NBA takes a shot at reopening plan,
Plan for late-July restart in Orlando brings a bit of clarity about future
It is not firm news, but it is at least legitimate: the NBA has a date in mind to resume its season, suspended since March 11 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While talks are still “exploratory,” the league and the players association see a late-July restart at a vast sports and entertainment complex in Florida as a possibility, by far the most public declaration that a resumption of the 2019-20 season is possible.
The league would use Disney’s ESPN complex near Orlando as a “single site for an NBA campus for games, practices and housing,” according to a statement from chief communications officer Mike Bass on Saturday. “We are working with public health experts and government officials on a comprehensive set of guidelines to ensure that appropriate medical protocols and protections are in place.”
There were no further details and many questions remain, but starting in late July might alleviate one of the most significant roadblocks to the Raptors doing anything as a full squad in Toronto before the suspended season resumes.
With about half of the team’s 17-man roster out of Canada and facing a 14-day quarantine if they return to the country under current federal government restrictions, they could conceivably get back to Toronto this coming week, sit out the quarantine and still have more than a month of practice time before the Orlando restart.
It would not be optimal — and it’s a large ask for players to quarantine again — but it would give them familiar surroundings to work in. The team is already well acquainted with the strict health and safety conditions placed on anyone entering their practice facility, including temperature checks, thorough sterilization of the entire building after each workout and social distancing. Ramping them up to include the entire team, rather than the current one player at a time, wouldn’t be impossible.
It would be more amenable for the franchise to have all players under a familiar roof than, say, gathering beforehand in one American city. If the league were to announce that teams could open training camps on, say, June 20 and have everyone report to Orlando by the second week of July to begin play, it would give the Raptors time to get everyone back to Toronto, sit them down for as long as necessary and still meet the league’s timeline.
It wouldn’t be perfect, but no resolution to this suspended season will be close to perfect. Managing the imperfections is the goal.
The significance of Saturday’s announcement — at the start of the Memorial Day long weekend in the United States — is that the league has, for the first time, given a public target date for games. Still to be determined is the scope of the resumption of play, such as whether it would involved all 30 teams, just the 16 that were in playoff spots when the season was suspended, or some hybrid with a play-in process leading to a playoff tournament.
The Raptors has the secondbest record in the Eastern Conference and third-best overall, 46-18. If the league decides to go right into playoffs under the old seeding format, Toronto would face the Brooklyn Nets in the first round.
There are still hurdles to overcome, and no one can be sure there won’t be a debilitating second wave of the coronavirus, but Saturday’s unexpected statement can be seen through an optimistic lens.
The Disney complex would seem infinitely more workable logistically than splitting the league in two, with some teams in Florida and others in Las Vegas, as has been reported as a possibility. The Orlando location is expansive with multiple arenas — the facility’s website suggests at least five, so multiple games could be played at the same time — and more than 24,000 hotel rooms.
Sequestering as many people as necessary — 35 or 40 per team, plus league personnel, officials and the vast number of support staff required to play — should be easier on one 255acre plot of land.
There is another tie-in: Disney’s ownership of ESPN, one of the league’s broadcast partners.
“That’s the money-winner when it comes to Disney,” Los Angeles Lakers forward Jared Dudley said on a conference call this past week. “That’s why we’ll be in Orlando. Disney owns ESPN. That’s where they make their money. During the playoffs and Finals, it will all be (best-of-seven series). That one I’m almost100 per cent sure of.”
5 Basketball courts at the Disney ESPN complex in Orlando, though not all might work for the NBA 24,000 Hotel rooms 50,000 Approximate number of COVID-19 cases in Florida through Friday