Silver said he knows less -- in a way -- than he did when the NBA suspended operations nearly one month agoNBA
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he has told league employees that the association "should just accept that at least for the month of April, we won’t be in a position to make any decisions" regarding a potential season restart. Appearing from his home on the new “#NBATogether” show with host Ernie Johnson last night, Silver said he knows "less -- in a way -- than I did" when the league first suspended operations nearly one month ago. Silver said COVID-19 is moving "potentially faster than maybe we had thought at that point” and, “therefore, may peak earlier." Silver: "What that means in terms of our ability to come back at some point in late spring or summer is still unknown to me." But Silver said the league making no decision in April "doesn’t mean internally, both the league and the discussions with our players and the teams, we aren’t looking at many different scenarios for restarting the season." Silver: "Honestly, it’s just too early, given what’s happened right now, to be even able to project or predict where we’ll be in a few weeks.” He also said in a perfect world, the NBA would "try to finish the regular season in some form and then move on to the playoffs." Silver noted the NBA could play games “without fans,” which is “something we looked a lot at.” But the league is in "listening mode right now."
UNITED FRONT: Silver discussed his conference call this weekend with President Trump, noting it was an "old-school conference call with no video." The call lasted about 45 minutes, with the President making "some introductory remarks" about the "fact that he is a passionate sports fan and the fact that he missed seeing live sports on television." Silver said the different sports commissioners took turns updating the President, and it was "more just a chance for us to say that we stand behind the country, we want to be helpful (and) we talked a little bit about what we are doing now." Silver said when working from home, like everyone else, he spends his day on an "assortment of different technologies and video conferencing calling." Silver: "How will this change the NBA experience? What will game production look like ... and will there be kinds of access that we hadn't thought of before now that everyone has a better understanding of this video technology?"(“#NBATogether,” TWITTER.com, 4/6).
