The NBA is gradually moving toward a return to action after the season was halted in March, and the league held a board of governors call on Tuesday to discuss health and safety strategies. According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, team owners and NBA execs left the call “hopeful” that the season could be finished, with preliminary plans calling for one or two bubble sites where teams could be safely isolated.
A few NBA legends aren’t on board with resuming the season. In an interview with For The Win’s Mike Sykes, Shaquille O’Neal reasoned that the best thing the NBA could do is to cancel the season entirely and move on to the 2020-21 year, arguing that the eventual 2020 champion would have an asterisk.
“I think we should scrap the season. Everybody go home, get healthy, come back next year. Just scrap the season. Just scrap it. To try and come back now and do a rush playoffs as a player? Any team that wins this year, there’s an asterisk. They’re not going to get the respect.”
O’Neal’s TNT colleague Charles Barkley is in agreement, saying that it would be “too dangerous” to resume the season. According to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, though, Barkley and O’Neal are wrong. Cuban said this week that given the small size of NBA rosters, it will be easier to manage a return to action that it will be for the MLB or NFL.
“I love those guys, but they’re wrong. I mean, guys want to play. There’s still a season to be finished out. I still think we can play a few games and then go into the playoffs, crown a champion. Let’s go. Let’s play. The country needs it too, man. We need something to cheer for. We need something to get excited about. I mean, watching cornhole on ESPN ain’t it.
…. It’s going to come down to … how it’s managed and trust. We’re going to have to do the testing, and the trust, really, is going to be between teammates. You know, the biggest challenge is – with the NBA it’s 15 guys, well 17 with two-way players. So it’s a little bit easier to keep track of everybody. And kind of the players manage each other. Because they know which guy is dying to get out and dying to go out and do the wrong thing. So the players will help keep them in line. But when you have 25 on a baseball team or 53 on a football team, that’s when it starts to get rough.”
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