NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has earned praise for quickly suspending the league when Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, a strain of the coronavirus that has caused a global pandemic. It was a shocking move at the time, but one that was quickly followed by most professional sports leagues worldwide.
Now that the league is suspended, however, Silver must figure out how he can possibly bring the league back during a time when most of the country is being encouraged to socially distance themselves, and all gatherings over 10 people have been discouraged by the White House.
In an interview with SportsCenter this week, Silver talked about several timetables the league is considering, from a full return of the NBA with fans, to a return with only players and officials, playing in empty stadiums. He noted that everyone would need to be medically cleared to participate, from players to coaches to arena staff, and hinted at the logistical difficulties in making that happen, league-wide.
Silver also floated another idea I hadn’t thought about — instead of trying to bring back the entire league, focusing on bringing back just a small group of players to play in a game for charity, solely to give NBA fans stuck at home a “diversion.”
“A third option that we are looking at now … the impact on the national psyche of having no sports programming on television. And one of the things we’ve been talking about are, are there conditions in which a group of players could compete — maybe it’s for a giant fundraiser or just the collective good of the people — where you take a subset of players and, is there a protocol where they can be tested and quarantined and isolated in some way, and they could compete against one another?
He continued: “Because people are stuck at home, and I think they need a diversion. They need to be entertained.”
The NBA has worked incredibly hard to get fans involved in their game, and Silver understands that without the league for a long time, fans could get bored, or — worse — move on to some other form of entertainment.
The league has made NBA League Pass available for a free trial during the quarantine, letting fans binge on hardwood classics, but a live NBA game, even an exhibition for charity, would do a lot to keep fans invested in the game, and desperate sports fans something to watch.
