Eager to play
Lakers superstar James says he wants the NBA season to resume soon
LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James said on Monday he’s eager for the NBA season to resume, as long as the health of players and their families won’t be endangered amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
James, speaking on the WRTS: After Party programme on the Uninterrupted multi-media platform, said he hoped the NBA season resumes sooner rather than later.
“Definitely not giving up on the season,” said James, whose Lakers led the Western Conference when the NBA suspended play on March 11 after Utah Jazz centre Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus.
The virus brought global sport to a virtual standstill, but as lockdowns aimed at preventing its spread have begun to ease, sport has begun to re-emerge.
Germany’s Bundesliga became the first top European football league to resume after a two-month hiatus at the weekend.
In North America the popular Nascar stock car series resumed without spectators on Sunday and golf stuck a toe in the water with a made-for-TV charity event featuring Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson.
The NBA, along with Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer are still formulating plans to return, while the NFL tries to stay on course for an on-schedule season opening in September.
“Not only myself and my teammates, the Lakers organisation, we want to play,” James said. “There’s a lot of players that I know personally that want to play. And obviously, we don’t ever want to jeopardise the health of any of our players or any of the players’ families and so on and so on.
“This is a pandemic that we have no idea — we can’t control it,” James said.
“We’re going to listen to the people that’s been following this pandemic, following the numbers, following the data.”
The Lakers own the second-best record in the league behind Eastern Conference leaders the Milwaukee Bucks and were already assured of a spot in the play-offs — which were due to start in April.
Among the uncertainties surrounding an NBA return is whether all of the remaining games of the regular season will be played and whether teams will play in their home arenas or at sites that will better allow the league to limit access for safety reasons.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told players last week that he expected the league to study outbreak and testing developments for another two to four weeks before making a decision about resuming competition.
James has said he doesn’t relish the idea of playing without fans in attendance, but he said on Monday he just wants to be back on court.
“You know, I want to get back to playing,” James said. “I love to play the game of basketball. I know how inspiring the game of basketball is. I know how inspiring sport is, itself.
“As soon as possible, when we can get back out there, we’d love to bring the game of basketball back to our fans.”
Meanwhile, Utah Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic will miss the remainder of the coronavirus-hit 2019-20 NBA season after undergoing right wrist surgery, ESPN reported on Monday.
The 31-year-old Croatian playmaker, in his sixth NBA season, is expected to fully recover in time for the start of the 2020-21 campaign, according to unnamed sources.
Bogdanovic averaged 20.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists a game this season, ranking second on the Jazz in scoring behind Donovan Mitchell when the NBA season was shut down on March 12.
The Jazz ranked fourth in the Western Conference at 41-23 when the season went on hiatus, a game ahead of Houston and Oklahoma City and 1 1/2 games back of third-place Denver.