We’ve been relegated to watching NBA players play NBA 2K20 and viewing reruns of classic games…
Those have become the only ways to get a basketball fix as the league’s suspension of play is set to begin its fourth week.
The fortunate news, however, is that the possibility of the league completing its 2019-20 season is still alive, with a pair of ESPN reports on Monday being consistent in that message.
For weeks, many in the pro sports community believed and understood that the key to returning to play is a massive expansion of the ability and capability of coronavirus testing in the United States. The lack of accessible testing has been a common theme within the mainstream media as COVID-19 cases have risen rapidly since mid-March.
Writing for ESPN.com, Baxter Holmes sheds light on the situation from the perspective of league personnel.
Based on more than a dozen interviews with general managers and athletic training officials around the league in recent days, there is a collective sense that, in general, discovering effective methods for rapid-result testing is the critical hurdle that must be cleared for games of any type to take place in the coming weeks and months.
The above excerpt briefly followed Holmes referencing a Washington Post report which mentions Abbot Laboratories, an Illinois-based organization, as having begun shipping the rapid-result test kits this past week. The quandary for the NBA is that while the availability of these tests could help the league overcome the logistical obstacles preventing a return to play, healthcare professionals, civil servants and the general public simply need them more.
Holmes’ report does a fantastic job outlining the situation.
Shortly after the report was published, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was interviewed by TNT’s Ernie Johnson on the NBA’s Twitter feed. Silver made it clear that the league will be in no position to make a determination about the viability of returning this season until May 1 at the earliest.
In other words, the commissioner needs to wait and see what transpires, just like everyone else.
Tim Bontemps, also of ESPN, provided a report on Silver’s interview with Johnson — a report in which Silver explicitly states that it’s too early to draw a conclusion as to whether the league will be able to finish complete the season or not. The words from the commissioner contradicted reports earlier this week that suggested that the league was on its way toward canceling.
“Essentially what I’ve told my folks over the last week is we should just accept that at least for the month of April, we won’t be in a position to make any decisions,” Silver said in an interview with TNT’s Ernie Johnson aired on the NBA’s Twitter page. “I don’t think that necessarily means that, on May 1, we will be [in that position], but at least I know that just to settle everyone down a little bit.
Taken in context, it’s fair to believe that the league’s conversations with the union last week were proactively held so the league could be prepared in the event they do have to cancel.
Obviously, right now, that decision still seems to be a ways away — good news for everyone invested in the National Basketball Association.