NBA Senior VP/Replay & Referee Operations JOE BORGIA in January informed NBA President of League Operations BYRON SPRUELL of "his intent to retire after the 2020 Finals," and last Thursday "marked the end of Borgia's 32-year career with the NBA." His January announcement was "before COVID-19 altered daily life and the NBA schedule, but Borgia is sticking to his plan." Longtime NBA fans may know Borgia "from his days as a referee" in the '80s and '90s, but today's fans "recognize Borgia as the face and voice the NBA's replay center in Secacus." Borgia was "instrumental in ushering in the replay review era" (USA TODAY, 7/1)....The family of JULIUS WHITTIER, who a half-century ago took the field as the first black football player at the Univ. of Texas, yesterday "filed a lawsuit accusing the NCAA of negligence and wrongful death stemming from Whittier's death at age 68 from football-related head trauma." A postmortem examination of his brain "revealed that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease associated with head trauma" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 7/1).
