The prevailing sentiment is that the NBA is currently determining how it can safely and responsibly resume its season, host a playoff tournament and crown a 2020 champion.
At this point, the central questions are “Where?” and “How?”
Orlando’s Walt Disney World has long been believed to have been a potential site, with Las Vegas and Houston both reportedly getting some consideration, as well.
A Wednesday report from The Athletic suggested that the league was zeroing in on the Orlando option, but Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry — who has emerged as a great source of information during the NBA’s suspension — suggests that Las Vegas could still be in play for the league as it seemingly appears to want to preserve separate sites for the Eastern and Western Conferences.
Lasry made the comments on CNBC’s Halftime Report, with CNBC’s Jabari Young publishing an account of the owner’s remarks.
The billionaire co-founder of Avenue Capital said he thinks games will be held in two locations, suggesting Las Vegas and Orlando. He added the NBA has a board of governors call next Friday, “and I’m sure we’ll be talking about it then.”
Lasry suggested the NBA would resume games with Western Conference teams playing in Las Vegas and “have the East [Eastern Conference] on the Orlando side.”
Lasry’s comments are consistent with The Athletic’s previous report in that it acknowledges that Orlando is likely to play a major role in the NBA’s resumption, however, his mentioning separation between the Eastern and Western Conference teams is not something that was previously believed to be under heavy consideration.
The possibility makes a lot of sense, however.
We’ve heard terms such as “bubble” and “campus” used to describe the NBA essentially sequestering its necessary parties (including its players and their families) away from the public in order to keep the league’s personnel safe, but Commissioner Adam Silver himself stated that the league wants to have an environment in which its necessary parties are permitted to leave and re-enter.
In other words, the presence of families and the desire to allow them the opportunity to travel between their homes and the playing site would be much easier if the league had one site for Eastern Conference teams and another for Western Conference teams.
According to Lasry, the league’s board of governors will have another call on May 29. In all likelihood, we will get some additional updates at that point.