DARKENED ARENAS WILL REOPEN, BUT WHO KNOWS WHEN?
Our nightly entertainment and daily conversation has been taken from us
The great and sad sporting unknown begins now.
Just when we next see games from the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball or Major League Soccer is a matter of uniformed speculation.
The unfortunate truth on all of this surrounding the coronavirus and sports, that strange and uncomfortable juxtaposition: we just don’t know.
That’s the answer for almost everything about the virus from a non-scientific and rather basic point of a view. Sport has its own high-ankle sprain right now. The time of recovery is now day to day and month to month.
The coronavirus has managed what so many others could not: It has slowed down Connor Mcdavid. It has put on hold Auston Matthews’ pursuit of 50 goals. It has stopped the unstoppable Leon Draisaitl and his apparent Hart Trophy season. And that’s just in the NHL, which hopes to return, end its season and have a Stanley Cup to present sometime soon.
With “hopes” being the key word here.
The NHL is optimistic about completing the season and playoffs, in whatever adapted form it comes up with. Being optimistic is cute and nice and admirable. Being realistic is so difficult, because we know a little about today and very little about tomorrow.
The NBA thought it would continue its season playing in buildings without spectators. That was the plan to play on through this pandemic. And it wasn’t a bad plan until it was learned Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz had come down with the virus. The NBA immediately put its season on hold, and that was before a second Jazz player, Donovan Mitchell, was found with the virus as well. Now there are all kinds of reasons for concern.
The NBA, too, hopes to come back, in no sooner than a month from now. That’s noble but unknown. In the big picture, the NBA has at least one advantage hockey does not. You can play basketball all through the summer. The weather doesn’t factor on the game. Dallas owner Mark Cuban speculated Thursday that an NBA Finals in August was possible. The Stanley Cup can’t stretch through the summer. Ice can’t be made of any quality in Tampa in July. The gate-driven NHL has time constraints and financial issues to be concerned about. The more flexible NBA, having already suffered a huge financial loss this season with lost business from China, can afford to stretch out its season if need be.
And with baseball having delayed the opening of the season, who knows when MLB will be back, how it will be back? So much is still be determined.
In reality, the coronavirus has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with disrupting them. March Madness won’t be played now. All around the world, tournaments and events and leagues and games are being shut down. The NHL has shut down. The NBA has shut down. Baseball has shut down. Our nightly entertainment and daily conversation has been taken from us without any legitimate argument as to why.
This isn’t an overreaction of any kind by the leagues. This is about our health — yours and mine, all of ours. This is about waiting and wondering what will happen in our country, our city, our communities, and hoping the medical people get this right. Instead, for now, we get nearly finished novels of our sporting seasons, a taste, a tease, and the book is closed — until further notice. If it gets opened again this season, maybe there is an ending. Or maybe not.
The power of the coronavirus has managed what almost no teams in the NBA could do this season: It stopped the Raptors. It put on hold the most delightful, entertaining, pride-filled regular season in the history of the team. Will Nick Nurse win coach of the almost completed season? Will we get chance to see this to conclusion?
The answer is like all of them: We don’t know.
And there’s a lot of we don’t know right now. We don’t know if we’ll get to see the Flames play the Oilers in a playoff series — and who wouldn’t want that? We don’t even know if the Leafs will make the playoffs. Same with the Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks. It is that tight in the standings. This is our favourite time of year, taken from us now, possibly returning, possibly played in an abbreviated fashion, possibly not played at all. And the athletes, they’ve been sent home, not sure what to do. The coaches don’t know what to do. The television networks will figure out something to try to keep us off Netflix and Amazon Prime. There are so many questions here and almost no answers.
Get used to it. There are no games on the calendar tonight, none tomorrow. This is just the beginning. The end is who knows where?