NBA keeps options open
No decisions to be made for April, Silver says
The NBA was the first major sports league to shut down as the COVID-19 pandemic started to grow and it doesn’t sound like they’ll be the first outfit to get up and running.
The NBA is looking to resume its schedule instead of start from scratch like Major League Baseball, and ideally complete the playoffs and crown a champion. But with so much uncertainty in the world still, NBA commissioner Adam Silver isn’t trying to pretend that he has any answers at this point.
Silver joined TNT’S Ernie Johnson on the NBA’S Twitter page this week and said he has told NBA personnel that nothing will be planned out this month.
“Essentially what I’ve told my folks over the last week is we should just accept that at least for the month of April, we won’t be in a position to make any decisions,” Silver said.
“I don’t think that necessarily means that, on May 1, we will be (ready to announce anything), but at least I know that just to settle everyone down a little bit.”
Silver wanted to make it clear those statements don’t mean the NBA isn’t working on all kinds of potential outcomes and variations of a return, just that making specific projections now isn’t feasible until more is known about where things are going.
The odds of a lot of NBA players participating in the delayed Tokyo Olympics just went down considerably.
The International Olympic Committee announced Tuesday that around 6,500 athletes who had already qualified for 2020, are qualified for 2021 in Tokyo, which will be held July 23-Aug. 8, 2021.
The IOC said that everyone else has to be qualified by June 29, 2021. In normal times it would have been tough to get NBA players to play in qualifying tournaments — the NBA Finals don’t end until midjune. But it’s almost impossible to imagine the 2020-21 NBA season follows a regular schedule. Maybe if 2019-20 never restarts it will, but otherwise, it likely will start later and finish later to give players a break.
Many of the top countries have already qualified, but that doesn’t mean their best players will suit up since they will either have just completed their seasons or might still even be playing games.
Halifax native Nate Darling, who averaged 21 points a game on 40 per cent three-point shooting at Delaware, has put his name into the NBA Draft, but will maintain his eligibility.
“I am very excited for this opportunity as it has always been a dream of mine to play at the highest level,” Darling tweeted.
Darling played two seasons at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and fared well, but was a red shirt transfer to Delaware and thrived in a new system after sitting out last season.
The 6-foot-5 guard attempted a ton of threes a game, but didn’t shy away from contact either.
The leading Canadian scorer in the NCAA this past season had previously led Nova Scotia to a U17 Canadian national championship with 50 points in the final.