The NBA season has been on hold since March 11 due to the global coronavirus pandemic, but it appears that a plan is in place for a “bubble site” and that they can safely resume and finish the 2019-20 season.
After making strides forward in beginning to allow practice facilities to re-open and begin to call players who went out of market back home, the NBA is now entering conversations with Disney World in Orlando to resume the season. They will use ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex on the Disney campus and use that as a neutral site for the season to resume and finish up.
The NBA has entered into exploratory conversations with the Walt Disney Corporation about restarting the remainder of its season at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida in late July, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass said Saturday.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) May 23, 2020
NBA spokesman Mike Bass then added a statement that the league is beginning to move safely towards a return to play and ensure that the appropriate set of protocols will be set in place. The league continues to talk with health experts and government officials to make sure the league can resume operations.
Here’s the full quote from NBA spokesman Mike Bass on negotiations with Disney. pic.twitter.com/29YSod7f9i
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) May 23, 2020
This is a huge step in the right direction. The fact that the league has an idea of where they want to continue the season and they are beginning to have conversations with them means that they should be close to a resumption. The league is beginning to put together a plan and that is the most important thing right now. The plan includes having the players go from the gym to the hotel and back and that is all and there will, undoubtedly, be a lot of testing going on.
Finishing the season has always been on the mind of the league as long as it can be done safely. It appears that they are close to finding that safe plan and resuming what promises to be a fun and entertaining postseason. [lawrence-related id=31430,31422,31413]