It is reportedly months away from the next official NBA game and the anticipation only builds as time inches closer and closer. If you are like most faithful fans, you can remember that day when Adam Silver announced that the league would only be shut down for an inconvenient 30 days. Well, you can see that wasn’t the case at all. The Centers for Disease Control jumped right in and announced that it recommended for the league to be closed for eight weeks. They also recommended any in-person event consisting of 50 or more people should be canceled or postponed. And, that is exactly what happened. The League was shut down, but now it looks like things are starting to take a turn.
The UFC as well as NASCAR have already started hosting live events again. While there are no lives attendees, people can still enjoy such events from the comfort of their own homes. This is better than nothing, but it does leave the League in a precarious situation. With the return just a short month away, fans are dying to know what’s going to take place. Is the League just going to jump right back into the playoffs? Maybe they’ll adopt the Elam Landing. Perhaps, the rest of the season will be canceled? It’s hard to really say, but you know the experts are going to weight in anyways.
Chris Mannix
It is already well known that the Centers for Disease Control recommended that the league be shut down and no crowds larger than 50 be allowed on any one premises at a single time. This would do it for any NBA event. Chris Mannix said that he wouldn’t change a thing. He says that if the league does come back a full postseason would likely push the calendar into August. Although Chris isn’t entirely against this idea, he did report that he was more on board with the Steve Koonin-fueled push, which is the idea of starting the season in December and letting it end in the later summer.
It’s kind of crazy that the NBA has actually never tried a schedule like this, given how effective it would be. However, the major argument against this is the fear for ratings. They fear that the ratings would drop, and this is the same reason that boxing never tried to undertake a summer season. Just a few successful shows and promoters from all around would be clamoring for July/August fight dates.
Jeremy Woo
Anyone that takes advantage of online betting sites knows that Jeremy Woo isn’t going to hold back his two cents. He came out and said right away that he’s not at all optimistic that the season will pick back up. He said that the whole thing just feels rushed and to him, it seems more prudent to go directly into the playoffs rather than to make teams play out the final 15 to 20 games. Even with this approach your still throwing players, coaches, and anyone involved in high-intensity game environments. This might not necessarily be such a bag thing if it wasn’t the fact for the long hiatus.
Whatever the situation is, there’s obviously a financial element where all parties would like to get back on the court. People need and want to get paid. This is completely understandable and from a competitive standpoint, the impetus is clear and also fair. However, despite all this, Jeremy still says that he would be okay with waiting until Fall to get back in the swing of things. He also went on to say at this point, the whole thing is way beyond basketball. The whole event puts a new perspective on things and brings out a level of pointlessness.
Rohan Nadkarni
Rohan started out by saying that he didn’t think the NBA would be returning at all this season. He said that it was great that social distancing measures are increasing across the country and nation at such a rapid pace, but until there are major improvements in the COVID-19 testings, it’ll be a long time before the NBA gets its feet back on the court so to speak. He also went on to say that he doesn’t foresee any resembling of a normal playoff happening in 2020 at all. The only way it could even be possible is if the NBA could somehow miraculously clear all its players of the virus and increase the gathering allowance by late summer.
