Basketball fans have been eager to watch the professional league again. The National Basketball Association suspended its season on March eleventh. Since then many players have been tested, and there was an outbreak of coronavirus in the NBA. Rudy Gobert was the first player in the NBA to test positive for coronavirus, while just days earlier he was playing the league. This led to other players such as Kevin Durant also testing positive for the virus as well. Basketball is a contact sport, which means coronavirus is very easily spread since the players are guarding each other, touching the same ball, breathing all over each other, and sweating in the same room. The NBA hopes to resume the season as soon as possible so that the next season does not get pushed too far back.
On June fourth, the NBA’s Board of Governors approved to resume the season on July thirty-first. This is a tentative date so it is not 100% that the season will resume. The season would be resumed at Disney World in Orlando, Florida with twenty-two of the thirty teams participating. To ensure the safety of everyone, the NBA plans to conduct coronavirus testing on a nightly basis while at Disney World. If a player tests positive they will have to go into quarantine. The current plan allows for 1,600 people to be there at a time. As more teams are eliminated from the play-offs, the players families can join them. The players, staff, and family members will not be able to leave the “bubble” which will lower the risk of contracting the virus from an outside source.
Most teams have reopened their practice facilities in preparation for the season. The teams have not played together in a while and are hoping to be able to play the same way as before. More days will have passed since the suspension of the season until July thirty-first than normally between the championship and preseason, 142 days compared to 109. In addition, the NBA and its players have not been getting as much revenue as before. Since no games are being played, the association does not profit off of this and neither do the players. The time off and less revenue have affected the players, but hopefully we will see them back on the court soon.
Grace Gluckow
staff writer
Graphic: Logan Richman