Silver wants to make sure players and fans are guaranteed safety before resuming playNBAE/GETTY IMAGES
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league is "looking at three different" scenarios to possibly restart the season once the coronavirus spread dissipates. Appearing on "SportsCenter" yesterday, Silver said the first option would be to "restart and operate as we've known it," with 19,000 fans "in buildings." The second would be that the league could "consider restarting without fans and what that would mean." Silver said of the third option, "One of the things we've been talking about -- are there conditions in which a group of players could compete, maybe for a giant fundraiser or just for the collective good of the people." The league could take a "subset of players, and is there a protocol in which they can be tested and quarantined or isolated in some way, and then they can compete against each other." Silver: "Just because again, people are stuck at home and I think they need a diversion, they need to be entertained." Silver added he does not know what a resumed NBA season would look like, "just because I don't have a good enough sense of how long a period this is going to be." He said, "I want to believe that we're going to be able to salvage at least some portion of this season." Silver: "We're going to try every means we can to play basketball again, but I'd say the safety and the health of our players is first and our fans, which is why (I) don't want to speculate more than that" ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 3/18). In Philadelphia, Keith Pompey notes Silver was "candid while being unsure yet optimistic" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 3/19).
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX: ESPN's Rachel Nichols, who conducted the interview with Silver, noted the charity game possibility is “not something that we had heard before, but the fact that they’re considering that is interesting” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 3/19). NBC SPORTS BAY AREA's Ali Thanawalla wrote Silver's idea for a charity game "might be difficult to put on, but he's thinking outside the box and at this point, it's not a terrible idea" (NBCSPORTSBAYAREA.com, 3/18). Meanwhile, in Houston, Jonathan Feigen notes "no option seems close to becoming a goal, much less a plan" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 3/19).
