AUSSIE JOE FEARS FOR NBA SEASON

JOE Ingles is beginning to think the NBA season will be lost.

His Utah Jazz were the catalyst for NBA games to be indefinitely put on hold on March 11 when All-Star centre Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus.

Ingles initially thought it would be only a “two- or three-week” pause.

“That was very early on and I probably didn’t know as much as we all do now with the whole thing that is going on,” Ingles said.

“My personal opinion is every week that we go along, it feels like it’s a less and less chance that we’re going to return.”

Ingles is not in favour of completing the season by bringing NBA teams together in one city and sequestering players, coaches and support staff to limit the spread of the virus. That scenario would keep him away from his wife Renae, a former netball star, and their three-year-old twins, Milla and Jacob.

“It would be extremely hard,” Ingles said. “That would be basically the longest I’ve been away from the kids. I don’t know how much I’m willing to do that.”

Ingles did make the difficult decision in 2016 to leave Renae and his children just after they were born to play for the Boomers at the Rio Olympics.

“As hard as it was, it was easier because they were just like eating and pooping and that was it and now they have personalities,” he said.

Ingles said his family in Australia had been affected by the pandemic. His mother works in a nursing home and he said his father had lost his job.

peter Mitchell