It is a surreal time for sports as professional and amateur leagues have been forced to shutdown due to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. League commissioners have been put in a near impossible position of trying to find solutions on how to safely get games going again, but the situation is complicated to say the least.
The NBA led the way back in March by putting its 2019-20 season on hiatus after Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus. Since then, commissioner Adam Silver has been doing his due diligence in listening to the government while also looking for ways to restart the regular season.
So far, there has not been too much headway as the infectious nature of the virus combined with a lack of widespread testing puts the players at risk of contracting it. Another positive case would certainly force a cancellation of the rest of the season.
Despite all of the uncertainty, it appears the NBA’s stars have agreed that the 2019-20 season should continue. According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Los Angeles Lakers All-Star LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul and Kevin Durant were among those to band together:
Some of the NBA’s biggest superstars formed a united front to resume the 2019-20 season during a private conference call Monday, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Toward the end of the call discussing the ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic, all parties were in agreement to take the court with proper safety measures once the league is given the green light to commence, sources said.
Chris Paul, the president of the players association, arranged the call that included LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook, sources said.
Out of all the major sports, the NBA takes the opinions of its stars the most seriously and a conference call headlined by the players Haynes mentioned is an emphatic declaration that they are looking to finish what they started.
The season had been an exciting one as there were a few teams like the Los Angeles Lakers who had a legitimate shot at the 2020 NBA Championship, so it makes sense as to why they would want to get back as soon as possible.
However, the obvious caveat is that the league would need approval from the government to resume and as of right now there is no firm time table on when things will be safe to reopen. While it is good to see the league’s superstars band together, they — like the rest of the world — will need to wait and see what happens.
