Chris Paul has been pretty popular over the past few weeks, as the president of the NBA Players Association has been frequently looked upon to speak out and represent the thoughts and interests of his constituents.
Paul joined Rachel Nichols on The Jump on ESPN on Friday, and was asked a few questions by Nichols are what the league’s potential return to play could look like.
Although he didn’t have any specific answers, he left no doubt as to where the players in the league stood with respect to whether they’d like the season to continue or not.
Although the answer to the question would have seemed obvious not so long ago, there have been some conflicting reports as to whether there is unanimity among the league’s workforce. From an ESPN report that the NBA was “angling” to cancel the season to one from CNBC which said that Adam Silver was coming under pressure to cancel the campaign, there’s been a lot of speculation as to what the immediate future holds in store for the 2019-20 season.
According to Paul, though, the general consensus among the players is that they want to play. On ESPN on Friday, he stated the following:
“Honestly, we want to play, oh man, we want to play, we want to play bad, too, and, I think that’s the consensus for the guys around the league. We want it to be as safe as possible, but the biggest thing is we miss the game.”
Nichols asked Paul a few more specific questions, including what the biggest concern is for the players. He essentially answered “all of the above” when Nichols mentioned the layoff and health as potential issues.
Paul didn’t offer any additional insight except to state that many around the league are “working tirelessly” to figure out what a safe return to play would look like. And while he didn’t explicitly say that there will be basketball, his tone, overall, was hopeful.
After discussing the release of Blackballed on the mobile video platform Quibi, Paul spent some time discussing what ESPN’s 10-part documentary on Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls meant to him and his older brother, C.J. before signing out with a simple “I hope so,” when asked whether his gut said that the league would be able to complete its season.
Meanwhile, all around the United States, governors are implementing plans to reopen their states’ economies and the NBA has seemingly been following suit.
Team training facilities have followed the general trend of the states in which they sit, with the Houston Rockets announcing on Saturday that they will open their training facility on Monday.
There’s still a long way to go before we have basketball again, but things certainly seem to be trending in the right direction.