Commish confident of safe season in NBA
The NBA found a way to get through last season amid a pandemic. Adam Silver sees no reason why the same cannot ring true again this season.
Silver, the the NBA’s Commissioner, said Monday — one day before the new season begins — that he is confident the league’s health and safety protocols will allow teams to get through their planned 72-game regular season slates even as the coronavirus problem rages across the country and the world. He did, however, warn that he expects the virus to create some problems along the way.
“I think we are prepared for isolated cases; in fact, based on what we’ve seen
in the preseason, based on watching other leagues operating outside a bubble, unfortunately, it seems somewhat inevitable,” Silver said. “We’re prepared for all contingencies.”
Games could be postponed or canceled along the way, and Silver said that if the league encounters issues that cannot be controlled by what’s covered in the health and safety protocols suspending the season — just as was the case back on March 11, when the 2019-20 season was halted for 4 ½ months — will again be a possibility.
But the league, Silver vowed, will wait its turn to get players and others inside the NBA vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“In no form or way will we jump the line,” Silver said.
The NBA currently expects only six of its 30 teams to open the season with fans in the stands, and no arena is planning to have more than 4,000 ticketholders in the seats at this point. Smaller attendance means smaller revenue, and the league missed its revenue projection by about $1.5 billion last season — largely because many games were canceled and the bubble games, including the playoffs, were played without fans in the seats.
Silver said playing another season without fans would mean NBA revenue would dip about 40%.
“Tens of thousands of people rely on our league and its related businesses for their livelihoods,” Silver said. “We also feel a responsibility to our fans. People continue to look at sports as a break from the challenges of the pandemic and as a small reminder of what life was like before COVID-19. … It’s a piece of life I feel we’re able to get back, for the time being.”