Just two weeks ago, the prospects of restarting the season seemed bright. The NBA Players Association agreed by a 28-0 vote to the league’s plan to bring 22 teams to Orlando and finish off the season, beginning on July 31.
Every practice facility around the league reopened, albeit for limited individual workouts. The league tried to address all concerns and develop strict protocols to ensure the safety of all players, coaches, staff and family members who enter the Orlando bubble facility.
Yet recent developments have created more uncertainty about whether the NBA will actually crown a champion this season or whether its best-laid plans will go up in smoke.
Social justice issues have come to the forefront and a coalition of players, led by Kyrie Irving and Avery Bradley, would rather focus on fostering changes than donning uniforms again this season.
The reason why play was halted in the first place hasn’t gone away. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage around various parts of the United States, including Florida, where hundreds of NBA players and personnel are soon heading to practice and play ball.
Other pro leagues are experiencing issues with players and personnel testing positives, even though major sports in the country remain dormant. The virus has prompted three MLB teams to close their spring camp facilities. The NHL’s Tampa Bay Lighting shut down their facility on Friday after positive tests.
With those issues in mind, we come to our question of the day: Do you believe the NBA will be able to finish its season in Orlando? Or will the league eventually have to cancel the season?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
Money wins, season restarts, with some big money players not participating.
no way
I’m almost at the point where I have completely lost interest. We’ve been without pro sports for 3 months and we haven’t died. I’ve done some projects around the house, watched old movies in the evening instead of games, and my life has gone on. I still enjoy sports and would be happy to watch them again, but I have also learned that I can live without them. With all the rich people fighting over pennies in MLB and the multi-millionaire players in the NBA not wanting to play because of other people’s privilege and people more concerned with someone’s position during a pre-game song than with the actual game in the NFL, I am now asking myself if ANY of these people deserve my money.
I don’t have a problem with anyone fighting for their beliefs, in fact I support it. But I don’t know, maybe it has just gone too far for me. At some point we all have to just move on. I hope that pro sports can be there when I move on, but if it cannot, so be it. I’ve enjoyed during my life, but I have come to realize that it is not my life.
If they play I will likely watch, if they don’t I will find something else to do. I’m not to worry about it anymore though.
Yes along those same lines it’s kind of been a nice reset for me. I spent so much time following the Warriors and the Red Sox it consumed a lot of my hours. And for what? Nothing.
I spend all this time reading up on them and following them and every box score and TV every chance I get and they don’t even know I exist. It’s a great reset to discover other things that are important in life besides Sports.
Agreed…..I like pro sports as an escape from everyday life. To see top athletes play a game at a level I could never dream of. I don’t watch it to get my daily dose of politics. While I believe in your freedom of speech, I also believe in I don’t have to watch it and can find something better to do. I am betting plenty of others will feel the same way.
Yes, sports have been very unnecessary. Things have got to the point where I don’t even think of checking for stories about sports and leaving comments in discussions about sports. I have so many better things to do, too. Stuff that is much more fulfilling… and… exciting.
Aaah… who am I kidding, I need my sports fix NOW. Life is so empty that’s why I’m here
Exactly… can’t get away from a lifelong obsession. The time away and break from Sports has been nice but I know darn well as soon as that ball starts bouncing I’ll be glued to the TV.
If Avery Bradley and Dwight Howard both want to sit out, that’s just fine with me.
Laker fan –
Im coo with it as well, lets roll, no excuses moving forward – Bradleys nominal on the court and we can win without Dwight
There you go
He may be nominal on the offensive end of the court, but Bradley is still one of the top defenders the Lakers have (definitely the best in their backcourt). And sure they can win without Dwight, but if you take those two guys out of their rotation then that leaves them with a 9-man rotation of: LBJ, AD, Kuzma, KCP, Green, Rondo, McGee, Caruso, and Markieff. That team isn’t nearly as dominant as one with Howard and Bradley.
Yea we take a hit but no excuses –
Just happy for the {potential} opportunity
Its gonna be weird all around, and Mcgee Kuz KCP Green Caruso Morris Rondo can make weird work in the end
Nope! I’m wit my brother Kyrie. The world is flat, the NBA races and it time to form our own league!
I’d love to see Kyrie try that
Cancel the season, make the Lakers wait till next year to try to win it all. (ok, I admit to being a Warriors fan since 1965, but still …)
Bron will be 36 by then.
