Podcast: The latest on NBA restart plans with AP’s Tim Reynolds. Can we learn from NHL?
The NHL set something of a template Tuesday. The league’s plans to return to play amid the COVID-19 pandemic is still far from concrete, but the NHL did become the first league to explicitly lay out some of its plan of action for whenever it is given the all-clear to return.
Could the NBA be next in line? It’s the big question on the latest episode of the Heat Check podcast as David Wilson and Anthony Chiang, the Miami Heat beat writer for the Miami Herald, enlist the help of Associated Press national NBA writer Tim Reynolds to talk about the next steps for the NBA as it tries to formulate its own return-to-play plan.
It has been about a month since Reynolds last joined the show to sort out fact from fiction with the reporting around the NBA’s plans and we’re still awaiting some sort of extensive formal announcement from the league, but it doesn’t mean there haven’t been some major developments. We discuss the NBA’s formal acknowledgment of its negotiations with Walt Disney World to wrap up the season in Central Florida, the increasing likelihood of a 20-team format once games are back underway and why the centralized format won’t require players to stay within the confines of a “bubble.”
These conversations all lead into Friday, when the NBA will hold another Board of Governors meetings to discuss restart plans. Could it set the stage for the NBA to follow the NHL’s lead and make some sort of formal announcement next week. While it may not be exactly the same, Reynolds at least feels like there will be something indicating progress coming in the next few days.
Finally, we wrap things up with some off-topic conversations including our favorite rides at Disney World, new car purchases and something called Schweppe’s bitter lemon. The rest of the episode, quite frankly, is probably more informative.
