A crystal ball would be needed to be able to tell what is going to happen, with the events changing literally by the hour. Sports are obviously only part of the story, it’s the overall situation that is really unpredictable. Detroit is entering the third week of March with only 53 registered cases of Covid-19 and contemplates restrictions of activities for restaurants, while New Jersey, for example, has 99 cases and is considering a curfew. Sports of all types were going particular strong there and also NJ sports betting was in full bloom. But stopping the spread of the virus is now a priority.
Any chain is as strong as its weakest link, so the NBA has to make contingency plans that can accommodate worst-case scenarios. After Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for Covid-19, triggering the immediate decision to suspend the season on Wednesday 11, commissioner Adam Silver had planned to reevaluate the situation in 30 days, and possibly resume games with or without fans in arenas. That plan is already outdated, after the CDC’s recommendation that all gatherings above 50 people should be postponed for eight weeks.
What options are left on the table now?
Mid-to-late June seems to be the new deadline for a possible restart, but this is only a best-case scenario. Apparently the NBA is checking out arena dates in August, as a possibility to play the later rounds of the postseason. That could prove tricky to accomplish. More than a month of regular-season games plus two months of playoffs would mean the Finals would be pushed into September. And consider that the players would need a second training camp to get back into shape. No way the original schedule could be maintained.
So if arena dates are sought for August only, this would mean that the NBA might be planning to truncate the remainder of its season in some way. The end of the regular season could be simply eliminated to let the postseason begin straight away. Playing the games without fans was an option that had been briefly on the table on the dramatic afternoon of Wed 11, as revealed by ESPN. There was a conference call between the league’s owners resulting in the expectation that NBA commissioner Adam Silver would soon declare that all games would proceed without fans.Â
What 29 other teams did not know was that the Utah Jazz had contacted local health officials in Oklahoma City in the morning because center Rudy Gobert had symptoms. Gobert was tested for influenza, an upper respiratory infection and strep throat, but turned out negative to all. Later in the day, he was confirmed positive for Covid-19 and the NBA decision to suspend the whole season was taken on the fly in a matter of minutes.
Now the speculations are that there could be three options being assessed: shutting down the season and bearing the costs, restarting with no fans in the arena, or having playoff games with fans. NBA will obviously be forced to weigh its decisions according to the developments of the overall situation of the epidemic in the country.
