NBA player Bismack Biyombo is stepping up in a BIG way for his home country ... donating $1 MILLION in supplies to help DR Congo fight the coronavirus.
"We have never experienced a crisis of this magnitude," the Charlotte Hornets forward said ... "Seeing my home country suffer in this capacity is devastating."
"I've spent the last few weeks trying to figure out a way to help those suffering in the DRC. I am pleased to announce that The Bismack Biyombo Foundation delivered over 10,000 masks and 780 hazmat suits to the DRC this week."
Altogether, the masks and suits are expected to add up to an impressive $1 million worth of supplies to help his countrymen battle the pandemic.
Biyombo's foundation points out the area has been riddled with deadly diseases for years -- from malaria to Ebola and more -- leaving the country in danger as it faces COVID-19.
TMZ Sports has obtained pictures and video of the supplies ... and the visuals show how far Biyombo's gesture will go for his country.
Biyombo hopes the gesture can slow down the virus from spreading so the country has a greater chance to fight
"Thank you to all of those who are at the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Officials in New York City are making sure the famous public basketball courts are not a hub for the coronavirus ... they've shut down ALL public courts and have begun removing rims.
"New York City is a proud basketball town and we would never remove hoops unless absolutely necessary," a rep for NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation tells TMZ Sports.
"In an effort to protect the health of City residents, all basketball courts are currently closed."
We're told the move to shut down ALL public courts was made on April 6 and will last until officials believe the danger is gone.
So far, we're told 51% of rims citywide have been removed from parks to ensure groups will NOT gather at those locations, where the virus could be spread.
FYI, there are HUNDREDS of public outdoor courts across the city, according to the Parks and Rec website.
The rims were even removed from NYC's famous Rucker Park on March 25 -- and we're told it was because people were not following the rules of social distancing.
Rucker might be the most legendary streetball court in the world -- where superstars like Kobe Bryant,LeBron James,Kevin Durant and more have balled out for decades.
LaMelo Ball's barber took ZERO chances when it came to cutting the Big Baller's hair during the COVID-19 outbreak ... he showed up to trim Melo's head IN A FULL HAZMAT SUIT!!
We kid you not ... Philly Barber -- the famous hair guy for stars like Melo, Saquon Barkley and Patrick Mahomes -- tells TMZ Sports Melo was in desperate need of a cut, but with the global pandemic going down ... he had serious reservations about slinging around the razors.
TMZSports.com
"He kept approaching me and I was like, 'Look, man, there's a lot going on right now,'" Philly says. "'We gotta practice being safe, dude.'"
But on Tuesday this week, Philly gave in and went to cut the 18-year-old's hair ... but made sure he was doing it safely -- rockin' gloves, protective goggles, a mask and a hazmat suit!
"Melo is like a brother to me and the last thing I want to see, to your wife or to any family members, you don't want to see them affected by this," Philly says.
"I did what I had to do and it looked crazy, bro."
Philly eventually got the job done ... and Melo thought it was all pretty hilarious, saying, "My boy came in here lookin' -- I'm weak!"
Pretty funny, right? But, Philly tells us he's just glad everyone came out of the cut safely ... even if the outfit had him hot as hell during the job.
As for how the cut turned out ... doesn't seem Melo was complaining about the look -- and Philly told us, "It actually really worked out."
Swagger with a side of safety. That's Big Baller for sure!
Airline carriers, cruise ships and hotels are pissing off would-be travelers seeking refunds in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic ... and most folks are s*** outta luck!!!
Here's the deal ... folks who had domestic and international vacations planned for March, April and May are running into the same problem ... they're asking for refunds from the airlines, cruises and hotels, but are mostly being told the only remedy is credits for future travel.
Our sources tell us Kenya Airways is NOT refunding anyone ... instead, we're told the airline is only offering travel credit good for one year from the date the original flight was booked.
