The global coronavirus pandemic has officially brought health to the forefront of any conversation. It has caused the NBA to be on hold since March 11 which is the last time the Philadelphia 76ers took the court to play a basketball game.
Since then, everybody has been inside and taking the necessary precautions to remain safe and healthy. There has been a concern for older coaches in the NBA whenever play does resume due to their old age and that older people are more at risk for catching the virus.
Coach Brett Brown understands all of that and he will look to commissioner Adam Silver to make the right decision on what to do with the 2019-20 season.
“First of all, I’m fine,” the 59-year old coach started with. “I think that Adam Silver has been unbelievable in keeping everybody in the loop. When I step back and see him just as a leader on how he’s handled stuff and his perspective on ‘The world is a little bit different and I am responsible for owners and how do we generate revenue’, I think he’s walked that line in the Zoom stuff and the messaging brilliantly. He’s a great leader for our league.”
Brown then transitioned into how this all works out for the players and their health.
I’m on Zoom calls with my players looking out and seeing everybody and it’s as simple as like ‘Kyle O’Quinn, how are the twins?’ and you look at Raul Neto ‘How’s Brazil?’ and Joel (Embiid) ‘How do you feel?’ and Furkan (Korkmaz) ‘What’s going on in Turkey?’ and I think that when you have that forum, one of the questions I ask is ‘How do you guys feel? Do you feel safe? In the event that we do come back and play, how do you feel?’ and I know for me, I’m like a marathon walker nowadays and when you’re on paths, you’re a little bit leery aren’t you now? Like six feet isn’t a problem for me.
So now how do you parlay that and be like ‘OK Ben (Simmons), you’ve got (Jayson) Tatum. He can’t catch and shoot it. You need to get in his face and make him dribble. Like there’s a little disconnect there so I think for all of us, I’m 59-years old, Ben is 23-years old, there are people like Kyle’s got children at home, there are things that ultimately we’re going to figure out.
At the end of the day, the league will have to turn to Silver and hope that he makes the right decision on the season, and Brown believes that he will be able to.
“I do have just tremendous confidence in Adam Silver and the league and ultimately, we all get that safety is the greatest responsibility that we have as a league, as an organization, and the crazy details that are going into in the event that a practice facility opens and the maniacal scrutiny in what you can do and can’t do. Like one coach has a face mask, balls, testing all that stuff is still being worked out,” he explained. “For me, when it’s go-time, I feel like I’ve studied enough, I’m healthy enough, and I will dive into this with my players in a significant way.”
The return of basketball is not near just yet, but there is a decision expected to be made within the next few weeks. The season will be decided at that point and the league will have to be prepared for any scenario. [lawrence-related id=31050,31041,31032]