The global coronavirus pandemic has put sports leagues across the globe in a state of uncertainty.
In general, everyone would love for sports to return. But until there’s a safe way to return to normalcy, leagues have been forced to float out-of-the-box ideas that include demanding ridiculous quantities of tests and playing games in isolation.
Just on Wednesday, The Athletic reported that the NBA was considering holding its season at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando (an idea that *could* work).
But according to a report from CNBC, several league execs and agents are pushing for the NBA to cancel the season — or at least, the regular season. LeBron James, in particular, wasn’t pleased to read that report.
He tweeted on Thursday, pushing back at those execs and saying that the Lakers are ready to play.
LeBron’s “as soon as it’s safe” is a huge qualifier because, as the CNBC report notes, there are teams that don’t think it will be safe in the immediate future. Via CNBC:
NBA team executives and players’ agents spoke to CNBC in recent weeks about the challenges in resuming play. They said team owners are concerned with liability issues and are conflicted about whether or not to give up on the current season.
While every player wants to play, this is still a pandemic. Finding a way to return safely remains a huge challenge at this point.