It's bad news for a group of wanderlust women in Los Angeles who tell us they booked flights to Seychelles and Nairobi and lodging at Kenya's exclusive Giraffe Manor, which is also only offering credit good for up to a year.
The group says they booked their $3,000 roundtrip, multi-stop flights last August and were supposed to travel in March and April, but the virus' spread makes it impossible to keep the dates and reservations.
If they want to use the airline credit -- no refunds, remember -- the group must book and complete a new trip by August 2020. As for staying at Giraffe Manor -- a super-popular haunt for celebs -- the 1-year credit means they must compete with all the other people who also had trips canceled this year and those with reservations still in play.
Meanwhile, Priceline is so swamped with calls the travel agency is only handling inquiries on flights that are within the next 72 hours. For almost every major airline, it's taking at least 2 hours to get on the phone with a real person, and in some cases it's taking 2 days.
Oh and get this ... Carnival Cruises made a California grandpa fight and claw for a refund for a $7,500 family vacation with his wife, children and grandkids ... this after the 71-year-old man warned the cruise line he couldn't risk it with his health only to be offered credit for a future cruise.
The fam was supposed to set sail from Long Beach April 11, but Craig Morris wasn't about to set foot on the ship. Until this week, Carnival reportedly insisted Craig would not be refunded for the cost of the tickets and he fought the cruise line for 2 weeks trying to get his money back.
In the end, Carnival suspended all voyages until May 11 and the cruise line is finally telling Morris and other travelers they can opt for full refunds, but only after they pissed a bunch of customers off by only offering credits for future trips.
Meanwhile, people across the globe are still getting infected and dying from COVID-19. Talk about #FirstWorldProblems.
The massive U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Mercy has finally arrived ... just in time to help ease pressure on L.A. hospitals bracing for a tsunami of coronavirus cases.
Mercy docked in the L.A. Port Friday morning after making the trek from San Diego. It's quite a sight ... the ship's being flanked by a fleet of what appears to be U.S. Coast Guard boats. The scene offers one helluva juxtaposition ... L.A.'s desperate help to combat a global crisis with a picturesque backdrop of sunshine and palm trees.
Mercy, which left San Diego on Monday, will provide 1,000 hospital beds, extra doctors, nurses and other staff. The ship is expected to treat patients who do NOT have coronavirus ... freeing up resources such as ventilators and intensive care units at brick and mortar hospitals.
L.A. officials fear they have not seen the worse yet nearly 2 weeks after California Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a "shelter-in-place" order. So far, there have been 21 deaths and more than 1,220 cases -- a 52% jump since Wednesday -- in L.A. County alone.
L.A.'s needs are so intense ... ABC shows "Grey's Anatomy" and "Station 19" are donating medical supplies -- such as hundreds of N95 masks and gowns -- to hospital staff working to combat the deadly outbreak.
One of the big problems with the coronavirus is not knowing if the person you're interacting with has it ... which underscores how EMT's are among the heroes of the pandemic.
Check out the video ... a man was sleeping on a subway train Friday when he suffered a seizure. He let out a scream, which some say sounded like a gasp, and then his arms flailed as he clearly needed medical attention.
Medical attention he got, thanks to the folks who gave him emergency care. We're told he had a seizure and did NOT have coronavirus. Nevertheless, the EMTs didn't know that and even though they had protective gear on ... it's still heroic.
The man was taken to the hospital and we're told he's conscious.
Evander Holyfield's son is proving he's also "The Real Deal" -- scoring another decisive victory in the boxing ring ... while his dad watched from the stands.
22-year-old Evan Holyfield -- aka "Young Holy" -- took on Dylan Carlson at the Ring of Hope fundraiser at the Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas over the weekend ... and he looks good!
Holyfield opened up the fight by throwing some effective combos -- and essentially landed at will for the rest of the fight.
Ultimately, Evan won by unanimous decision ... and his Hall Of Fame dad was super-proud.
