading to multiple tech failures with the tracker/comms going down,” reads the post. “They are now resting at Camp 4 before heading back down the mountain.”

It has been a week of records on Everest, which is most commonly climbed in May.

On Monday, 46-year-old Pasang Dawa Sherpa reached the mountain’s apex for the 26th time, tying his countryman Kami Rita Sherpa for the number of all-time ascents.

The tie only lasted for two days, though, as Kami Rita then successfully summitted for the 27th time on Wednesday.

Mountaineering tourism is a huge revenue driver for the country, despite concerns about potential overcrowding on Everest, which has led to safety risks.

A viral photograph taken in 2019 showed a “traffic jam” line of climbers waiting their turn to make the final ascent to the peak.

This year, Nepal issued 463 climbing permits to international tourists, its highest number ever. The largest groups represented were the U.S. and China.

In 2018, the Nepali government banned foreigners from climbing Everest alone. Then, earlier this year, they banned all solo trekking throughout the country.

“The dramatic increase in numbers, specifically inexperienced climbers led by inexperienced guides and guide companies, has created a tinderbox of a situation where big accidents are inevitable when they could be avoidable. All we can do is fight and advocate for the increased regulation of the mountaineering industry in Nepal.”

Hurricane season begins today, and while the outlooks have called for an average season, forecasters are warning that even typical years have the potential to lash coastal states with devastating storms.

Here’s what to expect in the coming months.

How many hurricanes will there be?

NOAA officials are predicting an average hurricane season, with 12 to 17 named tropical storms, five to nine of which could become hurricanes. They expect as many of four of those could strengthen into major hurricanes – category 3 or stronger.

Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State, said in April his group was predicting a slightly below-average season this year: 13 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.

The key difference between tropical depressions, tropical storms and hurricanes lies in their wind speeds and the level of organization within the system.

While a tropical depression represents the earliest stage of cyclone development, named tropical storms exhibit more structure and stronger winds. Hurricanes — the most powerful and dangerous of the three — possess the strongest winds and a well-defined eye, making them capable of causing extensive damage over large areas.

Read more: Hurricane categories and other terminology, explained

How many will make landfall?

None of the seasonal outlooks go as far as to predict how many storms could make landfall in the Caribbean or the US. But history has shown that even in years with average or below-average storms, deadly landfalls are still possible.

Last year, for instance, was an average season, but Hurricane Ian was a catastrophe for Florida. The storm killed more than 100 people when it made landfall in September, devastated the coast around Fort Myers and caused inland flooding that lasted weeks.

Florida was then struck by Hurricane Nicole in November, which tore the beach out from under homes in Volusia County, leaving them teetering on the brink of collapse.

There have been six category 4 or 5 hurricanes to hit the mainland since 2017, the most ever during a six-year period. Climate change, especially the buildup of heat increasing the ocean’s temperature, is leading to a larger percentage of hurricanes reaching the highest categories on the scale – a trend that is likely to continue as global temperatures climb.

What are the environmental factors at play this year?

This hurricane season’s activity will largely depend on two competing factors: El Niño, which inhibits storm development, and near record-high ocean temperatures, which will help fuel hurricanes.

El Niño is characterized by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, and tends to increase upper-level winds over the Atlantic, which disrupt and suppress hurricane formation.

But there’s another factor that could negate or even outweigh El Niño’s influence this year: Sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean are already at or near record-high levels, and in a way that “matches up quite well with what we associate with active Atlantic hurricane seasons,” Klotzbach said.

“If these warm anomalies in the North Atlantic persist through the hurricane season, it has the potential to cause less of an El Niño (wind) shear impact than we normally see,” he said, and that possibility is even showing up in “several climate model forecasts” for the summer and fall.

How is climate change affecting hurricanes?

Hurricanes are natural phenomena shaped by complex atmospheric and oceanic dynamics. But they are now increasingly influenced by human-caused climate change.

As our planet continues to warm due to fossil fuel pollution, the impacts are manifesting in the intensification and altered behavior of these destructive storms. Through a combination of warmer waters, increased atmospheric moisture and rising sea levels, the climate crisis has set the stage for hurricanes to pose unprecedented risks to coastal communities.

What names will the hurricanes have?

