The NBA is set to return at the end of July (it’s now looking like the 30th instead of the 31st), teams are going to finish up eight regular-season games, playoffs will then begin, and the Finals will end no later on October 12.
That’s all easy to write out but pulling it off is going to be oh so much harder and I’m starting to worry if this plan is actually going to happen.
Maybe I’m just being a worrier here because I desperately want the NBA to return and I desperately want to experience what should be an insane few months of action, the likes of which we’ve never experienced before. All the teams living in a bubble in Orlando? Playing the biggest games of the year with no fans in an arena where NBA games don’t normally get played? No home court advantage for anybody in the playoffs?
It’s gonna be nuts.
But yet, I’m still kinda worried.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Wednesday night that a lot of players were starting to have concerns about what this will really look like and how long they will be living in this bubble that will come with a lot of restrictions that will greatly affect their personal lives.
Woj said:
“For a lot of players, there are family concerns. There are certainly concerns about COVID. There are concerns about a number of issues built around having to go inside that bubble – many of them for five weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, two and a half, three months. Especially, you hear it more and more among the teams who know, or certainly believe they’re not really going there to compete to win a championship.”
According to another Woj report on Thursday, the NBA addressed those concerns with players and assured them that 14 of the 22 teams that will be in Orlando will eliminated within 53 days and will then return to their normal lives and only four teams will remain in Orlando for over 67 days.
That’s still a lot of time to be living in that bubble. Also, there will be legitimate health concerns as we are still battling the coronavirus.
So any nerves for players that would make them say “Hold up, are we really doing this?” are totally understandable.
I know teams that think they can win the title are likely all in on this, but what about the teams that know they can’t? Could they possible derail this thing? There is still a lot of time before the teams report to Orlando in July, which also concerns me. If we’ve learned anything over the past few months it’s that things can change in a hurry.
Hopefully I’m just being a nervous nelly over nothing at all, because I don’t want this taken away from me and all the fans who can’t wait to see how this season winds up.
I sure hope that’s the case. Because yeah, if the plan does go ahead as scheduled it’s going to be so damn fun.
My fingers are crossed.
Thursday’s biggest winner: Jim Nantz.
Golf made it’s return Thursday as the PGA Tour began its first tournament since March and it didn’t take long for a loud F-bomb to be heard clear as day on the broadcast. And Nantz had the perfect response to Brook Koepka’s F-bomb. Sports being back is so much fun.
Quick hits: PGA Tour’s quietest ace ever… Aaron Rodgers’ incredible quarantine beard… The PS5 is beautiful… And more!
– A PGA Tour golfer hit the quietest hole-in-one ever during Thursday’s first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge.
– Aaron Rodgers showed off his quarantine beard in a golf video and yeah, the Packers QB has a lot of facial hair.
– The PS5 was revealed on Thursday and it’s a thing of beauty.
– Nuggets star Nikola Jokic looks almost unrecognizable after slimming way down during the NBA stoppage.
– Twitter rightly eviscerated a relatively unknown NASCAR driver who is quitting over the Confederate flag ban.