NBA at a crossroads amidst growing coronavirus threat

With the threat of novel coronavirus growing more serious by the day, the NBA is facing immense pressure to make a responsible decision about the rest of its season. Removing fans from the arena might not be doing enough.

To this point, the NBA — and the rest of the United States’ major sports leagues — have been slow to the learning curve surrounding the novel coronavirus pandemic.

So far, the league has implemented temporary media protocol to restrict locker room access to players and essential team personnel only; the Golden State Warriors agreed to play games without fans in attendance in compliance with the San Francisco Health Office’s ban of public gatherings of more than 1,000 people for the next two weeks; and the league has considered options like playing games without fans or moving games to NBA cities or neutral sites where coronavirus outbreaks have not been reported yet.

At the root of all this slow decision-making is the balancing act between keeping players, staff and fans safe and, as always, continuing to make money.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe, the NBA weighed its options on Wednesday in a conference call with the league’s board of governors. The general consensus among the owners on the board was that games should either be played without fans in attendance or the NBA should take a hiatus for a short period of time.

The Athletic‘s Sam Amick reported earlier on Wednesday that the league was considering this second option, asking teams for their arena’s schedule through July as a contingency plan should the season need to be suspended or postponed.

It appears that safer line of thinking won’t win out, however. The league was expected to reach some sort of decision by Thursday, but as Woj reported, it appears as though commissioner Adam Silver will lean in the direction of simply playing games without fans in attendance:

Several teams were willing to put games on hiatus, but the rest preferred eliminating fans from games and playing as scheduled. (Of course, the New York Knicks were reportedly content with the status quo until a governmental mandate required change.)

There’s no way around it: The NBA is at a crossroads, and so far, the response to this pandemic has been suboptimal. It makes sense not to want to lose money; this is the same league that has seen its TV ratings decline and lost millions of dollars from its dispute with China just a few months back. Losing that in-game revenue is yet another devastating blow, and that’s saying nothing of TV viewers who may be turned off by the experience of watching official NBA games that feel more like pickup games without the familiar sound of a roaring crowd.

With that being said, the league also has a responsibility to its players and employees to keep everyone safe, and a look at the sports landscape right now shows a mounting need for faster precautionary actions.

On Wednesday alone, the NCAA announced its Mens and Womens basketball tournaments will be played without fans in attendance. If March Madness is opting for the safer path — even at the risk of becoming March Sadness — then the NBA should not only have followed suit already, but also carried forward with its idea of a hiatus until the situation is under control.

After all, on the same day the NCAA made its shocking decision, Italian soccer club Juventus announced one of its players, Daniele Rugani, had tested positive for coronavirus. On Tuesday, Olympiacos owner Evangelos Marinakis was confirmed to have coronavirus as well, which is why a match between Arsenal and Manchester City was suspended, since multiple players met with him after a recent match against Olympiacos.

Even an ocean away, these were eye-opening moments that has many questioning where international soccer will go now that its first player and owner have been confirmed to have coronavirus. What happens when that same thing happens to the NBA?

To date, more than 115,000 cases (and 4,200 deaths) have been confirmed in more than 70 countries worldwide, including the United States, which has seen more than 1,000 affected Americans and 31 deaths. These numbers will only continue to rise as more cases are reported.

The World Health Organization declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on Jan. 30 and countries have implemented curfews, travel bans and mandatory quarantines to help prevent its spread.

As much as the NBA would like to carry on and continue making money, this is not something that’s just going to go away quickly. It’s a pandemic that’s been seen all over the globe, with the numbers just slowly starting to trickle in.

To that point, it’s only a matter of time before a player or coach tests positive for coronavirus. Basketball is a close-contact sport, and by the time anyone realizes it, the rest of that player’s teammates, opponents and coaches will have been at risk, almost guaranteeing it to spread league-wide. It will be far too late at that point, and even with fans taken out of the equation, all the traveling these players are doing puts everyone involved at risk.

As terrible and unfortunate as it would be to sift through this period without the enjoyment of sports to distract us, the NBA might have to do the responsible thing and eat the loss of millions if it means helping prevent the spread of this illness.

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.