Although Mark Cuban was as shocked as every other sports fan when he learned the NBA was suspending its season indefinitely because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Dallas Mavericks owner said Thursday that he believes the season could resume at some point this summer.
Cuban — whose reaction to reading about the suspension on his phone was captured on camera — said Thursday morning on ESPN’s Get Up that he could “absolutely” see the NBA season ending in mid-August rather than mid-June.
The NBA suspended its season Wednesday night after Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert reportedly tested positive for COVID-19, a strain of the coronavirus. The World Health Organization also declared it a pandemic Wednesday.
Mark Cuban does not think the NBA season will be cancelled, just postponed, and could see games being played into August. pic.twitter.com/PtStFlypPL
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) March 12, 2020
Cuban shared his thoughts on the suspension and its potential impact on Get Up:
“Hopefully this virus runs its course over the next 60 days or so, and then at that point, we can start making about does the NBA play games, what our schedule looks like, how would we progress from there?
“Hopefully, small businesses and our partners and just the community itself is strong enough and hasn’t been hit hard enough that things can continue, at least somewhat normally. And if not, we’ll look at ways to be supportive in the community. When you have something that’s so unique, you have to really just be agile and pay attention because we’ve never been here before.”
ESPN’s Rachel Nichols followed up about Cuban’s hypothetical 60-day window, asking if he realistically believes the season could carry on this summer and finish in the middle of August.
He said yes, “absolutely,” and explained why he thinks it would work with scheduling and the league’s broadcast partners:
“Because there’s not a lot of competition — there’s only regular-season baseball — I don’t think necessarily until August, but I can easily see us playing the last seven-to-10 games of the regular season to get everybody back on course and then going right into the playoffs and going into July, if not August.”
NBA teams have about twice as many regular-season games remaining on their schedules.
Following news of the season’s suspension Wednesday night, Cuban also discussed how the halt in games could negatively impact employees, particularly those who work on an hourly basis. After the Mavericks’ win over the Denver Nuggets, he said he was working to figure out how to financially support people who won’t be able to come to work.
"We have a program where the next four would-have-been Mavs games, we'll pay our hourly employees as if they worked."
—Mark Cuban pic.twitter.com/Fmmj3vETUB
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) March 12, 2020
Cuban explained on Get Up that the team is setting up a program to “pay our hourly employees as if they worked” what would have been the next four home games.
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