Sources: Expect the NBA back playing by mid/late June with 10 reg season games before POs

It sounds like the thread consensus is that we need to have robot games on outdoor courts during the summer days in Vegas while massive misters keep the humidity up.

I don't begrudge the NBA for making plans. They should make many plans and many contingency plans and many alternate plans. But picking even a timeline with so much uncertainty out there seems foolish. There is a saying that a plan is just a plan until logistics shows up. Can you actually implement the plan? I don't see how you can do it so soon for basketball.

The virus isn't killed by sunlight if there is no sunlight. Like, you know, in a basketball arena.

How many guys wipe sweat from their faces during a game? Scratch their nose? Handle their mouthpiece?

This ain't Germany and basketball is not some commie no-hands sport. In basketball, everyone puts their hands on the ball. In soccer, they just kick the ball and it is rare to bring a shoe-encased foot anywhere near the mouth.

Like everything else from the economy to hospital usage, how well you can do pro sports is directly related to how well society as a whole handles the pandemic. Right now, we're not doing so well. What we know now is at least two weeks old. We need to social distance, test, trace, and isolate. We need to do those things on a massive level. We are not doing those things.

We need a robust federally coordinated response. We don't have it.

We need to not only lower the curve, but crush it. We're not doing it.

Some states are hitting 100 days working on COVID-19 response and we need to give those emergency responders a break. We're not doing it.

We need to figure out how we'll deal with hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and evacuations during a pandemic. We haven't done that.

I love the Rockets and have since they moved to Houston. Mike Newlin was my first real favorite player. But there are bigger problems we need to solve before we think about games. If we solve those bigger problems, the games part will be easy. Making the games part easy should be our goal.

 

PJ Tucker and Altuve

 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29143923/nba-all-player-call-set-friday-sources-say

 

While I agree with almost everything, soccer demands close contact in (tackles or 1 on 1 combat ball situations), dead ball situations or set pieces, such as free kicks, corner kicks.

Nearly every player is in that huddle, holding each other with hands. They are definitely within 2 or 3 feet from one another.

Spoiler

You also touch the ball with the hands in an inbound play, the throw-in and other situations like positioning the ball on the pitch.

 

Amateur photo choice by The Rockets Wire, despite Ryan being in our last training camp.

 

I strongly agree with everything you posted, @rimrocker. And relaxing restrictions won't move us forward, it will set us back, in every single way.

In my industry, the performing arts, groups keep announcing their 2020-21 seasons and it's not like we don't have one to announce if things are safe in time for that, but we're not going to announce a season until we know it's possible. We just keep working on new, virtual content and saying, "contrary to the governor's orders, we won't be back in a theater until it's safe for our artists and audience." That date is a long way away and it's only getting longer.

 

I'm sitting here reading about all this testing for NBA players while a bunch of my colleagues are trying to figure out how to get through the summer and fall without enough tests for wildland firefighters to operate safely. Other folks I know are trying to figure out how to do hurricane response without the amount and speed of testing they expect to need.

 

I'm confused what Ben meant in his tweet about "momentum" relating to DisneyWorld. I follow what happens there pretty closely, and there's not much momentum in DisneyWorld being anywhere close to normal anytime soon. Shanghai Disney is opening, but that's a completely different story.

The only thing I'm aware of with regard to DisneyWorld that is even close to suggesting an opening is that there are stores and restaurants in an area called Disney Springs (which is a shopping area, not a theme park) that's going to have stores and restaurants open in stages along with other stores and restaurants opening all throughout Florida. There is no plan to reopen theme parks or hotels anytime soon....

 

The momentum is for Disney hosting the NBA as the bubble site. It's been well reported.

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/5/8/21251793/nba-reopening-chatter

 

We were talking about the broader dynamics of overall cases in the summer, not the virus literally being killed while they play. You don't have to be condescending.

They constantly violate physical distancing in soccer. It's a physical game. This is also why regular testing in soccer, basketball, and any sport that returns is a prerequisite.

That's up for debate. Crushing the curve most likely requires intense distancing measures for years. Many of us (certainly myself) didn't sign up for that. There's a reason "flatten the curve" was the term used, with a goal of not exceeding the health-care system's capacity at any one time. At present, that part of the strategy is working.

