The Los Angeles Lakers were seen as the one of the league’s top championship contenders before the NBA season was suspended due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Part of the Lakers’ success was due to role players like Alex Caruso, the fan favorite who quickly became one of the team’s best perimeter defenders. Caruso has spent his hiatus clamoring for the return of basketball, as are many players and fans.
Since the suspension was announced on March 11, there had been several floating possibilities with regard to a return-to-play date until this week when NBA commissioner Adam Silver conveyed July 31 as a target. Now, with basketball looking closer than ever to a return, players like Caruso are excited to be back.
Caruso spoke about his perspective on the hiatus and what the hardest part of it has been for him, via “Mornings With Keyshawn, LZ, and Travis” at ESPN:
“I think that’s been the toughest part, is just the unknown factor about it. We’re not sure when we’re going to come back. Originally, it was just supposed to be a couple week break and everybody was hoping we would jump right back into it and just push everything back. And then it turned into a month, now here we sit a little bit over two months waiting for some answers.
“Rightfully so. There’s a lot of questions that have to be answered, and they’re not easy questions to be answered. I’m sure whenever the NBA and Players Association makes their decision, it’s going to be in our best interest, and hopefully that involves playing basketball games.”
For the first time in over two months, it feels as though basketball games will absolutely be played to finish out the 2019-20 NBA season. Now it’s just a matter of how that will happen and what it will look like in the Orlando bubble.
Now that Caruso is starting to get some of those answers he’s been looking for, he can begin preparing for that July 31 return date. With about two months until that comes, he and the Lakers will hopefully be back in game shape.
Caruso’s sentiment is one other players who have spent two months relatively in the dark have also shared. However, the NBA definitely did not have any concrete plans until recently, so the only communication they could’ve had with players was to tell them to be patient.
Now, with real information to give, the NBA is being a lot more transparent about their plans moving forward.