The World Meteorological Organization chooses hurricane names and the list rotates every six years. Names are gendered alternately through the season, and the list excludes names starting with the letters Q, U, X, Y or Z. If there are more than 21 storms in a season, the names transition to the Greek alphabet.

Some names are retired after particularly devastating storms. “Ian” and “Fiona” were retired last year, for example, and 96 names have been retired from the list since 1953.

Read more: The fascinating and controversial history behind hurricane names

When does hurricane season really get going?

Hurricanes can form at any time during the warm season and late into fall, but on average they peak in the Atlantic in the early fall – which is also around the time that the strongest storms tend to make landfall in the US.

Hurricane season ends on November 30, though there have been several instances where storms continued to form well after that date. In 2005 – the same year Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans – Hurricane Epsilon formed on November 29 and dissipated December 10. It was followed by an extremely late-season storm, Tropical Storm Zeta, that formed December 30 and lasted into January.

A Malaysian climber narrowly survived after a Nepali sherpa guide hauled him down from below the summit of Mount Everest in a “very rare” high altitude rescue, a government official said on Wednesday.

Gelje Sherpa, 30, was guiding a Chinese client to the 8,849 meter (29,032 feet) Everest summit on May 18 when he saw the Malaysian climber clinging to a rope and shivering from extreme cold in the area called the “death zone,” where temperatures can dip to minus 30 degrees Celsius (-86F) or lower.

Gelje hauled the climber 600 meters (1,900 feet) down from the Balcony area to the South Col, over a period of about six hours, where Nima Tahi Sherpa, another guide, joined the rescue.

“We wrapped the climber in a sleeping mat, dragged him on the snow or carried him in turns on our backs to camp III,” Gelje said.

A helicopter using a long line then lifted him from the 7,162-meter (23,500 feet) high Camp III down to base camp.

“It is almost impossible to rescue climbers at that altitude,” Department of Tourism official Bigyan Koirala told Reuters. “It is a very rare operation.”

Gelje said he convinced his Chinese client to give up his summit attempt and descend the mountain, saying it was important for him to rescue the climber.

“Saving one life is more important than praying at the monastery,” said Gelje, a devout Buddhist.

Tashi Lakhpa Sherpa of the Seven Summit Treks company, which provided logistics to the Malaysian climber, declined to name him, citing his client’s privacy. The climber was put on a flight to Malaysia last week.

Nepal issued a record 478 permits for Everest during this year’s March to May climbing season.

At least 12 climbers have died – the highest number for eight years, and another five are still missing on Everest’s slopes.

When Hong Kong resident Ashley James first started seeing “begpackers” on the streets of his city in spring of 2023, he had two simultaneous thoughts: leisure tourism had returned to Asia, and it was time to make some memes about it.

James, a comedian, is one of the posters behind the Instagram page Chaotic Hong Kong Expats. He shared a picture of a tourist sitting on a busy road with a cup of change and a sign in front of them and wrote “nature is healing, begpackers are back.”

If you’ve ever seen a shaggy-haired young person selling woven bracelets or playing drums near a tourist attraction, odds are you are familiar with the concept of begpacking.

The term is a portmanteau of “begging” and “backpacking” and is usually used to negatively describe people who are asking the public for money to fund their travels.

Typically, southeast and south Asian destinations like Thailand, India and Indonesia have been the hotspots for these so-called begpackers. Yet in most cases, the practice is illegal.

“We mock everything,” James says about the Instagram account, which is a spinoff of a Facebook page. But he notes that some of the page’s best-performing posts take potshots at begpackers.

What makes these specific travelers such a target? And what will happen as they return to Asia after the pandemic?

A day in the life of a begpacker

Someone who knows more about begpackers than most people is Stephen Pratt, department chair of the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida.

He’s studied the phenomenon from an academic perspective.

While in graduate school at the Hong Kong Polytechnic, he and several colleagues conducted fieldwork during which Pratt – the lone White male native English speaker in the group – volunteered to pose as a begpacker himself.

Armed with his ukulele and a sign reading “Please help me with my trip around the world” in Chinese, he set up in a busy park in Hong Kong’s Kowloon district.

A Cantonese-speaking colleague waited nearby to see who interacted with Pratt, then pigeonholed them to ask questions – and, in some cases, return the money they’d given.

