NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke to the media on Friday and admitted that, while there’s no “clear path” to basketball’s return, the league is far from being forced to cancel the season and is exploring options to resume play when it’s safe to do so. While Silver didn’t lay out exactly what must be done to see a return of NBA basketball, the press conference did clarify some things, including that the league has had more exposure to COVID-19 than previously reported.
First and foremost, Silver said that there isn’t a set of solid things the league must do to return, noting that safety of everyone involved is the most important thing right now. Still, there are too many “unknowns” in what would need to happen with regards to testing and overall immunity to determine what qualifications a sports league would have to resume play in the United States.
Adam Silver acknowledges that the NBA is not yet "at the point" where it can pinpoint prerequisites "A, B and C" to establish "a clear path" to a return
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) April 17, 2020
Adam Silver: “As I sit here today, there’s too much unknown to set a timeline and even too much unknown to say, ‘Here are the variables.’” He does know that number of new infections must decrease and testing must be available on a large scale for NBA to consider return to play.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 17, 2020
Silver also said that the much-hyped quarantine league idea — hosting the entire league or its playoff teams in one city to complete play in isolation — is an intriguing idea, but not one they league has looked into extensively.
Adam Silver says the NBA is “not seriously engaged yet” in discussions about a bubble-type concept to sequester essential personnel to resume the NBA season. He adds: “We know we need large-scale testing,” making clear that frontline healthcare workers should get tests first.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 17, 2020
That being said, there isn’t a firm kill date for the current season, and the league is looking into all possibilities to complete the campaign, including changing the start date of the 2020-21 schedule.
Adam Silver on any potential return to play: "We are not in position to make any decisions, and it is unclear when we will be."
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 17, 2020
Adam Silver just said that the league has not identified a firm date to decide that it must cancel the rest of this season
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) April 17, 2020
Adam Silver says the NBA could resume the regular season if the season returns. Says that "all rules are off" at this point.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 17, 2020
https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/1251273110923415552
While it’s possible the regular season could be finished and the next one started without serious disruptions, the timeline will be tight for a variety of reasons, including the now-2021 Tokyo Olympics next summer. Among other things, Silver said that individual team revenues were discussed and confirmed a report that player salaries were cut 25 percent to deal with a lack of games during the pandemic.
