As the National Basketball Association prepares to come back and tries to salvage their season in someway, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver laid out some of the realities that the league and its players will have to face whenever they do return in a league-wide call on Friday, according to multiple reports.
Among the realities laid out by Silver, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, were that fans will not be in attendance either now or to start the following season, which costs the league 40% of its revenue. While the league’s new television deal paved the way for a cap spike in 2016, the league generates a huge portion of their revenue from games, whether it be tickets, merch or concessions. So that loss will inevitably felt by everyone in the league. Woj also reports that Silver also told players about their plans to play games in a central location, perhaps divided by conferences, in Las Vegas and Orlando.
“There’s no point in adding risk for flying all of you city to city if there’s not going to be fans,” Silver said. “We think it would be safer to be in a single location, or two locations, to start.”
The NBA also wanted to reassure players that they hope to have tests available for players, without taking away from the supply that is needed for the American public, whenever that day comes. Also, as long as there is no vaccine for COVID-19, there will be a risk involved for all players and staff if they are to return to play, but the league will deal with positive tests individually, rather than stopping the league altogether, as they did back in March after Rudy Gobert’s positive test.
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