Generally, Pratt explains, begpackers can be divided into three categories: those who busk (playing music or performing in some way), those who sell something (such as jewelry, postcards, or a service like hair braiding), and those who simply ask for money without offering anything in return.

In turn, passers-by respond differently based on which of the groups the “begpackers” are in.

During Pratt’s study, most people who gave him money made a mention of his ukulele – even if his playing wasn’t great, they said they appreciated that he made an effort.

Encountering stigma

It’s not entirely clear how long begpacking has been around. In his book “A Time of Gifts,” English travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor recounts peddling juvenile sketches for cash during his 1933 journey by foot across Europe.

But the age of social media has catapulted the activity into public consciousness with a wave of begpacking-shaming Instagram accounts and Facebook pages.

Pratt says such online judgments imply that travelers must meet economic thresholds before embarking on their adventures. It also reflects a wider culture of criticism.

“(This shaming) does raise the point of, ‘is international travel only for a certain class of people or people over a certain amount of income?’” says Pratt. “I think tourists themselves are being held more accountable now than in the past.”

Will Hatton, founder of budget travel advice site The Broke Backpacker, pushes back at the word “begpacker” and the negative connotations that come with it.

“I definitely don’t approve of people sitting on the curb begging,” he explains. But when it comes to people who busk or sell things to be able to afford more travel, “you’ve got these people who hit the road, who are being brave and trying to explore a different way of living.”

Joshua Bernstein, a lecturer in the Language Institute at Thamassat University in Thailand, says that some of the anger around begpacking connects to issues of gentrification and privilege.

“I think a lot of this rage is from foreigners,” he says. Bernstein observed begpackers in Bangkok and concluded that locals were much more interested in stopping, chatting or buying things than foreigners were.

“There’s policing that expats do among themselves. There’s an unfriendliness sometimes that expats have to each other of ‘I don’t want you to ruin this for me’ or ‘I don’t want you to make me look bad.’ There’s lots of those types of sentiments.”

He points out that people who begpack aren’t getting rich. They stay in cheap hostels for a few dollars a night and are eating street food, not Michelin-starred meals.

For James, the comedian, scorn against so-called begpackers all comes down to a single word: entitlement.

“Hong Kong is a very expensive place to live and the average (monthly) wage is 15,000 Hong Kong dollars ($1,915). Rent prices are so high, you have local people in cage homes. The locals can’t even afford (to live) here. Why are you in one of the most expensive places in the world and asking us to buy beads? Travel is a luxury around the world, and people saying ‘pay for my travel’ is stupid and entitled.”

Questions of privilege

While James acknowledges the irony of a White expat laughing at other White expats, not everyone thinks making fun of begpackers is merely entertainment.

Filipino human rights attorney Raphael Pangalangan wrote in an April 2023 column that the begpackers highlighted the phenomenon of “passport privilege.”

The term is used to highlight the difference in ease of travel for people with certain passports over others – for example, members of European Union countries who can travel around the continent freely versus people like Pangalangan who must endure waits and paperwork in order to secure travel visas and go overseas.

“Begpacking exposes the double standards of passport privilege and reveals the inherent inequalities in our global society,” Pangalangan wrote. “If the shoe were on the other foot, begpacking would be simply called vagrancy.”

Hatton believes that shaming around begpackers is more about race than class, or perceived class.

“The issue is with people having the idea that folks from first-world countries are very rich,” says Hatton. “Perhaps they are, but there are poor people in first-world countries and some of them support themselves through busking. That makes up like 90% of the class of people who get referred to as begpackers.”

He adds: “Hostility tends to come down to skin color.”

The future of begpacking

With Asia slower to reopen post-pandemic than countries in Europe and North America, it’s not yet clear whether so-called begpackers will return to their traditional stamping grounds or if their era is over.

Viral social media photos of begpackers in places like Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong have been appearing on social media in recent months, re-igniting debate over the issue. But Bernstein, the professor in Thailand, believes that this kind of lifestyle is moving online.

People who are trying to raise money for travel have a variety of options, from established websites like Go Fund Me to sharing a donation jar or mentioning a username for mobile payment service Venmo in their vlogs or social media posts.

Is yesterday’s street busker today’s content creator?

