Following a call with league commissioner Adam Silver, NBA owners and executives are optimistic that the league will return to finish its season in 2020.
On the call, higher-ups in the league were briefed about Silver’s plans to minimize health risks once play resumes and informed that conversations with the National Basketball Players Association about the players’ desire to restart the season had been positive.
During the call, Silver was adamant that everyone involved would have to be comfortable with the idea that a positive test for the coronavirus would not stop the league in its tracks once play resumes.
“[If a positive test would] shut us down, we probably shouldn’t go down this path,” Silver reportedly said.
As for the specifics of what the league would look like when play resumes, those still have to be worked out. At this point, it is unclear if all 30 teams would return to finish the regular season or if a play-in tournament to set the league’s 16-team playoff field would be held instead.
On the players’ side of things, an informal poll by the NBPA of the league’s athletes found there was “overwhelming” support for any plan for the season to resume in a safe way amid the coronavirus pandemic, a source told The Associated Press.
Even if the NBA does return and resume playing its season, the games will remain off the air in China, as CCTV said Tuesday it has no intention of starting to air the league’s games again in the wake of Daryl Morey’s Hong Kong tweet last fall.
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