Commissioner Adam Silver said in a conference call on Friday that there’s no way to know yet whether this season will be resumed, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.
“We don’t have a good understanding of exactly sort of what those standards are that we need to meet in order to move forward … because the experts don’t necessarily, either,” Silver said following a Board of Governors meeting, which was held via video conferencing.
The league continues to be willing to go deep into the summer and perhaps into the fall to finish this season. Players have been told there is no consensus plan on how the NBA will return, nor a “drop dead date” when cancellation would be necessary, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
A number of factors will determine whether the season can be salvaged, including a reduction of the infection rate of COVID-19 nationally, the availability of large-scale testing and progress toward a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
“Everything is on the table, including potentially delaying the start of next season,” Silver said, according to ESPN’s Rachel Nichols (Twitter link).
While there has been widespread speculation that the NBA would resume at a neutral site such at Las Vegas or Orlando’s Disney complex, Silver said the league isn’t actively pursuing any such “bubble” plan, Reynolds notes.
Until games are played once again, the financial losses will continue to pile up. Players will have 25% of their paychecks withheld beginning on May 15, the league announced earlier in the day.
“Revenues, in essence, have dropped to zero,” Silver said. “That’s having a huge financial impact on team business and arena business.”
Silver also revealed that more players have tested positive for COVID-19 than the seven who have been publicly named but wouldn’t give any more details due to privacy concerns.
How about ending the hiatus on giving people their money back for “postponed” games. It’s a pandemic a**holes.
At they could say that if things don’t get cleared up by date X then the 2019-20 season is cancelled.
At least
It’s all over. Basketball will never return. Say bye bye people.
I hope, for your sake, that this was an intentional joke. Otherwise, I’m worried about you.
“Silver said the league isn’t actively pursuing any such “bubble” plan [for Vegas or DisneyWorld]”
Why not? He makes it sound like 19/20 is over. He’s waiting for some voice to emerge and proclaim Go Forth Thou And Profit!– but none will.
That lack will cancel 20/21 too if that’s the attitude.
Maybe he’s given up but doesn’t want to give that impression to owners or players.
Nobody HAS to go clubbing post-game. Don’t assume full rosters.
Games without fans needs to be on a slight delay. For language. Also, pump fans in via live stream with monitors around the stadiums? Periscope? Maybe sell that feature and people have to use verified accounts, verified addresses, etc… fines and bans or criminal prosecution for offensive or abusive or violent video acts. Kind of like a mosaic of fans on the jumbo tron. What they see is the game play, but their image is on the jumbotron, super small, only show select videos on the telecast i.e. during a replay have a reaction. Would take a lot of doing from IT. But if you’re doing this in 1 or 2 arenas its pooling resources. Adds back revenue stream.
Very interesting ideas!
Maybe add smell-o-vision?
Get the protesters from MI to sit in the stands while the season resumes. They don’t care about getting infected and tv/ players will have fans in the seats. A win for the rest of us.