Rather than depend on the kindness of strangers, some travelers opt to build online followings and ask their fans to help support them financially.

“I think it kind of represents the growing arena of location-independent tourists blurring boundaries between leisure and work,” says Bernstein.

“I think there is a generational shift between valuing experience over things.”

As temperatures rise and summer beckons, it’s fast approaching that time of year when tourists from all around the world descend on Italy’s coastline.

But the huge popularity of Italy’s two largest islands Sicily and Sardinia, known for their pristine beaches and fluorescent blue waters, has come at a cost to the local environment, with trash and sand theft among the biggest problems.

However, this summer, local authorities are taking extra steps to preserve the natural environment by enforcing strict daily visitor limits, with some of the most highly rated beaches in the popular islands in the frontline.

While Baunei, a small village in a remote area of eastern Sardinia, has implemented daily visitor caps in previous years, restrictions on the number of sunbathers permitted to visit some of the most beautiful beaches along its 40-kilometer coastline overlooking the Gulf of Orosei are being tightened even further this summer.

Unsustainable visitor numbers

“We can no longer afford thousands of daily sunbathers all squeezed in one spot as in the past, it’s unsustainable.”

Four beaches are affected. Cala dei Gabbiani and Cala Biriala both now have a daily cap of 300 visitors in place, while Cala Goloritze has a limit of 250 visitors per day, and Cala Mariolu, the largest of the beaches, has a daily limit of 700 people.

Visitors to Cala Goloritze, which is only accessible by foot or boat, will be charged an entrance fee of six euros (US$6.5.)

Beachgoers must book their spot at all of these locations through an app called Cuore di Sardegna (or Heart of Sardinia) at least 72 hours before their visit. The entrance fee for Cala Goloritze can either be paid online, or with cash at the entrance to the inlet.

This charge will help fund surveillance, a parking area and maintaining the paths and toilets on the beach, according to local authorities.

“All these beaches, even those with free entrance, are tidy and neat,” adds Monni. “There’s surveillance, assistance to sunbathers and cleaning services. If people want, they’re welcome to leave a small contribution.”

At Cala Mariolu, one of Sardinia’s most famous beaches, a one euro per passenger fee is now applicable to any boats or dinghies that dock here.

“We must protect this paradise and its fragile ecosystem,” adds Monni.

The mayor says Baunei’s waters were rated as Italy’s most beautiful sea in 2022 by Legambiente, an Italian ecological lobby group. He says it’s also a site of European interest due to protected animals and birds species.

“Limits must be set otherwise everything collapses,” he adds.

Monni says that Cala Mariuolo has been besieged by up to 2,000 tourists a day in previous years, a situation he describes as “carnage.”

The coastal area of Baunei welcomes around 300,000 tourists each summer.

In a bid to further tighten restrictions, Monni has submitted a request to Sardinia’s regional authorities for permission to implement a mandatory six-square-meter distance between sunbathers throughout the entire coastline.

It won’t be an easy process. While Monni is confident about controlling access to the inlets by land, he’s fully aware that restricting access by sea will be more difficult. Private dinghies, yachts and canoes still show up in the area, often arriving from nearby towns.

“We can control sea arrivals only if the boats are run by the authorized tourist operators we have deals with and on a rotating base, no more than two hours on the beaches for each boat group,” explains Monni.

Beach towel ban

Baunei isn’t the only vacation spot in Sardinia trying to keep numbers down this summer.

Stintino, a fishing village on the northern coast, is adopting strict measures to protect its most stunning asset – the pinkish coral beach of La Pelosa, which offers views of the Isola Piana island, known for its stone lookout tower.

Named after the grassy, hairy (pelosi in Italian) plants that jut out of its soft sand dunes, La Pelosa is among the most beautiful – and crowded – beaches in Italy.

In high season, its sands are often a maze of towels and sunbathers, while a swim in its beautiful waters usually involves zig-zagging between countless inflatable water mats.

“We’ve capped tourists on La Pelosa to 1,500 per day for a ticket fee of 3.50 euros, bookings and payments can be made on an authorized website,” says Stintino’s mayor Rita Limbania Vallebella, recalling a sunny August day when town authorities apparently detected some 38,000 tourists swimming in Stintino’s waters.

