Don’t expect an update on the NBA season until May (at least)
In an interview with Ernie Johnson, commissioner Adam Silver said we won’t know more about the state of the NBA season until May 1 at the earliest.
On Monday evening in an interview with Inside The NBA‘s Ernie Johnson, commissioner Adam Silver provided an update on when we’ll know more about the state of the postponed NBA season, and the update is this: Don’t expect an update anytime soon.
Per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Silver replied, “The short answer is no” when asked whether he had a better sense of where things currently stand with the league compared to when it first went on hiatus in mid-March.
He also admitted he’s told his people within the NBA that he won’t have a real answer as to where the suspended season will be heading until May 1, at a minimum.
Adam Silver says he's told his people with the NBA that there will be no way to have a real answer about where things are headed in terms of starting the season again until, at a minimum, May 1.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 6, 2020
At this point in decision, no decisions have been made about whether the remaining regular-season games will be played out, as opposed to jumping straight into the playoffs, per Silver. The commish said they would play out the remainder of the season in an “ideal world,” but that obviously couldn’t be further from the grim reality of the coronavirus pandemic right now.
With the health and safety of everyone being paramount, the NBA has “looked a lot” at playing games without fans, especially because the longer this hiatus lasts, the more it threatens to impact the start of the 2020-21 campaign. The NBA season typically starts in the third week of October.
Silver also reiterated his message to President Donald Trump and the other major sports commissioners during their conference call over the weekend, which centered around wanting sports to help restart society (and the economy) when the time comes, as long as it can be done safely and responsibly.
Silver: "Beyond crowning a champion, what would the symbolism be of sports starting back up in this country?" Reiterates that, once sports get the "all clear," the sports leagues are going to be "ready to go."
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 6, 2020
Life without sports has definitely made this quarantine period that much harder to cope with, and the unfortunate nature of this pandemic is that there are far more important matters at stake right now. With that being said, hopefully May gets here soon, and with it, a clearer picture of when we might be able to look ahead to the anticipated return of NBA basketball.
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