As the president of the NBA Players Association, Chris Paul has become one of the faces for the coronavirus pandemic. As the leader of the players, he’s been counted on to represent their interests and assist the league office with finding solutions.
Presently, the prevailing sentiment is that the NBA will complete its 2019-20 season, with “How?” and “When?” becoming more prominent questions than “If?”
A formal decision by commissioner Adam Silver on whether the season will resume or be canceled is expected to be announced within the next few weeks, but the conversation is beginning to turn to another fairly serious question: if the players are able to return to play, how long will they need for a “training camp” environment in order to reacclimate their bodies to the rigor of competition?
Appearing on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Paul reiterated a point that has been made previously — many of the league’s players haven’t had access to facilities and are not in shape. The president of the NBPA believes that it’s going to take “a while” for players to get back into game shape and estimates that they’ll need approximately four weeks.
“It’ll take a while. A lot of guys have been home, a lot of guys haven’t had access to weights and the gyms and all that different type of stuff… A lot of them is gonna need a whole lot of time and I’d say it’s a conversation amongst us players and whatnot to figure out, but I’d say at least four weeks or so.”
With play having been suspended on March 11 and the NBA mandating the closing of training facilities until just recently, the players have had about a two-month layoff and haven’t had the opportunity to play pickup games or other engage in typical offseason activities to help them keep in shape.
How long will it take @CP3 to be Chris Paul ready for the playoffs? pic.twitter.com/Sgf0MOCQPo
— The Late Late Show with James Corden (@latelateshow) May 14, 2020
The most popular theory, presently, is that the league will resume with either Las Vegas or Orlando (or both) serving as “campuses” for the league to play out the remainder of the season, including the playoffs.
Even if a green light does come from Adam Silver, though, it’ll probably be several weeks before any games are contested.