Evan is now 4-0 as a pro, with 3 KOs on his record. When we spoke with him recently, Young Holy told us the goal was to become a better fighter than his father.
TMZSports.com
Of course, Evander is one of the all-time greats ... he's the only boxer in history to be the undisputed champion in TWO weight classes.
3:48 PM PT -- The woman who DaBaby struck over the weekend has lawyered up, and it sounds like they're ready to have a chat with DB.
UPDATE
Attorney Matt Morgan tells TMZ ... "Morgan & Morgan has been retained to represent the interests of Tyronesha Laws. Ms. Laws has received DaBaby's Instagram message. We look forward to speaking with Mr. Kirk."
UPDATE
Yeah, you know it's serious when government names start getting thrown around. Luckily, DaBaby's already made it clear he's more than ready to talk.
UPDATE
12:09 PM PT -- DaBaby just issued a mea culpa to the woman he hit, implying he thought the gal was a dude ... and couldn't tell the difference because she was shining a light on his face at incredibly close range.
UPDATE
UPDATE
He goes on to acknowledge he was wrong in any case, noting that having flashing lights in your face is part of the biz and something he signed up for when he got in the game. That said, he offers an alternative to bopping him with a phone for next time ... zoom mode.
UPDATE
It also sounds like DB is trying to get ahead of possible coming repercussions for this, sending a message directly the woman, that he's willing to apologize and talk privately ... and make things right by whatever means necessary.
UPDATE
10:46 AM PT -- Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the victim in this case told cops that DaBaby got the wrong person when he smacked her, because she explained it was the woman next to her who had hit DaBaby first -- but received none of the retaliation.
UPDATE
We're also told when deputies arrived on the scene, DB had already left the venue. Our sources say the officers who responded did not notice visible injuries on the victim, and we're told she refused EMS attention when asked if she needed treatment.
UPDATE
Lastly ... our sources say this gal was given a form she can submit to the State Attorney's Office if she wants to press charges and pursue the case further. Unclear if she plans to do that or not though.
DaBaby brutally assaulted a fan Saturday night as he made his way to the stage, and the crowd was so enraged at him the show ended before it began.
The rapper was at Whiskey North in Tampa for his "Up Close N Personal" tour when a woman waved her phone in his direction, presumably to get a pic. Check out the video ... you see DaBaby unload on her.
Folks at the concert tell TMZ ... after the initial shock subsided, the crowd started booing the rapper. DaBaby and his crew left without performing a single song. Check out the strike from a different angle too, BTW. It's a straight up open palm slap across the face.
You can hear people shriek in horror as DB calmly walks away, and the crowd around the woman bend over to help her. Eerily to similar to another incident DaBaby's bodyguard was involved in back in September ... when the guy KO'd a girl, whom he thought was a guy.
Now, DaBaby has spoken on this. He went on his Instagram story to share a video of the incident, saying, "who know shawty government name so my lawyer can get active."
Cops showed up -- responding to a 911 assault call -- but no arrests were made.
DaBaby's had his share of problems recently. He was recently accused of beating up and robbing a guy in Miami. The battery charges were dropped but he's still under the microscope for robbery -- he allegedly jacked the guy's cellphone, credit card and cash.
Billy Joe Saunders has called his shot ... he wanted Canelo -- and now he's getting Canelo!
Sources tell TMZ Sports the undefeated 30-year-old British champion is all set to do battle with Canelo Alvarez on May 2nd at the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas (as first reported by ESPN's Salvador Rodriguez) ... and it's a fight Billy Joe has wanted for months!!
In fact, the reigning WBO super middleweight champion came into the TMZ office back in November to shoot an episode of "TMZ Sports: Roundtable" ... and told us why he's supremely confident he can beat the Mexican superstar.
TMZSports.com
"He's a real good fighter, he's done brilliant things for boxing," Saunders told us ... "I just think I've got the keys to his locker."
"If he beats me, I'll shake his hand and say you're the better man, but I know I'll beat him."
