Podcast: The restart plan, with AP’s Tim Reynolds. And NBA role in George Floyd protests
The NBA finally has a plan in place to wrap up the season. Adam Silver proposed a 22-team format to wrap up the season in Central Florida, and 29 of 30 owners voted to approve the commissioner’s plan. The players will make their stance official Friday, but it’s clear: The NBA plans to finish out its season this summer in beautiful Lake Buena Vista.
The proposal is a bit different than the ones we talked about last week on the Heat Check podcast with Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press, so we welcomed him back this week, too. David Wilson and Anthony Chiang, the Miami Herald’s Miami Heat beat writer, chat with the national NBA reporter about how the league settled on sending 22 teams in Florida, why the NBA isn’t jumping straight into the postseason and what questions still remain before teams report to Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex next month.
First, we sort through the national and leaguewide implications, and then we finally delve into how the format might affect the Heat. There has never been a better time for Miami to prove it is actually the hardest-working, best-conditioned, most-professional, unselfish, toughest, meanest, nastiest team in the NBA.
NBA plans ultimately feel unimportant this week, though, as most players — and most of the world — have been most concerned with the George Floyd protests. Demonstrations have popped up in all 50 states and NBA players, including power forward Udonis Haslem, have been some of the most vocal advocates in the movement, which sprung to life after police killed Floyd in Minnesota. It’s just as important, though, to see some other NBA players just become part of a massive movement far larger than any single person. We wrap things up by talking about the protests, the NBA’s role in them, and why it’s important to think about police brutality and systemic racism any time you think about basketball.