How on earth is Adam Silver supposed to solve hurricanes, wildfires, floods, evacuations, and these other "bigger problems" during a pandemic? That's not his job. Also, as far as other virus problems, that's the whole point of the bubble scenario: It not only isolates the players from the outside, but it also isolates the outside from the players.

Unless the NBA is using resources that would otherwise be used to solve those issues, I'm not sure what your problem is. If there does happen to be an outbreak, it's quite easy to contain because the people involved are tested regularly and their precise locations are known. It's not like they'd be going out into the broader population.

 

I'm not saying this to be offensive, but I highly doubt most of those groups would make enough money from performing without an audience for it to be economical to set up their own bubble with widespread testing, quarantine procedures, etc. for all the performers.

This isn't just sports leagues and fans spitballing and throwing random stuff against the wall. They're collaborating with experts, and Fauci himself has said there's a way to do it safely:
https://sports.yahoo.com/coronaviru...with-dr-anthony-fauci-blessing-171937435.html

The problem is, for most of us, what we do doesn't bring in enough money to justify setting up such an elaborate system. Professional sports are an apples and oranges comparison.

 

Where do you live? The President Of the United States said there's more than enough test for everyone and we probably don't even need to test. He doesn't even understand why you people keep asking for test.

You will need to talk to your leaders because your'e leaders are failing us if you don't have enough testing because the President has assured us that we have more than enough testing and PPE.

 

To take it a step further, when is this ever not the case? There are always bigger problems in the world than a sports game. If "solve the bigger problems" was the prerequisite for having sports, we'd never have them. There is always something bigger. We've had sports during World Wars, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the list goes on and on.

In some ways, this is different, of course. Depending on how you do it, there's a chance you could be putting the people involved in too much harm's way. It's up to Adam Silver and the league office to develop the best safety plans possible, and then the players and their union to decide how they feel about it and what they view as acceptable risk. But that's the only thing we should be talking about, and IMO, it's hard to say too much until we know the specifics of the proposal and its timeline.

As far as all the other stuff... I don't disagree that our federal response has sucked and that there are far greater problems in society. But unless the NBA and its players/staff would otherwise be solving those problems, I don't know what that has to do with any of this. Whether the NBA plays in a Disney bubble (or Vegas) or not, the challenges we have as a society and the resources we have to address them are the same. James Harden isn't suddenly joining the Coronavirus Task Force if they throw in the towel on the 2019-20 NBA season.

 

There's likely a very good reason that the Chinese Basketball Association is suspended until at least July. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...ll-association-pushes-back-restart-least-july

Leaders of countries that paid attention to the initial very serious response of China to the virus and followed suit was able to minimize the damage. While countries with idiots like Trump in charge who brushed it off until it was too late are paying the price.

The NBA should wait and monitor China resuming their basketball league first before formulating a plan. No way they should be rushing ahead of China to reopen.

 

The momentum is Disney location scouts inquiring about Houston area property. You heard it here first.

 

Yes, and part of those reasons are not applicable to the current NBA situation. From your link:

Further complicating matters is the entry ban that was implemented by the Chinese Foreign Ministry in late March on all non-citizens, including residents and foreigners with previously issued visas. Several players were unable to enter China, leaving many CBA rosters without one or both of the allotted import players.

I mean, if we were talking about the potential of resuming NBA basketball with each team missing multiple rotation players (in many cases, the most high profile) because they can't get in the United States... I'd fully agree with you.

 

Touching you-know-where is not the same as touching the face.

 

The concern here is resuming the NBA season would mean the NBA taking away vital medical equipment like testing kits and masks from those that need it much more like healthcare workers. When nurses are being told to reuse a 1 time disposable mask for a week or longer due to shortages, should the NBA buy up and use masks just for the sake of providing entertainment?

Granted the medical supplies the NBA would use is probably irrelevant when compared to the entire healthcare sector. But does that make it right or acceptable? Wouldn't whatever medical supplies the NBA would need to use for safety be better off in the hands of those that need it much more?