Pistons Vice Chair ARN TELLEM said that he hopes the NBA season "will be the first to eventually start up again" among other suspended leagues, according to Kurt Nagl of CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS. For an organization "hit hard by the deadly respiratory disease -- a player and several staff members were diagnosed with it -- it's far from business as usual." Tellem said that he has "never faced a more difficult challenge." Nagl noted the most damaging impact from a business perspective is that the "health crisis has left the Pistons without a product." The organization is "amplifying the message of community engagement," as the team "pitched in with a handful of other companies for a $350,000 grant to Forgotten Harvest." The Pistons also are "working with the state on PSAs promoting social distancing." Tellem said that the team also has offered its HQ "to be used as an emergency hospital or to house health care workers." Nagl noted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has "toured the site." For the Pistons, social distancing and self-isolation means "round-the-clock phone calls and web meetings, and really, trying to predict the future." Tellem said, "We don't know where this is all going to end up, but we have to be prepared for a lot of different outcomes" (CRAINSDETROIT.com, 4/2).
