The NBA has been on hiatus since March 11 due to the global coronavirus pandemic that has the world on hold. The league has been looking for a way to crown a champion for the season and due to recent developments such as Florida deeming sports essential and the league beginning to construct a “return to basketball” plan, there is some optimism growing around the league.
The main talk around an NBA resumption has been a “bubble” in a way where teams all descend upon one city and finish the season in that one little bubble with no fans in the stands. This means that players would be away from their families for a bit, but considering that the league only has a month or two to finish up, this is an idea that the players are on board with.
Sam Amick of The Athletic reports:
“Basketball guys are for it — they want to play,” one NBA player from a title-contending team wrote. “MLB (is) different (because) they have a whole season. We just have 1-2 months to finish up.”
On top of that, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a White House health advisor, told Snapchat’s Peter Hamby in an interview that there is hope for a return for sports this summer.
As transcribed by Rockets Wire’s Ben DuBose, Fauci said:
There’s a way of doing that. Nobody comes to the stadiums. Put [athletes] in big hotels, wherever you want to play. Keep them very well-surveilled, but have them tested like every week and make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their families, and just let them play the season out.
When and if the NBA does resume, does that mean going straight to the playoffs? Does it mean the league will try and get the last 17 games of the regular season in? For the Philadelphia 76ers, that means a lot as they currently would face off with the Boston Celtics as the 6 seed. Obviously, home-court would mean nothing in this situation, but Boston would be a tough matchup. They would like the opportunity to move up in the standings.
For more details on the plan, Amick added:
One team owner, for example, discussed a scenario in which players were given approximately a month to get back in shape (including their team training camp) starting in early June, the regular season began in July and the Finals were eventually played in … late October. Another owner agreed wholeheartedly that league-wide confidence was growing that this season would be saved, as did a few other folks who have a quality read of the room.
This does not mean that the return of sports is imminent, there is still some work to do in terms of progressing towards flattening the curve that represents the spread of the virus. What it does give is hope. It gives hope that sports can return soon and so can some normalcy in our lives. [lawrence-related id=29465,29456,29448]