The battle against COVID-19 in New York is getting a boost from a few NBA sources, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today that Nets owner Joe Tsai is donating 1,000 ventilators to the effort.
“The Chinese government is going to facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators that will come into JFK today. And I want to thank Joe Tsai and Clara Tsai and Jack Ma from Alibaba, and the Nets – but I’m not stating a preference – for their donation,” Cuomo said. “That’s going to be very helpful. And I want to thank (consul General Huang Ping) very much for his help in making all of this happen, because this is a big deal and it’s going to make a significant difference for us.”
Cuomo also tweeted that the NBA is contributing one million surgical masks in collaboration with the Knicks and Nets for essential workers in the state. New York has already reported more than 113,000 coronavirus cases and more than 3,000 deaths.
There’s more NBA-related news about the virus:
- A contingency plan to finish the season in a quarantined “bubble” may be harder than it sounds, states Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports Philadelphia. He talked to Dr. Caroline Buckee, an associate professor of Epidemiology at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who believes it would be too difficult to ensure that everyone who has to be involved is virus-free. “It sounds like potentially a bad idea,” she said. “I don’t think it’s realistic to completely isolate and quarantine the players. For a start, there are people who will need to clean their rooms, feed them, wash their clothes, janitorial staff and so forth. And those people will not be protected and they will be interacting with their communities. It is very difficult to truly self-isolate. Purposefully putting people at risk seems foolish.”
- Jackie MacMullan of ESPN examines how coaches are dealing with an unprecedented situation that leaves them with no set schedule for the first time in months. “I’ve mentally flipped my seasons,” said Lakers coach Frank Vogel. “I’m in the summer now. I really feel it’s necessary for us to mentally decompress. It’s a better mindset than trying to power through this. If we sprint through what could potentially be a two- to three-month break, with workouts and meetings and projects and film throughout, will we be fresh when it matters? We need to realize ‘when it matters’ could be July or August.”
- Conflicts with Major League Baseball telecasts may be the biggest impediment to moving the NBA schedule back two months, observes Keith Smith of NBC Sports. Twenty-two NBA teams share a regional sports network market with MLB clubs, creating problems if both leagues have a large number of regular season games throughout spring.
What’s the over/under on how many of the ventilators actually work?
Solid joke
Finally lets give James Dolan some credit … He didn’t have to do this PR or not … He may get a bunch of negative PR …. but thank you during this time of need Mr. Dolan … you’re a true helpful person at heart
Agreed. Stepping up when it matters. His typical antics are questionable but he can act like that for all I care if he is like this in life and death situations
Ma/Alibaba has supposedly been giving away huge amounts of money besides this, for some time. Tsai too to a lesser extent. Dolan doesn’t have the same motivation as Chinese nationals but got some PR balance.
I mean, of course they can’t do it in a bubble. One person gets it and the whole thing goes to down the tubes. I so wish they would just cancel the season and start fresh in the Fall
Looks like the odds-on favorite, so you may get yer wish.
I do understand that as a Celtic fan you wanna stop the season now, at least you can say what a great season you are having, if it carries on you will be out in R1EC, so the prospect of not winning even 1 round of playoffs ain’t very appealing for beantowners, but for the real fans we wanna see this finish, crown a champion & see a lot of unbelievable hoops on the way!
I’m a Celtics fan and I 100% want them to continue the season. And saying they’d be out in the first round is really kind of childish — I’m not saying I guarantee they win any series — but just randomly stating they’d be eliminated in the first round is just childish and stupid… they’re one of the better teams in the East and there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t be able to win a series — or even 2 if play were to resume. Troll comment…
I don’t know if I would question him. He is a “real fan.”
Do you really think Boston can beat Philly in the 1st round? Can’t see it, but ok they might have an outside chance but I would say to think Boston wins is as childish if not more than Philly winning, I cannot see your point about it, I made a rational sporting comment & you as a Celtic fan couldn’t, just had to go for the insult, no surprise there, right? I do not have a dog in that fight but to me Philly is vastly superior than Boston, so I say so, if it is or not only time will tell, or not if the nay sayers kill the season.
Yeah..real fans want this ridiculous charade to continue and for next years season to be delayed until spring.
Got you.
You know your point must be really bad if you need to say this to support it.
I don’t really think the telecasts are a legitimate obstacle for the league to overcome for games to be played. there are several other obstacles but that shouldn’t be one of them — those networks already have a system in place for when both teams are playing at the same time. For example in Boston the Red Sox and Bruins share a station. But when games overlap one of the games just switches to an “alternate” channel. Those overlaps already occurred prior to the delay in the season… it’s just a matter of there being more of them now (if both leagues get underway) — but seriously — of all the obstacles to resuming play… that is ABSOLUTELY NOT the “biggest impediment” and saying it is… is just laughable.
A. God forbid an NBA player has to clean his own room.
B. How about excusing any players who don’t want to clean their own rooms. Any player who doesn’t need his paycheck can take some time off.
C. You don’t quarantine the NBA players in a bubble and have the people who work with them go back and forth to their home. That’s the dumbest comment I’ve ever heard. Let’s have the conversation between people who understand and can process the relevant information.
We need to do a lot of things to stop the virus. We need to stop doing meaningless things and we have to stop pretending the value of a life is whatever you need for your current point.
A millionaire might not want to risk isolation and having to clean themselves for more millions but there are a lot of guys who would and should.
You don’t risk the general population putting a group of healthy men into quarantine where they can play basketball.
I’d be happy to take that risk if it means I’m probably set for life if I survive.
I think there will be more player dropouts than what people think, once rules are laid out. Players will say they want to finish this, but they mean under the conditions that they dream of. When push comes to shove many will pass, as they are rich regardless.
Assuming the ‘good enough’ wins out over the ‘perfect’ and there is some forward movement.
Not sure I agree with emac since the arguments are nice but the point is missing.
Just for the record,MLB & NBA clubs sharing TV channels is probably not an issue. If the NBA opened up to select their home affiliate with proceeds going toward youth basketball that suffered because of the pandemic,problem solved. It would not compromise the package already purchased by other fans.
And you can’t tell my TNT or TBS wouldn’t mind the extra revenue as they make so much with Big Bang Theory lol.