NBA may go to Disney for resumption

The NBA is in talks with The Walt Disney Company on a single-site scenario for a resumption of play in Central Florida in late July, the clearest sign yet that the league believes the season can continue amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The National Basketball Players Association is also part of the talks with Disney. Games would be held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, a massive campus on the Disney property near Orlando.

NBA spokesman Mike Bass said the conversations were still “exploratory,” and that the site would be used not only for games but for practices and housing as well.

“Our priority continues to be the health and safety of all involved, and 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,” Bass said.

The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a 255-acre campus with multiple arenas that could host games simultaneously and has been home to the Jr. NBA World Championship in recent years. ESPN is primarily owned by Disney, one of the NBA’s broadcast partners.

Space won’t be an issue, even if Major League Soccer — which is also in talks to resume its season at Disney — is there at the same time. The entire Disney complex is roughly 40 square miles, with nearly 24,000 hotel rooms owned or operated by Disney within the campus.

NBA teams have been allowed to welcome players back to their training facilities for voluntary sessions since May 8, and more than half of the league’s franchises have taken advantage of that opportunity. The next steps would likely include a loosening of the restrictions for those voluntary workouts — no more than four players are currently allowed inside any facility at a time — and then a plan for when training camps could open.

Baseball: The Nationals have changed their plans for their virtual World Series ring ceremony after players decided they would rather wait until they could reunite in person to receive their new jewelry. The Nationals had announced they were going to give out the rings during a show broadcast on television and online — an unprecedented approach brought about by the pandemic.

NFL: Former quarterback Ryan Leaf was arrested in Southern California on Friday. Leaf, 44, was arrested on a domestic battery charge in Palm Desert, which is about 110 miles southeast of Los Angeles, according to booking information provided by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department on Saturday. Leaf is being held on $5,000 bail at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility. Leaf was arrested in 2012 for breaking into a home in Montana to steal prescription drugs, which violated his Texas probation and led to prison.

NHL: The NHL Players’ Association’s executive committee authorized moving forward in talks with the league on returning to play from the coronavirus suspension, approving 24 teams making the playoffs with other aspects still to be negotiated. The NHLPA did not provide a breakdown of the vote of its 31 player representatives in making the announcement Friday night, a day after the proposal was presented to the union’s executive board. In giving the format the green light, the NHLPA stressed several details still need to be negotiated before games can begin. The proposal will now go to the NHL board of governors, which is expected to approve the plan in the next few days. Once approved, the proposal effectively ends the season of the league’s bottom seven teams. The top four teams in each conference would play each other in a mini-tournament for seeding while the remaining 16 teams face off in a best-of-five play-in round to set the final 16 to compete for the Stanley Cup.

Soccer: Lionel Messi’s Barcelona and the rest of the Spanish league can resume play in June after three months of waiting for the pandemic to subside. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Saturday that La Liga and other professional sports competitions will be allowed to resume starting June 8, providing Spain keeps its coronavirus outbreak in check. While the top tier can play from this date, which is a Monday, it has already said it wants to restart on June 12, a Friday.