The NBA made the right call Wednesday night to suspend its season immediately due to the coronavirus. Maybe it can be argued that the league was a little late to the decision – considering Rudy Gobert’ coronavirus diagnosis – but the NBA ended up doing the absolute right thing.
Now it’s time for all the other sports leagues to follow suit and just stop. Stop with games with fans. Stop with games with no fans. Stop with golf tournaments outside in Florida.
Just stop it all.
Right now.
Sports don’t matter at the moment. There’s no escapism in watching games or events. That narrative has left the building.
Right now with the coronavirus becoming a pandemic, our number one goal as a society has to be doing whatever is best to help limit its impact and push through it with everyone being OK.
Sports doesn’t fall anywhere in that formula.
The PGA Tour has one of its biggest events starting Thursday morning – The Players Championship – where thousands of people will attend in Jacksonville, an area that has a large number of older residents. Older people are more likely to die from the coronavirus, so common sense would be to postpone this thing.
Does the PGA Tour have the guts to do something like that? No, no it doesn’t. Instead the Tour waited until after midnight to announce that fans could get refunds but that the event was going on.
The NHL, which is entering its final push in the regular season, remained silent on Wednesday night about its plans.
The NCAA said Wednesday afternoon that fans won’t be allowed at NCAA Tournament games, but even having anyone playing in those games or being at those games right now seems like the bad move.
This is weird because usually during tough times sports are there for us to escape. Watch a ballgame, forget about the world’s problems for a bit, and have some laughs.
But this pandemic is different. It involves each and every one of us and we all have the responsibility to do whats best for each other, including staying away from each other for a bit and putting sports on hold.
In a world where we’re seemingly always at each others’ throats, it’s time for us to have each others’ backs and make some sacrifices to get through this thing.
Because the experts say it’s only going to get worse and more serious.
We all need to be smart and decisive – like the NBA.
Quick hits: Mark Cuban’s reaction caught by TV… Booker was playing video games… Hoiberg gets sick on bench.
– Watch Mark Cuban find out about the NBA news while sitting courtside.
– Devin Booker was live streaming when he found out about the news and responded the same way we did – with bad words.
– Fred Hoiberg left Nebraska’s game Wednesday after getting sick on the bench.
– College basketball fans reacted to the news of the tournament games not having any fans.
– The Big 3 is already changing its schedule because of the coronavirus.
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