“It was shocking, and disgusting. It destroyed the natural habitat leading to sand erosion. I can’t stand having tourists throw rubbish on the sand dunes, which they’d never do back at home.”

Keen to avoid a similar occurrence in the future, Vallebella is cracking down on ‘nature transgressors’ with beach patrols and a series of bans.

Dogs, smoking and sand stealing are all forbidden at this beach, along with using beach towels, with fines starting at 100 euros.

“On La Pelosa just mats are allowed. Unlike towels that get wet, sand doesn’t stick to mats, preferably if made of fiber and straw. We’ve lost so much sand because of beach towels,” explains Vallebella.

Meanwhile, restrictions are also in place at the nearby Le Saline beach. Campers are no longer permitted to “wildly” park on the fine pebble stone shore or near the lagoon, which is home to protected birds and plant species.

Advance bookings

Over in Sicily, Lampedusa island, one of the Pelagie Islands, has also brought in tourist restrictions at a popular spot.

With its clear blue waters, Isola dei Conigli beach has been repeatedly named one of the world’s best beaches by travelers, so it’s  no surprise that huge crowds flock here each year.

According to local councillor Totò Martello, over 1,500 people visited the beach, an egg-laying spot for loggerhead turtles, each day before a cap was introduced, alongside an entrance fee of two euros, paid on site.

“This number has now been halved, just 350 people in the morning, and another 350 in the afternoon,” says Martello. “Bookings are made online through a local authorized website.”

Those who sunbathe here must adhere to a specific “beach code,” which encourages visitors to remain at their sunbathing spot, unless they’re taking a dip in the water.

Sun beds and floating water mats are prohibited, and noise must be kept to a minimum.

“Summer can be tough. There are about 6,700 residents, but during the holidays over 200,000 tourists land here. It becomes unbearable for the environment and unlivable for everyone,” says Filippo Mannino, mayor of Lampedusa.

Martello says he plans to place a 40-day ban on the arrival of any cars and scooters of tourists’ and non-residents during the peak of summer.

To crackdown on the number of private yachts and boats anchoring in the bay, Mannino is pushing to have Isola dei Conigli listed as a protected marine park in the future.

Tourist’s cars are already banned on Linosa, Lampedusa’s smaller, jet-black volcanic isle, which allows only 200 visitors per day, according to Martello.

The move comes shortly after Mannino approved a measure to punish “vandals” who dump rubbish in Lampedusa and Linosa by seizing their cars.

Meanwhile, the island of Giglio, or Isola del Giglio island, based off the coast of Tuscany, has introduced a three euros landing fee, while cars are only permitted for stays of more than four days in August.

Home to 1,400 residents during winter, visitor arrivals reach a daily peak of 10,000 in the summertime, bringing the yearly total to 300,000.

Procida, another of Italy’s car-free islands, is also fighting against “hit-and-run” day-trippers.

Spanning barely four square-kilometers, the island is one of Europe’s most densely populated isles, with a population of around 10,000.

However, around 400,000 people visit each year, with the majority arriving during summer time.

The Denver Nuggets rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to complete a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers with a 113-111 victory on Monday night to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in the franchise’s 47-year history.

Center Nikola Jokic scored 30 points while adding 14 rebounds and 13 assists in the victory at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The triple-double is the eighth for Jokic this postseason, and puts him one ahead of Wilt Chamberlain for most all-time in a single playoff run.

The two-time MVP Jokic scored the go-ahead basket with under a minute left in the game, to put the Nuggets ahead 113-111. On the defensive end, Denver was able to twice prevent Lakers superstar LeBron James from tying the score, the last instance coming when Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon blocked James’s layup attempt as time expired on the final possession of the game.

James, who scored 21 points in the first quarter, finished with 40 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in the loss.

The Western Conference’s top-seeded Nuggets will next face the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics. The Heat lead the series 3-0 and could close out the Celtics on Tuesday night in Miami.

Prior to Monday, the Nuggets had reached the conference finals five times (1978, 1985, 2009, 2020), losing all four times to the Lakers.

The Kosovan Olympic Committee (KOC) has called for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Tennis Federation (ITF) to take disciplinary action against Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic.

On Monday, Djokovic left a political message on a TV camera lens at the French Open in response to violent clashes in Kosovo, writing: “Kosovo is the [heart symbol] of Serbia. Stop the violence” in Serbian.

