Barring a devastating reignition of the coronavirus pandemic, the good news is the NBA is going to resume the season. The bad news, however, is nobody knows what the resumption of the season is going to look like.
Fortunately, it looks like we’re not going to have to wait much longer to find out exactly how, where, and when the league will resume the season as the Board of Governors will approve plans to proceed this coming Thursday. The league surveyed teams’ general managers whether to finish the regular season with more games, conduct a play-in tournament, or go straight into the playoffs and whether to seed the playoffs or stick with conferences.
While nobody knows for sure what Adam Silver will recommend, Twitter is flooded with rumors as to what his plan will include. Using that info and common sense, here’s my take on what Silver’s plan might look like:
What do we know?
- The teams are ready to approve the plan commissioner Adam Silver recommends. The owners understand this a challenging time for the league and completely trust Silver to make right decisions.
- The season is scheduled to resume on Friday, July 31st, which gives the league time both to prepare to play as well as time to finish the playoffs and offseason in time to start next season on Christmas Day.
- Disney World in Orlando appears to be the likely venue for all games to be played to create a controlled bubble where players, coaches, key personnel, and their families can be safely isolated and protected.
What can we surmise?
- There’s a good chance there will be some form of play-in tournament, most likely involving the two teams holding the eighth playoff slot in each conference and the six teams who are within six games of them.
- There’s a good chance playoff teams will be seeded 1–16 based on record regardless of conference since five of the six team within six games of a playoff spot are in the West and only one in the East.
What remains unknown?
- Whether there will be additional regular season games to meet the 70-game minimum on team local television contracts since most teams had only played 63 to 66 games before the season was suspended.
- Whether playoff rules will be changed so teams can carry two-way players in addition to the 15 players on the roster and whether teams can designate more than the 13 players to be active for games.
Who wins and who loses?
- The winners would be the six teams — Blazers, Pelicans, Kings, Spurs, Suns, and Wizards — who get a shot at making the playoffs and the Lakers, who will be in a separate bracket from the Bucks and Clippers.
- The Losers would be the Grizzlies and Magic, who instead of making the playoffs would now have to participate in an 8-team play-in tournament and the Bucks and Clippers who will be in the same bracket.
America is at a crossroads where citizens have to decide what kind of leadership and society they want. Our only hope for grace, civility, and peace to eventually win out over anger, hatred, and despair is for these tragedies to inspire and lead to a new normal for our country and our way of life. Protesting is great but voting is where you make a difference.
Despite the hate and destruction and visions of a future where the police are more soldiers than protectors, I’ve been buoyed by scenes of protestors trying to protect businesses from being looted, shield reporters from being attacked, and stop hooligans from escalating the violence. I pray these protests will lead to positive change and not more devisiveness.
Pro basketball is a true microcosm of our society and is facing challenges with the coronavirus pandemic, the inevitable financial collapse accompanying it, and now the racial turmoil that’s been unleashed by the death of George Floyd and other minority victims. It’s great to see NBA players taking a stand unlike NFL players not supporting Kap.
It’s hard to think about basketball right now but for many of us, the game has been our escape from the harsh realities of day-to-day problems life throws at us. I hope and pray things will cool down and the league will still hold its planned Thursday vote to approve Adam Silver’s plan to resume playing. There’s time to make a point and time to step back.
It appears that Silver is going to take advantage of the opportunity before him to make major changes in the playoff scheme in hopes of making the rest of the season something that gives fans reason to be excited and optimistic about the future of the league. Everything is going change going forward with old normals leading to new normals.
The NBA, especially under Silver’s leadership, has always been a model for how players and owners can work together to make their sport better. Let’s hope society can emulate the NBA and find solutions to problems. While we all as fans have our own points of view, I think more than anything, we just want to get back to basketball again.