LeBron will turn 36 right about when next season is scheduled to start. The short offseason will hurt him about as much as any other player in the NBA. I fully expect LBJ to take just as many scheduled rest days as Kawhi has next year, maybe even more.
Short off season? They haven’t played in 3 months this is part of the offseason it’s like when we were in school and had summer vacation then went to the next grade except it’ll be the same season… weird…
Cancel the season only because of coronavirus
Not because of social Justise
I represent myself only
It should start. The season was only stopped because of the virus. Not civil rights. It would never have been stopped for civil rights. The show has to go on. Those who don’t wish to participate can stay home
Shut it down … start planning for camp in October hoping that the coronavirus has gone. Wanting to crown a NBA Champion is not worth the risk of possibly losing one player … you can make money next year, you would never get that life back.
If its bad enough to shut it down now, you can’t plan for October.
Or did you mean October of 2021? lol
I hear you but there is the idea that the virus ramp back up when the weather starts getting cooler. November and December could be big trouble and more lockdowns. I think they want to get this season finished and at least they’ll have that little bit of TV Revenue coming in and Crown a champion.
Predictions.
Without crowds, the games will seem too long and seven-game serieses preposterous in length. TV commentators will even get tired of themselves talking. Viewers will skip and watch highlights on the internet. World viewers may make up for some of that loss but they rely on the internet too.
There are four playoff rounds (after play-ins), and conversation will be of shortening it all, such as making rounds 2 & 3 best of three, but it won’t happen because of status quo inertia.
Silver will probably lose his job since blame has to go somewhere and he took too long to resume the resumption.
After the seeding games are over, it will be decided that their stats will not get mixed with RS game stats, but kept separate, eventually to be forgotten about.
There will be so many upsets that odds could be 50-50 for most games. But, there will be more talking about the set-up & conditions than the games themselves.
The national media will practically beg for resumption-related covid19 hospitalizations. Also, they will need protests to use as backgrounds for their remote reporting and to lead off their newsshows. The reporters will pronounce words funny to make their pronouncements seem more important. To avoid sounding racist, nobody will question any BLM viewpoint, adding to viewer’s bewilderment. Oh wait, happening anyway.
Nothing will feel sure about the 20/21 season.
* Seeding-game stats will get forgotten over time, organically, not by league intention. They just won’t matter to anything. Bas.Ref.’s call!
Man can you try to be a bit more positive & upbeat… boy how depressing is this world when everybody is all the time being so negative!
The season should restart & finish, as a matter of fact should had already restarted now, no bubble, teams flying around to finish all the RS games, no fans, the whole playoffs in & we would all enjoy & love it so very much! We shall all be happy!
lol reducing expectations!
Best thing: it’s a once-in-a-lifetime shindig; anything will be new if not a surprise.
I’m really glad you brought up the point about commentators! I certainly didn’t have any conscious realization how much time they DON’T have to fill because of the crowds. I used to work in broadcasting, and it’s drilled into you from day one that dead air is the WORST thing that can happen, just like I’m sure it still is… and man, towards the end of a baseball game, or worst of all, a round of competition golf, I find myself wanting to throw things at the TV set hoping to get those guys to shut up for a while.
Then again, watching a competition without ANY sound isn’t ideal either. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
I just thought of something reading your comment about commentators. I’m wondering if the commercial time will be double to try to make up for lost Revenue? Don’t think they haven’t thought of that, and it’s going to be horrendous if it happens.
I only watched a couple of the KBO games and know nothing of their broadcast history, so there I don’t know. I do enjoy watching golf, and I’ve watched several rounds since the restart. Commercial load didn’t seem any heavier than normal. The announcers really did make me crazy, though, so I doubt I’ll watch much more unless it’s a major. They’ve been miking up the golfers, but conversation wise, it sure ain’t the NBA, ! (laffing)
Silver is the best commissioner in professional sport. No way he gets fired. Manfred – now there is someone who should be fired.
Silver is not getting fired , thats insane to even type out
Yes its going to be different, thats ok, you
might actually enjoy it if you dont rip it down to shreds from the beginning. Breath
My OP was just a list of predictions, responding to the question in the article’s headline. I will be watching the games and happy they’re on even though my team was put in the limbo 8.
Besides no Cavs or deaths from covid19 if any, the potential negatives of resumption will probably only increase my interest as the story unfolds. Regardless it’s better than the NBA doing nothing. My OP is not any kind of personal emotional inventory at least until the politics got into it… but that will happen too at the camp, and the media will jump on it.