In a letter written by KOC President Ismet Krasniqi and addressed to the IOC, the KOC said Djokovic’s message “breached the fundamental principle of the IOC charter on the point of political neutrality and involved yet another political statement in sport.”

The KOC claimed Djokovic “yet again promoted the Serbian nationalists propaganda and used the sport platform to do so,” thereby raising “the level of tension and violence between the two countries, Kosovo and Serbia.”

Tensions have been rising in the past week in Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008. There were clashes with protestors on Monday after ethnically Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo, a majority Kosovo Serb area, following April elections that Kosovo Serbs had boycotted.

Djokovic elaborated on his message in Serbian at a press conference this week, saying: “This is the least I could have done. I feel the responsibility as a public figure – doesn’t matter in which field – to give support.

“Especially as a son of a man born in Kosovo, I feel the need to give my support to our people and to the entirety of Serbia. I don’t know, and I think many others don’t know, what the future brings for Kosovo and for Serbian people, but it’s necessary to show support and demonstrate unity in these kinds of situations.”

Djokovic’s reference to the “entirety of Serbia” reflects the policy of the Serbian government, which still considers Kosovo to be an integral part of its territory and has not recognized the country’s independence.

Krasniqi warned that, if no action was taken against Djokovic, it “sets a dangerous precedent that sport can be used as a platform for political messages.”

He added: “I respectfully urge that IOC reacts within its framework and requests to the ITF to follow the principles regulated by the Olympic Charter and investigate on this matter by opening a disciplinary proceedings against the athlete.”

Djokovic plays in the second round of the French Open against Hungary’s Márton Fucsovics on Wednesday.

Jimmy Butler’s talents have been lauded this postseason. From his toughness to his elite shot-making, there is a reason he has earned the nickname ‘Himmy Buckets.’

But one talent we didn’t know the Miami Heat star had was clairvoyance. But according to tennis star and Heat fan Coco Gauff, Butler is either excellent at predicting the future or just extremely confident.

In the lead up to the French Open, Gauff hinted she had a “funny story” about Butler but was “going to save it” to avoid jinxing it.

However, after her victory in the first round at Roland Garros on Tuesday and, more importantly, the Heat’s dominant Game 7 win over the Boston Celtics to book their ticket to the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets, Gauff said she was finally ready to tell the story.

Gauff, who said she didn’t watch Game 7 as it was on in the middle of the night before her first round match but was “very relieved” to see the result, explained that before the playoffs, Butler reached out to her to offer her tickets for the final home game of the season in April, before contacting her a few weeks later offering her tickets for the postseason.

“I said: ‘I won’t be here. I’ll be in Madrid and then Rome and then France,’” Gauff told reporters.

“And then he said: ‘OK, when we make the Finals, let me know if your family wants some tickets.’ So this was before [the Heat] were even in the playoffs.

“This is before we lost to the Hawks for the first Play-In game. Everybody is like we have a 3% chance of making the Finals, but when he sent me that, I knew we were making the Finals because he didn’t say, ‘If we make the Finals,’ he said: ‘When we make the Finals.’ Now that we are in the Finals, I can say that story.

“But I remember screenshotting it and sending it to my family and I was, like: ‘Oh, we’re going to the Finals!’”

Butler’s confidence stuck with the 19-year-old, as she said: “I just really like that mentality of him.”

Gauff also revealed she took heart from the Heat’s resolve in Game 7 having relinquished a 3-0 lead to the Celtics in the series only to come out on top.

“Honestly, today, I told myself if Jimmy Butler didn’t freak out when they were up 3-0 and all of a sudden it’s 3-all, then I shouldn’t freak out after losing the first set,” Gauff said on court after her comeback win against Rebeka Masarova.

Butler has played a vital role in the No. 8 seed Heat’s miraculous run to the NBA Finals, beating the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks, the No. 5 New York Knicks and most recently the No. 2 seeded Celtics.

The NBA Finals begin on Thursday in Denver.

What happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force?

The age-old paradox may finally be answered in Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday night as Jose Mourinho, unbeaten in five European finals, leads AS Roma into the Europa League final against Sevilla, a six-time winner of Europe’s second continental club competition.

