It has officially been a week since the NBA was suspended due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the first player, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, was tested positive for coronavirus. In this past week, we have seen reports that the NBA may not return until June which is a bummer for a lot of fans around the globe.
At the end of the day, commissioner Adam Silver made the correct move in suspending play as public health and safety is the top priority in the world. He joined Rachel Nichols on Sportscenter to give an update on where things stand at the moment.
I’m looking at three different things here: When can we restart and operate as we’ve known it. 19,000 fans in buildings? 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.
The biggest takeaway from Silver’s interview with Nichols is his promise to continue to try and bring basketball back. He and the league’s Board of Governors have been in constant communication with health officials as they try to figure out when the league can return.
We’re going to try to every means we can to play basketball again. 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.
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 hope is that the league can return and finish up the 2019-20 season and then they can figure out what the next move will be for 2020-21, but they also will not return until things are deemed safe. The biggest thing we all can do is self-quarantine and hope it all gets better soon. [lawrence-related id=27778,27771,27728]