NBA commissioner Adam Silver appeared in an interview with Rachel Nichols of ESPN on Wednesday night and detailed the landscape of the league amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Silver announced last week that the NBA would be suspended for at least 30 days as health officials attempt to try to slow down the spread of the virus. Following the decision by the NBA to suspend play, several other sports leagues, and the NCAA, also followed suit to either cancel or suspend gameplay.
While Silver initially stated the NBA would be on a hiatus for at least 30 days, teams around the league are reportedly preparing for the possibility of returning to play in June at the earliest after the CDC recommended that public gatherings of 50 or more people be canceled for two months.
Given the uncertainly around the globe with the coronavirus, Silver was short of giving a definite date to resume play but did offer the criteria the league will follow when weighing that decision.
“I’m looking at three different things here: When can we restart and operate as we’ve known it [with] 19,000 fans in buildings?” Silver said. “Option two is should we consider restarting without fans and what would that mean? Because presumably, if you had a group of players and staff around them and you could test them and you could follow some protocol, doctors [and] health officials may say it is safe to play.”
I asked Adam Silver how he'd determine if the NBA season could resume, and if so, what it would look like – he told me the league is considering three different options for going forward, including a possible one-off event for charity. Said Silver: "all suggestions welcome." pic.twitter.com/rX7D5oJvup
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) March 19, 2020
The NBA has drawn praise for being the first sporting league in the United States to suspend play. Many believe the decision helped citizens begin to take the coronavirus seriously and understand the significance of what could potentially happen.
Silver has had open discussions with all 30 owners in the NBA on how the league will return to play. In some form or another, owners have suggested playing in front of fans, playing in empty arenas and even hosting a one-off charity basketball game when the right time comes.
Many Americans, and individuals around the world, are now staying indoors and away from the public to minimize social interactions to help slow the spread of the virus. Silver floated the idea of a charity game to help entertain those quarantined at home.
“People are stuck at home and I think they need a diversion [and] they need to be entertained,” Silver said. “To an extent, we were the first to shut our league down and in what way can we be the first mover to help restart the economy? When you think about public health, there is no doubt that shutting down the economy is a public health matter as well.”
Silver reiterated that the NBA is looking at all of the possible options on how to restart the league once the appropriate time comes. The league will be in constant communication with health officials and acknowledged the health and safety of those connected to the game come first.
“We’re going to try to every means we can to play basketball again,” Silver said. “I would say the safety and health of our players and fans are first, which is why I don’t want to speculate more than that. That will be the condition upon which we can play when public health officials give us the okay.”
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