NBA remains in limbo during coronavirus’ hold
Friday would have marked Game 76 of the regular season for the Orlando Magic, who were supposed to be in Boston facing the Celtics for the third time as they pushed toward clinching their second consecutive playoff berth.
Instead, team facilities across the league remain shuttered and arenas sit empty as the coronavirus pandemic continues to strengthen its hold on the country.
The pause button has been hit on the NBA season, and nobody knows when — or if — play will resume.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver continues to emphasize the league has no intention of restarting the season until “it becomes safe for all concerned” in the wake of the outbreak. Silver also has acknowledged the uncertainty of the situation plays a role in what paths the league can take.
Last month, the league and teams were preparing for a possible mid-June reboot. With data projections pushing peak coronavirus infection dates into early and mid-May in some parts of the country, including Florida, that appears out of the question.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who at
one point was optimistic that a May return was possible, said he has no answers.
“I have no idea,” Cuban said Wednesday on ESPN’s “Get Up” program. “I mean, the only thing I know is that we’re going to put safety first and we’re not going to take any chances. We’re not going to do anything that risks the health of our players, our fans, our staff, the whole organization. So right now, I really don’t have anything new to say.”
League officials, including Silver, reportedly met with team presidents earlier this week to discuss the situation. The meetings produced no more clarity than before as the league continues to operate without a plan for how or when the season will return, according to Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic. He said the league is continuing to rely on health officials across the country and the CDC but has come to the realization that “everyone is at the mercy of the coronavirus.”
“That is an accepting reality for teams across the league,” Charania said in a video he posted to his Twitter account.
So is the issue of player salaries.
Charania reported Friday that the league is asking players to take a 50% pay cut for the April 15 round of payments. The league fully paid salaries for the April 1 pay day.
The National Basketball Players Association has countered with a 25% pay cut starting with the May 11 pay date.
English Premier League clubs, meanwhile, are in talks with the Professional Footballers’ Association over a 30% player-pay deferral plan, according to ESPN’s Mark Ogden.
NBA playoffs normally start the weekend after the regular season ends. For this season, the first-round series would have begun April 18. The NBA Finals were set to begin June 4, giving the postseason roughly eight weeks to play out.
If the season, which has been on hold since March 11, were to resume, the league is strongly considering Las Vegas as the location for a centralized postseason to play out, according to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated.
Orlando was among other cities reportedly being discussed, but Mannix reported Las Vegas is the only spot being given “serious” consideration. Still, maneuvering thousands of team personnel into one city presents a logistical and safety challenge that may be too difficult — or risky — to achieve. If the COVID-19 spread drops significantly in the coming months, such a playoff scenario may become more feasible.
Regardless of whether Las Vegas ultimately is chosen for a single-site playoff format, a normal postseason will not happen, according to many reports.
So how far is the NBA willing to go to save this season?
The bigger issue appears to be whether the league wants the pandemic to carve into parts of two seasons or just the current one, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
Windhorst also said sources have told him some teams with no chance to make the playoffs would prefer not to play out the remainder of the 2019-20 regular season.
The NBA is certainly not alone in trying to navigate its way through the pandemic.
The Premier League, which does not have a postseason, had been holding out hope of trying to salvage the remaining games on its schedule and resume play in May.
However, after a meeting Friday, the league announced the season will only return when it is “safe and appropriate to do so.”
“It was acknowledged that the Premier League will not resume at the beginning of May — and that the 2019-20 season will only return when it is safe and appropriate to do so,” the league said in a statement released after the meeting. “The restart date is under constant review with all stakeholders, as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic develops and we work together through this very challenging time.”
The WNBA announced Friday it was postponing the start of its training camp and the start of the regular season, which was set to begin May 15.