At the time, Saunders -- who was sitting with his promoter, Eddie Hearn -- said he doesn't care about the money, he's a competitor who wants to prove he's the best in the world.
"Let me win and keep the money," Saunders said ... "You let me win and keep the money. That's how much I want to beat him."
Canelo is one of the top fighters in all of combat sports and arguably the biggest draw -- coming off a spectacular violent KO of Russian stud Sergey Kovalev back in Nov.
Canelo is 53-1-2 as a pro ... with his only loss coming from Floyd Mayweather back when Alvarez was just 23 years old.
Kim Kardashianis the queen of birthday surprises, because she just took Jonathan Cheban's birthday cake to the next level, as in ... supersized snack!!!
Here's the deal ... Jonathan, or rather Foodgod, celebrated his 46th trip around the sun Friday, and had ordered up a cake from Divine Delicacies Cakes in Miami. Kim caught wind of it beforehand, called the bakery and requested a supersized version as a BIG surprise.
TMZ.com
The final product is a sight to behold ... it stands a whopping 5 feet tall and is completely edible! Well, aside from the Swarovski crystals spelling out FOODGOD on top. Damn thing even glows in the dark with 24 karat gold accents.
Each layer of cake is a different flavor -- there's vanilla rum with dulce de leche, vanilla with vanilla bean custard, chocolate with chocolate buttercream, red velvet cream cheese, cookies and cream, guava cream cheese, coco and guava and Baileys. Ya full yet???
All told, the cake took 16 hours to complete and cost Kim about $10k.
Foodgod was caught completely off guard when he picked up his order, and the bakery even decorated the front entrance just for him.
Lou Williamsdecided to honor Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, by getting a HUGE mural in his man cave at his Atlanta home this week .. and it's pretty amazing!
TMZ Sports has learned the Los Angeles Clippers guard hit up his good friend and tattoo artist Fennell "InkByKali" Cunningham for the Mamba and Mambacita mural.
We're told because Lou and Kobe were real close, InkByKali had to make sure the mural was perfect ... so he hit up another artist, Tay Hill, to help out.
You can see in a video of the mural, obtained by TMZ Sports, the art is a HUGE painting of Kobe in his Lakers gear with Gianna in her Mamba Academy jersey. All told, we've learned the piece took 13 HOURS to paint!
"Definitely honored to have been a part of doing this mural," InkByKali tells us.
After Kobe tragically died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, Lou went on Twitter the next day and expressed how much pain he was in, saying, "Been crying on and off."
"Have random thoughts about things we spoke about then laugh. Cry again."
Lou even put out a song dedicated to the Mamba called "24" this week ... writing a caption along with the track that read, "Wrote a open letter to the homie."
Of course, Lou ain't the only NBA baller honoring the Mamba ... stars like LeBron Jamesand Anthony Davis have gotten tribute tats -- while others in the league have been hoopin' with messages to Kobe on their sneakers.
Terrelle Pryor just hooked up an entire boys high school basketball team with brand spankin' new Nike basketball shoes ... and it's pretty awesome.
30-year-old Pryor -- a former star athlete at Jeannette H.S. -- hooked up his alma mater's boys' basketball squad with Paul George 4's ... just in time for the district playoffs.
TMZ Sports talked to head coach Adrian Batts -- who coached the NFL stud back in the day -- and he tells us Pryor promised the kids he'd get all 12 players on the squad new kicks if they made the playoffs.
Jeannette went 15-7 (they won 14 of their last 15 games) and made the playoffs ... so true to his word, Pryor went shopping for PG4's.
Coach Batts says the kids were super-happy and appreciative of Pryor.
And get this, it's not the first time TP got gifts for the team ... he set the kids up with new LeBron's last month.
City Girls rapper JT says she "spent a car" on Yung Miami's birthday gift, but clearly she was being modest -- it's easily the price of a house!!! Or maybe she drives really pricey cars.
