Coronavirus update: NBA suspends season after Jazz player tests positive for COVID-19
As the coronavirus continues to threaten the United States, the NBA is beginning to take steps to combat its spread within its own arenas. On Wednesday, the Golden State Warriors announced that their home games will be played without fans for the foreseeable future after San Francisco banned events with crowds of more than 1,000 people. Now, it appears that the rest of the league will be joining them. The NBA's board of governors reached a consensus that the league should continue to play games without fans present in the arena, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Several teams, including the New York Knicks, pushed to maintain the status quo until the government forced them not to, again according to Wojnarowski.
In addition, the NBA has also considered more drastic measures in an effort to curb the virus and protect its players. Most notably, the idea of taking a hiatus from the season was discussed by the board of governors, according to Wojnarowski. For now, the league appears to be unwilling to take that step, but further spread could eventually force the league's hand.
Considering the physicality of the game and the league's likely inability to control who players come into contact with in their personal lives, one player getting a confirmed diagnosis would theoretically force his entire team and any team that played against him into a 14-day quarantine. The policies the league is enacting now are being taken in an effort to prevent the spread to players at all, but little is known about what it would do in the event that a player was actually infected.
All of this is uncharted territory, and so far the league seems to be moving at a cautious pace. They have implemented new media guidelines to avoid big scrums in and around locker rooms, requiring a six-to-eight feet gap between players and media, and for now media has been allowed to continue attending games, but with no games having been played without fans yet, things could change quickly.
The NBA has billions of dollars on the line through tickets, television sales and practically every other stream of revenue it cultivates during the season. The league is naturally doing everything in its power to preserve that revenue, but the increasingly dangerous virus has already begun cutting into that bottom line. The NBA is in damage control mode at the moment. If the season can be saved, it will do everything in its power to do so.
www.cbssports.com
As the coronavirus continues to threaten the United States, the NBA is beginning to take steps to combat its spread within its own arenas. On Wednesday, the Golden State Warriors announced that their home games will be played without fans for the foreseeable future after San Francisco banned events with crowds of more than 1,000 people. Now, it appears that the rest of the league will be joining them. The NBA's board of governors reached a consensus that the league should continue to play games without fans present in the arena, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Several teams, including the New York Knicks, pushed to maintain the status quo until the government forced them not to, again according to Wojnarowski.
In addition, the NBA has also considered more drastic measures in an effort to curb the virus and protect its players. Most notably, the idea of taking a hiatus from the season was discussed by the board of governors, according to Wojnarowski. For now, the league appears to be unwilling to take that step, but further spread could eventually force the league's hand.
Considering the physicality of the game and the league's likely inability to control who players come into contact with in their personal lives, one player getting a confirmed diagnosis would theoretically force his entire team and any team that played against him into a 14-day quarantine. The policies the league is enacting now are being taken in an effort to prevent the spread to players at all, but little is known about what it would do in the event that a player was actually infected.
All of this is uncharted territory, and so far the league seems to be moving at a cautious pace. They have implemented new media guidelines to avoid big scrums in and around locker rooms, requiring a six-to-eight feet gap between players and media, and for now media has been allowed to continue attending games, but with no games having been played without fans yet, things could change quickly.
The NBA has billions of dollars on the line through tickets, television sales and practically every other stream of revenue it cultivates during the season. The league is naturally doing everything in its power to preserve that revenue, but the increasingly dangerous virus has already begun cutting into that bottom line. The NBA is in damage control mode at the moment. If the season can be saved, it will do everything in its power to do so.
Coronavirus update: NBA suspends season after Rudy Gobert reportedly tests positive for COVID-19
Adam Silver is expected to make a decision regarding the upcoming schedule amid the COVID-19 virus outbreak
www.cbssports.com
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