The NBA was the first major U.S. sports league to suspend its season amid the global coronavirus pandemic, making the decision to stop play after Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
It’s been three weeks since the NBA made that decision to suspend the season, and there is no end to the sports stoppage in sight. And even as the pandemic hasn’t yet reached the projected late April/early May peak, leagues and sports personalities have floated some awful ideas to get back to playing games now.
We can add ESPN’s Jay Williams to that list.
During an appearance on Golic and Wingo, Williams suggested that the NBA take over a couple cruise ships, build basketball courts, isolate the players (and their families) and hold the playoffs on the cruise ships. It wasn’t quite as bad as the idea of the NFL building an isolated city in Nebraska, but it was close.
“You have an Eastern Conference cruise ship and a Western Conference cruise ship… You have the championship game on a cruise ship.”
– @RealJayWilliams explains one option the NBA should explore… pic.twitter.com/1AaEW8rgen
— Golic and Wingo (@GolicAndWingo) March 30, 2020
Williams said:
“I think if the NBA, if you are trying to find a way this happens in May or June, we’re still not in a great, great place, but maybe we’re in a better place. Maybe you can take two of those massive cruise ships, and there’s testing before everybody goes on the ship. You allow the player and their immediate family — their wife or their kids are allowed to go with them. And you have an Eastern Conference cruise ship and a Western Conference cruise ship. Obviously, everything is sterilized all the time.
“You have the media companies are able to drop their equipment in, you never really go to shore, you stay out on the cruise ships. And you build two courts on those cruise ships. And now I know fans may not be allowed to go, but still, broadcasting companies could actually broadcast these games. The team members and their family members could be isolated to a degree for that span if that’s 40 days — whatever it may be. And then you’re allowed to potentially have these games, the Eastern Conference finals. You go right into the playoffs, maybe give a week for each team to prepare, but you go right in there with the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. And then you have a championship game on a cruise ship.”
Like any of these “let’s play games in isolation” ideas, it would take one COVID-positive case to derail the entire project — especially when you consider how quickly the virus has spread on cruise ships.
While, in theory, the idea could seem feasible, the execution of a project on that scale would take around 8-12 months of planning under ideal conditions — not six weeks. Here, Williams would be asking the NBA to use an enormous amount of testing, sanitation and medical resources — in a time when those are limited — all to hold basketball games on a cruise ship.
What happens when the East and West have to go on the same ship for the NBA Finals? It would seem like a logistical and liability nightmare for the league.
And optically, it would look awful for the NBA to be playing games during the worst of this pandemic.
We all want sports back, but right now, it’s just not the time.
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