It’s funny to think people expect normal. Normal starts when?
At the moment, normal would have to slap us across the face and remind us that it did so for us to know it.
I dont think it will be normal but I Do think it be be exciting and new –
I think Orlando is the best shot we have in 2020 for sports in the best sport currently in the world –
Im pulling for Silver and crew to pull it off. I think if he does it might be one of the best sports memories in all our lives to date
Very possible. Waiting to hear the pretty sportscaster-ladies on TV say that the NBA put together a good party going despite it all. That’s probably in their script, but anything in the category of “pulling it off” can be an acclaimed triumph, given the predictions from negative Nancys.
Silver still has to negotiate the financials and a weird next year.
Show up, suit up and let’s play ball, asap.
Love the game and yes it does consume lots of time.
Personally at the point of make a final decision by Friday next week or just cancel the season, period !!
Move straight to talks on a new CBA now.
After the last 4 months, just have Zero tolerance for all posturing and pomp.
Man up or just go home.
Life is to short to waste.
I’ve been saying it for months. Shut it down. It’s a joke. See what things look like in the fall.
Agreed. I’d rather they attempt to make the ’20-’21 season as normal as possible than do some weird playoff this year, and start next season at Christmas. I don’t know that normal will even be possible then, but you cross that bridge when you get there. Right now, there’s a virus to contend with, a segment of players not wanting to play… and just a host of other issues. What’s the point?
Easy for you to say. Owners will use the force majeure and make a new CBA. 20/21 season isn’t guaranteed. Fauci already told the NFL that it isn’t realistic to have a season during the fall/winter without a bubble.
I’ve seen the term force majeure a fair amount lately. I’m not a labor lawyer, so I don’t have a strong grasp of how it’s applied. I’ve only researched the internet. From what I’ve read though, it doesn’t seem that easy to invoke. You may know more than me on the suject? Why do you feel it’s so sure?
I’ll be interested in a knowledgable explanation as well. I work at a concert facility, and we of course has to cancel our entire summer season (fall most likely not far from the same fate). We already had signed contracts for the entire summer season, some 32 concerts, and we we forced to cancel them due to force majeure. In our industry, it refers to being forced to cancel a contracted event basically due to circumstances beyond our control. This could be weather damage, vandalism, theft… obviously, a pandemic. For us, the biggest difference invoking the clause brings forth is that we do NOT have to pay the performers if we’re able to invoke it 48 hours or more before the contracted start time of the event. If we cancel for any other reason, we’re on the hook for the entire contracted amount. I don’t know if this applies in the same way to professional sports (and contract law is an absolute monster to comprehend).
A little addendum – in order for us to invoke force majeure, it has to be a circumstance completely beyond our control. Current conditions are sort of a double-whammy in that regard, due first to the pandemic and second to the fact that temporary government regulations have made it impossible/illegal for us to hold concerts now. We obviously had zero to prove in this instance, but most times, you best be darned good and sure you can prove your actions in court if the party that got cancelled thinks they have a valid argument.
See, that’s my thought- there are states allowing sporting events, such as Florida. When there’s a ability to hold an event without breaking any laws, how do you convince a court to break a contract any deny someone compensation? If the players say we want to play, even if you had to hold the games in empty, non-televised arenas- wouldn’t the league be obligated to either say no, and pay them; or give in? Short of every state saying absolutely no sports, I don’t know how you just rip up a CBA that way? Again, I’m not a labor expert, so I’d welcome input from someone more versed than me.
Sucks about the concert cancellations, man.
I also wonder about the timeline involved in resolving such a dispute. Courts are already gonna be backed up for months because so many proceedings have had to be delayed due to the pandemic. Money (and especially the amount of money on the line in a situation like this) usually wins out somehow, so my off-the-cuff guess would be this would be argued before criminal cases that have already been delayed… but again, probably the best way in the universe to start a fistfight or an all out brawl is to put opposing sides together in a room arguing contract law.
It’s done the only people that don’t understand that is the league itself. The fork has been stuck in it.
I am most certainly not the league & I do believe they must play, actually all the fans I know think the same, which planet are you from Mr mdunkel? I can’t agree with your point, very negative!
I never listen to the commentators on basketball games, turn the sound down and listen to some tunes. Only turn it up if there is some clarification of a call needed. With no fans, though, it will seem like watching a practice.