Almost 20 years exactly since lifting the UEFA Cup with Porto, his first European triumph as a manager, the evergreen Mourinho undoubtedly faces one of his stiffest tests yet.

Sevilla hasn’t earned its ‘King of the Europa League’ moniker for nothing, with those tournament record six triumphs coming from six finals, including a run of four wins in just six years.

Such is the belief within the Andalusian club that in the build up to the quarterfinal against Manchester United, midfielder Ivan Rakitić and club president José Castro described the Europa League as “our competition.”

Not that Mourinho is particularly concerned.

“History doesn’t win matches at all,” the 60-year-old told UEFA. “You look at Real Madrid’s finals and you think Real Madrid wins every final. You look at Sevilla and you say: ‘Sevilla wins every final.’

“But the reality is that history doesn’t win matches. Superstition is something that I don’t like, so I don’t look at superstition even as a factor.”

After grueling back-to-back jobs managing Manchester United and Tottenham, during which his reputation took something of a hit, Mourinho has been reinvigorated since arriving in Rome.

His pragmatic style may now be démodé in the hearts of football fans and journalists around the world, replaced by Pep Guardiola’s passing and Jürgen Klopp’s pressing, but its effectiveness certainly hasn’t dwindled.

Thirteen years after arguably his greatest triumph – when Mourinho’s 10-man Inter Milan held Guardiola’s peak Barcelona to a 1-0 win at the Camp Nou to advance to the Champions League final – the Portuguese maestro was at it again.

In the Europa League semifinal second leg against Bayer Leverkusen, Roma had just 29% possession and one shot on target to the German team’s 23 as the Serie A side successfully defended its 1-0 first-leg lead.

He may now have spent more than two decades in management, but Mourinho and his methods remain as relevant as ever.

“I always look forward,” Mourinho said. “Maybe, that’s my secret or my philosophy of being in football for so many years, so this final for me is a new final.

“I don’t think of Porto [in] 2003, I don’t think about Roma last season. I’m just thinking about this final. That’s my way of being.

“I’ve been in football for many years. Maybe, people think I’m older than I am. Maybe, they look at my white hair and think I’m really old, but not old [enough] to think about closing the circle.

“No, no, no. You are going to have me, still, for many years.”

Rome’s new emperor

After reaching and winning last year’s Europa Conference League final with the Giallorossi, Mourinho has now guided Roma to half of the four European finals it has reached in its history.

It’s fair to say he is adored in the Italian capital.

While the lingering image of Mourinho in England is one of an embattled, brusque or even confrontational manager, that is certainly not how he is portrayed in Rome.

Though his tetchiness with officials, opposition managers or reporters still reemerges at times – would he truly be the ‘Special One’ without it? – there is the sense that Mourinho is totally relishing his time in the Eternal City.

Fans regularly sing songs of praise from the stands, sometimes even during training sessions, as they did when tens of thousands lined the streets around the Colosseum to celebrate last season’s Conference League title, Roma’s first European triumph for 60 years.

What Mourinho has achieved in Rome truly matters to the city’s inhabitants. Murals have popped up all over town, including one depicting Mourinho as Rome’s emperor holding the Conference League trophy aloft.

Now, however, the fear is that he will leave. The team has seen little investment this season and there is no guarantee next season will be any different, even if Roma does win on Wednesday and qualifies for the Champions League.

Mourinho has a new mural in Rome pic.twitter.com/OLVYxwtoz8

— Italian Football TV (@IFTVofficial) May 26, 2022

Earlier in the campaign, Mourinho likened reaching the Champions League with Roma after five seasons away to “Jesus Christ coming to Rome and taking a stroll around the Vatican.”

Rome will be hoping Mourinho can indeed perform one more miracle before his possible ascension to bigger and better things.

Should he lead Roma to victory on Wednesday, he will become the first manager to win the Europa League with three different teams.

“I really don’t care,” Mourinho said of that record. “We work for [the fans]. In this moment of my career, I think of the happiness that we can give to these people.

“To be in this final is something that nobody would have expected at the beginning of the season when you see the incredible, incredible quality of the teams in the Europa League.

“Barcelona and Arsenal were in this competition and they were kicked out very, very early. For Roma to be in this final, it means a lot. So let’s try to give [the fans] the ultimate happiness.”