The NBA, like sports leagues around the United States and the world, is in the midst of discussions about how to proceed amid the COVID-19 outbreak, also known as the Coronavirus. The league has taken measures to limit locker room access and keep media at a distance from players, but the far greater risk is to fans in the stands and as more and more health officials recommend social isolation as the best way to slow the spread of the virus, sporting events with tens of thousands of people are near the top of the list of risks.
As such, the NBA has had continued discussions about what steps to take next and a bigger decision is expected to come later this week, as the league has major conference calls planned for Wednesday and Thursday with the league’s governors, team presidents, and GMs. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, there are a variety of plans on the table, one of which being the possibility of moving games to neutral sites or cities that have not had any outbreak of the virus.
That would seem to present other issues, in that there would be no way to prevent fans from traveling to that city from somewhere with the virus and potentially bringing it to that place. There are other options being mulled as well, including playing games behind closed doors without fans present or suspending league operations altogether until the virus’ spread is under control.
The NBA is discussing a number of possibilities — including eliminating fans from buildings for games or, more drastically, suspending game operations for a period of time — but sources say decisions on those options remain complicated by the fact that there has been a limited amount of public testing for the coronavirus in the United States. There is no full understanding of how widespread and debilitating the virus could become in the country.
The last point Woj makes is important to note, as part of the reason for the rather slow response from leagues has been the slow response from the government in providing testing. As such, confirmed cases remain relatively low (although increasing significantly by the day) even as health officials estimate the number of actual cases and actual people that have come into contact with COVID-19 to be much higher than current totals.
Still, the writing appears to be on the wall and major changes need to be made for the greater good, and hopefully the NBA can take the lead among the major sports leagues to do so.