JT surprised her partner with some shiny bling for her 26th birthday Tuesday ... leaving YM305 speechless. We're told the gift -- 2 months in the works -- was delivered Tuesday night.
The chain is a baller 130 carats ... and features everything YM's obsessed with -- diamonds, music notes, money, Chanel and her kids' names. Celeb jeweler Elliot Eliantte was the artist behind the masterpiece.
Elliot Eliantte
JT said on social media ... "Happy birthday to my EVERYTHING. I spent a car on this I F***ING LOVE YOU & if a b*tch ever think otherwise they crazy!!!! B*tch you love diamonds Chanel & your kids.... it's all there! Pop your sh*t!!!!"
YM's reaction can be summed up in 2 words. Speechless and tears.
As we first reported ... Miami hooked up JT with some serious jewels last year to celebrate JT's prison release.
It's great to have friends. BONUS if they're stinkin' rich!!!
4:14 AM PT -- LAPD tells us it appears no crime was committed by the drivers, pointing out that drugs, alcohol and speed were NOT a factor. Cops do not plan to charge the motorists but might turn the case over to the City Attorney for review.
Actor and comedian Orson Bean is dead after being struck by a car while crossing the street ... TMZ has learned.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ Bean was allegedly jaywalking in Venice Friday night when he was clipped by one vehicle and then struck by another. We're told Bean died at the scene and both vehicles stayed after the incident. Cops are currently investigating whether the collision was criminal or an accident.
Bean's career began in the 1950s... he frequently made guest appearances on "The Tonight Show" with both Jack Paar and Johnny Carson.
Bean was a frequent guest on the game show "To Tell The Truth" and made appearances on versions of the show from the late '50s through 1991. He also made appearances on "Super Password" and "Match Game."
He also made regular appearances on TV ... with a role on two episodes of "7th Heaven" in 2003, "How I Met Your Mother" in 2007 and "Modern Family" in 2016. Bean was in the 2018 film "The Equalizer 2" as an elderly Holocaust survivor.
Post Malone found some more real estate on his face to add some fresh ink ... and this tat celebrates one of his biggest albums.
Posty is showing off a new face tattoo of a slightly-bloodied buzz saw, and we're told the singer got the piece Wednesday night following his concert in Kansas City. Check out the pics, it's pretty sick!!!
If the symbol looks familiar, that's because it's from the artwork for PM's "Beerbongs and Bentleys."
2/5/20
Post had a night to remember in KC. As we reported, he raged his face off with the Super Bowl champion Chiefs backstage, and there was an epic dance party and, of course, beer pong!!!
Dog the Bounty Hunter's tumultuous week of family drama was capped off with a birthday dinner filled with emotion ... but interestingly, without ONE key person.
Sources close to the reality TV star tell TMZ ... Duane celebrated his 67th birthday Tuesday with a small group of family and friends at a Denver Benihana. We're told everyone at the table shared stories ... including some about Beth Chapman, which made Dog a little weepy.
The guests included his daughter, Bonnie and her husband, his son, Garry, his advisor and Justin Bihag ... one of his employees who's run into legal trouble lately.
TMZ broke the story ... Justin was arrested for allegedly violating probation. Dog's other daughter, Lyssa, reportedly outed Justin to cops, but she's having some legal trouble of her own now.
It's a messy situation, and it all ties back to Justin's mom, Moon Angell.
In case you haven't heard, Moon is a longtime friend of Dog and Beth who's been accused of starting up a romantic relationship with the guy in the wake of Beth's passing. They've both denied anything physical is going on, insisting their relationship is platonic.
They even went on the 'Dr. Oz Show' and put on a "test" proposal to definitively confirm nothing fishy's going on between them, despite Lyssa's suspicions.
Interestingly enough, Moon was NOT at Dog's birthday dinner -- even though Justin was. We're told Dog loves the kid like one of his own and continues to look out for him.