Dr. Fauci sees path for sports to return this summer without fans

In news that could help the NBA season resume, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that he sees a path for U.S. sports to return this summer.

In news that may help the 2019-20 NBA season resume, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that he sees a path for U.S. sports to return this summer.

Fauci, who is director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a White House health advisor, told Snapchat’s Peter Hamby that the keys involve testing and a quarantine procedure.

When asked about playing sports this summer amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Fauci said:

There’s a way of doing that. Nobody comes to the stadiums. Put [athletes] in big hotels, wherever you want to play. Keep them very well-surveilled, but have them tested like every week and make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their families, and just let them play the season out.

Fauci also pushed back on the notion that American sports fans might not appreciate sports games without fans. He said:

I think you’ll probably get enough buy-in from people who are dying to see a baseball game, particularly me. I’m living in Washington, we have the world champion Washington Nationals. I want to see them play again.

The NBA has discussed scenarios in recent weeks in which they could restart the season with all teams living under quarantine in Las Vegas, with the availability of rapid testing a major priority. Fauci’s model scenario would seem to be in line with what the league has suggested.

[lawrence-related id=28151]

The NBA will also have a presence on U.S. President Donald Trump’s committee to reopen America, with commissioner Adam Silver and Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban among the leaders to take part.

It’s not yet clear whether a rebooted 2019-20 NBA season would go straight to the playoffs or have some regular-season games before then.

The Houston Rockets were 40-24 before the hiatus, which was tied with Oklahoma City for the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference. They were only one game back of Utah for No. 4 (with possession of the tiebreaker) and two back in the loss column of Denver for No. 3.

If the league went straight to the playoffs, the sixth-seeded Rockets would face the Nuggets in the first round of the West playoffs.

[lawrence-related id=27957,27547]

Houston expected to have 18 regular-season games left to make up those deficits, though that appears unlikely at present due to the lost calendar dates. However, should games be played at a neutral site (Las Vegas) and without fans, many of the usual perks to a higher seed — such as home-court advantage — may not be applicable to this year’s playoffs.

At this point, with the NBA’s coronavirus hiatus over a month old, the Rockets would gladly take any opportunity to find out.

[lawrence-related id=27462,28266]