NBA’s Adam Silver offers update on where league stands during coronavirus shutdown
On the eve of what would have been the start of the NBA playoffs under normal circumstances, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league is not in position to know when or if the season can resume amid the coronavirus pandemic.
He also said the league is “not ready to set a date of how long we can wait before we can no longer continue the season. Everything is on the table, including potentially delaying the start of next season. We are not in position to make any decisions [about the status of this season] and it’s unclear when we will be. We still don’t have enough information to make a decision.”
Also on Friday, the NBA Board of Governors and the league’s player’s association agreed to a plan to withhold 25 percent of each player’s paycheck beginning May 15. Players would receive their full paychecks on May 1. Money would be returned to the players if all of the remaining regular-season games are played. If only some games are played, teams would keep a percentage of the money.
Silver — speaking on Friday shortly after an NBA Board of Governors meeting conducted via conference call — said resuming the regular season, which was suspended March 11 after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus, “is absolutely still an option. If we resume play, we’re looking at going significantly later than June. The direction the league office has received from our teams is all rules are off given the situation the country finds itself in.
“If there is an opportunity to resume play, even if it’s different from what we’ve done historically, we should be modeling it. We don’t still have a good understanding of what the standards are for us to move forward. The experts don’t necessarily know either. By no means does it say we don’t see an opportunity to play regular-season games this season.”
Asked what data will be needed to make a decision about whether this season can resume, Silver said: “We are looking for the number of new infections to come down, the availability of testing on a large scale. We are looking at the path we are on for potentially a vaccine and looking at anti-virals. On top of that, we’re playing close attention to what the CDC is telling us at a federal level and state rules that are in place. There is still too much uncertainty to say precisely how we move forward.
“There’s still enormous uncertainty about the virus as well. There’s a lot that’s changing quickly. We might be in a different position some number of weeks from now. We know we need bar-scale testing.”
Asked about the appetite of NBA owners to resume the season, Silver said: “My sense of NBA team owners is if they can be part of a movement to restart our economy, and that includes the NBA, they almost view that as a civic obligation. But there is no appetite to compromise the well-being of our players.
“We are not at a point yet where we have a clear path forward where we feel we can sit down with the players and say this is a way we can resume the season.”
Asked about the possibility of playing all games in a bubble-type environment (a Las Vegas hotel has been one hypothetical floated), Silver said those conversations have not advanced.
“In terms of the bubble-like concepts, many have been proposed to us and we’ve only listened,” he said. “We’re not seriously engaged yet in that type of environment because I can’t answer ... what precisely we would need to see to [determine] if that environment provided the needed health and safety for our players.”
David Ho, a world-renowned infectious disease specialist, and Disney chairman Robert Iger addressed the owners on the Board of Governors call.
Meanwhile, professional basketball in China twice has delayed restarting its season and Silver said “there has been constant exchange of information” with officials from that league.
Silver also indicated that the number of NBA players who have tested positive for coronavirus is “greater than the initial report of seven, but for privacy reasons, we’re not reporting any other positive tests.”
If the season does not resume, players would lose about 23 percent of their salary.
This story was originally published April 17, 2020 at 6:34 PM.
