In a conference call Friday afternoon with media members, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said all of the traditional rules are off as the league works to resume its 2019-20 season in some form.
The NBA has been on hiatus since March 12 due to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“Everything is on the table,” Silver said Friday. “All rules are off. … If there is an opportunity to resume play, even if it looks different than what we’ve done historically, we should be modeling it.”
Those opportunities could include holding regular-season games, he said, rather than moving straight to the playoffs. Silver also confirmed that the league is willing to delay the start of the 2020-21 season, which gives the league a greater time window for its 2019-20 options.
Adam Silver says continuing the regular season is "absolutely still an option. Everything is on the table. All rules are off. … If there is an opportunity to resume play, even if it looks different than what we’ve done historically, we should be modeling it."
— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) April 17, 2020
Silver says he not prepared to set a "drop dead" date for this season.. everything is on the table, including delaying the start of next season
— John Karalis 🇬🇷 (@RedsArmy_John) April 17, 2020
Silver, who had just finished a call with the league’s Board of Governors, said the owners view it as a civic obligation to join a movement to restart the U.S. economy. However, he stressed that player health would not be compromised, with the league monitoring factors such as the availability of large-scale testing and data on new COVID-19 cases.
Adam Silver: "My sense of the NBA team owners is that if they can be part of a movement to restart our economy, they almost view that as a civic obligation. However there is no appetite to compromise the health and safety of our players."
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) April 17, 2020
Adam Silver on what the NBA will be watching when considering return:
new infections to come down
large-scale testing
vaccine
anti-virals
CDC and state rules that are in place"We're not even at the point where we can say, 'if only A, B and C are met, there's a clear path.'"
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) April 17, 2020
While reports have suggested “bubble” scenarios of a central quarantined site (without fans) for the league’s return such as Las Vegas, Silver said the league had listened to those proposals but has yet to seriously engage in talks. For now, the league is waiting for more information.
Silver says the league needs to see new infections to continue to come down, testing to become more available, the path to a vaccine/antivirals as they assess the NBA's ability to finish the season. "There is still too much uncertainty," Silver said.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) April 17, 2020
As far as the Houston Rockets (40-24) are concerned, one of the most noteworthy parts of Friday’s update could be the league’s continued open stance toward holding some regular-season games, should the season resume — as opposed to moving straight to the playoffs to save time.
While the Rockets would be the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference if the NBA went directly to the playoffs, they’re only a game back of Utah (with Houston holding the tiebreaker) for the No. 4 spot, and just two games back in the loss column of Denver for the No. 3 spot.
Having some regular-season games would give the Rockets an opportunity to quickly move up the standings. But with the league’s hiatus well over a month old and without an immediate end in sight, they would likely be happy with any opportunity to get back on the court.
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