There’s no consensus among the NBA’s 30 team owners on when or how to resume play, Nets owner Joe Tsai said last week as part of a virtual seminar (hat tip to NetsDaily). As Tsai explained, a club’s place in the NBA standings may go a long way toward determining whether team ownership is prioritizing finishing the 2019/20 season.
“The reality is everybody is still trying to figure things out with the hope that maybe we can reopen the season —the current season— because … think about this: the Los Angeles Lakers or the Milwaukee Bucks, they’re in first place when the season got suspended,” Tsai said. “There’s a chance of them going for the championship. Of course, they want to play. The players want to play. The ownership wants to play. Then, there are other teams, if you’re in 28th place, maybe this season isn’t that important. So there’s a difference of opinion among the owners as well.”
The Nets have been a middle-of-the-pack team in 2019/20. If the season ended today, they’d be the No. 7 seed in the East, meaning their playoff run might be brief. However, they could make some noise in the postseason if Kyrie Irving and/or Kevin Durant are able to return from injuries. For his part, Tsai declined to offer his opinion on the NBA’s potential plans.
“We’re one individual team but we’re also part of the league, so I’m kind of under a gag order as to what I really think about what the NBA should do,” Tsai said, per NetsDaily.
Here’s more on the NBA’s hiatus and potential plans to resume the season:
- In a roundtable discussion with The Athletic’s MLB and NHL experts (Ken Rosenthal and Pierre LeBrun) about the possibility of sports restarting, Shams Charania offers some details on the NBA’s thinking. Charania confirms that the NBA is tentatively targeting Christmas Day for the start of its 2020/21 season, adding that the federal government has indicated it will help the NBA and any league looking to resume play.
- In an opinion column, Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News argues that no matter how long it takes to resume play, the NBA should prioritize completing its 2019/20 season in order to allow teams and players to finish what they started.
- According to a survey conducted by ESPN, the majority of fans are in favor of watching televised sports played behind closed doors rather than waiting for sports to resume only when fans are permitted to attend.
Sports have commissioners, which is good, but the commissioner has to lead forward and herd a consensus. It’s not really up to Trump or the CDC.
Everybody has to compromise, define terms, and hold to changed rules, in order to finish 19/20 and claim a win, asterisk or not.
If some teams don’t want to finish the season then let those teams simply not finish the season. I don’t see why it has to be an all or nothing deal. Finalize the teams that want to play, rework the remaining schedule so that those teams play each other, and figure it out.
do a small tournament say seeds 7,8,9,10. top 2 teams are in and just jump straight to the playoffs
The main reason is *. Nobody says 1998-99 season, they say the strike shorted 1998-99 season.
Yes true. But at this point that * is there regardless. Better to have an asterisk with a champion than an asterisk without one.
Great idea regardless
You dont want to be competing with football if you dont have too
We will find out shortly how compelling televised sports with no fans in the seats is, and that experiment on ESPN may determine how US sports move forward. If it appears that no-fans games will attract viewers and generate ad revenue, then they will get it going as soon as they can, whatever it takes – and if there is a revenue share, I am pretty sure that the Knicks and Bulls of the world will be more interested in finishing the season.
Logistics is going to complicated. For example, international travel is still prohibited. As of yesterday, the US was still hinting at the ban remaining in place for the balance of the year. Unless the NBA adapts what baseball has proposed (playing in 2-3 states), how will the Raptors be accounted for.
Furthermore, many arenas, host both basketball and hockey teams. Trying to keep the existing schedule in place will get tricky if two teams are both wanting to use the arena on any given day.
Health concerns are rightfully getting the most attention. But the practicality of rescheduling is easier said than done.