The global coronavirus crisis forced nearly every major sports league across the world to pause operations, but we’re slowly starting to see a return to competition. The KBO kicked off its season in South Korea, and in the United States, the UFC will stage a series of events in Jacksonville beginning this Saturday, while NASCAR plans to return to the track later this month. If all goes well with those leagues, it wouldn’t be surprising to see other organizations start to plan a comeback.
The NBA is in a particularly interesting situation, with multiple weeks of the regular season left to play and the entire postseason, but with only 5 months left until the 2020-21 season is scheduled to begin. The delay has also opened a window for some players who had been recovering from injury to potentially return to the court at the most crucial time of the year.
Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant was believed to be shut down for the entirety of the season, but with extra time to recover, Nets GM Sean Marks isn’t shutting down the idea that Durant could come back this season. Durant underwent surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon on June 12th, 2019, and was expected to need a year of rehabilitation. The Nets are currently seventh in the Eastern Conference and six games clear of the ninth-place Wizards, and the return of Durant could have fascinating ramifications on the Eastern Conference Playoffs.
In an interview with New Zealand’s Newshub, Sean Marks joked that Durant’s potential return is a “$110 million question,” but that he was already looking like himself before the season was interrupted.
“That’s a $110m question. In all seriousness, we’ve tried not to talk about his timeline a lot.
He knows his body better than anybody. Our performance team and training staff have done a tremendous job getting him to this point, but I just don’t know how coming out of this pandemic will affect anybody, let alone Kevin…. I can tell you this though – before the pandemic, he looked like Kevin Durant and that’s a good thing.”
[vertical-gallery id=915618]
[jwplayer gS4V3wHV-q2aasYxh]