The Los Angeles Lakers were coming off the high of defeating the Milwaukee Bucks and L.A. Clippers in back-to-back games at the beginning of March, but that all came crashing down when the NBA put its season on hold due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
It has now been two months since that perfect weekend for the Lakers, and it is still unknown when basketball will be able to return.
The country seems to be making progress in getting the pandemic under control, which is why NBA practice facilities throughout the country are beginning to re-open to allow players to begin ramping up for the completion of the season.
That doesn’t mean that games are around the corner though as owners, executives and players reportedly are targeting July as a possible return date.
While the hope is that will be the case, NBA commissioner Adam Silver is still planning for every scenario possible, via Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer:
There is no schedule for full teams to return to practice, never mind to play real games. Privately, however, commissioner Adam Silver and his team in the league office have been making contingency plans for every imaginable scenario for how the coronavirus pandemic might develop, according to recent conversations with sources from teams, agents, and the league.
A lot of factors still need to be sorted out, such as how many regular-season games will be played before the start of the playoffs and where games will take place.
It looks like Silver will wait as long as possible to finalize those decisions in cases changes are necessary:
Multiple sources corroborated that Silver and his team have a decision tree that will guide the NBA’s choices. The league can chop off portions of the remaining schedule depending on what happens from both a player and public health standpoint.
The most recent report indicates the NBA is considering Walt Disney World Resort in Florida as a potential location to finish out the season. The resort has the ability to house all of the players, coaches and staff members of every team, making it a viable location for this type of situation.
While all of the details still needed to be sorted out, it seems that there is a good amount of optimism throughout the league that the season will be finished, which is great news for the Lakers in their pursuit of a 17th championship.