This past Thursday marked the 100-day mark since the National Basketball Association (NBA) went on hiatus on Mar. 11 in the wake of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic. On June 5, the NBA’s Board of Governors overwhelmingly approved, by a 29-1 count a proposal to restart the 2019-20 campaign on the tentative date of July 31 with the eight teams in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference as well as the six teams on the outside of their respective playoff line at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL, assuming there are no setbacks. As the players set to rejoin their squads and prepare for the trek to the home of Mickey Mouse, here are the set plans, the remaining unresolved details, and challenges to be sorted out for the league’s restart.
With 43 days until the NBA campaign resumes in Orlando, FL, all 22 teams must first reconvene in their respective home markets, which means players who left for their hometowns-or in some instances their home countries while “The Association” hammered out its plan to return to play.
Under current federal regulations of the U.S., those players returning from overseas likely had to self-quarantine for at least two weeks upon their return to the U.S. Players in Phase 1 of a 6-phase plan, according to ESPN had from June 15 until Monday, June 22 to report to their home cities. Starting on June 23, players will begin to be tested for the Coronavirus, more on that later. Phase 3, which goes from July 1-11, the players will begin individual workouts at their team’s facility.
The teams will continue to have just individual workouts in their facilities. There will be a training camp in two weeks from this Tuesday. Then all 22 teams in Phase 4 will fly to Orlando from July 7-21, where they will be quarantined for 14 days, which is the current law in Florida for people traveling in from other states like New York and practice. The teams in Phase 5 will have three scrimmages against teams from same hotel from July 22-29. Phase 6 covers time where the teams will play for playoff seeding and then the postseason, more on that later also.
The selection for which teams would stay at a specific hotel was based on where they are seeded currently.
The Top 4 Seeds in the East in the Milwaukee Bucks (53-12), Toronto Raptors (46-18), Boston Celtics (43-21), and Miami Heat (41-24) in the Eastern Conference and the Los Angeles Lakers (49-14), Los Angeles Clippers (44-20), Denver Nuggets (43-22), and Utah Jazz (41-23) from the Western Conference will stay at the Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs.
Seeds currently 5-8 in the East-Indiana Pacers (39-26), Philadelphia 76ers (39-26), Brooklyn Nets (30-34) and Orlando Magic (30-35), and the Oklahoma City Thunder (40-24), Houston Rockets (40-24), Dallas Mavericks (40-27), and Memphis Grizzlies (32-33) from the West will be quartered at the Grand Floridian.
The six teams on the outside of the playoff picture in the Washington Wizards (24-40, No. 9 in East) from the East and the Portland Trail Blazers (29-37, No. 9 in West), New Orleans Pelicans (28-36, No. 10 in West), Sacramento Kings (28-36, No. 11 in West) San Antonio Spurs (27-36, No. 12 in West) and the Phoenix Suns (26-39, No. 13 in East) will be at the Yacht Club.
While there are plans for the teams to play some exhibition games, which might end up being just scrimmages to get the ball rolling on the season’s restart, there is no set plan on how things will be restarted.
What has been agreed upon is that each of the 22 teams will play an eight-game regular season format, with each team expected to play one back-to-back. The games will be counted towards the respective team’s record heading into the restart.
The regular season will extend for 16 days with five to six games to be played per day. The league has called these games “seeding games,” and there is the unlikely hood of postseason games being played on a weekday afternoon in the opening round.
Sources tell ESPN that the NBA will use three different gyms, The Arena, HP Field House, and Visa Athletic Center at the Wide World of Sports Complex to host games once the season restarts.
It will be reduced from three to two sites and then one as the restart of the season progresses, with there being four hours between games on each individual court to accommodate games that go into overtime, cleaning of the courts and warm-ups.
The NBA Finals format of 2-2-1-1-1 expected to have games being played every other day. If The 2020 NBA Finals went a full seven games, that deciding contest to determine the 2020 NBA champion would be played no later than Monday, Oct. 12.
Some teams will play games that were originally scheduled with a few modifications as eight squads in the Charlotte Hornets (23-42), Chicago Bulls (22-43), New York Knicks (21-45), Detroit Pistons (20-46), Atlanta Hawks (20-47), and Cleveland Cavaliers (19-46) from the East, and the Minnesota Timberwolves (19-45) and the five-time defending Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors (15-50).
Those squads are expected to have a sort of minicamp later on this year to avoid having a 10-month layoff between their last game played before the pandemic. What those Offseason Training Activities (OTA’s) still has to be worked out.
One team hoping for a two-three week period of OTA’s before the start of the 2020-21 season are the Pistons, who named their new General Manager in Troy Weaver, who comes over from the Thunder’s front office, where he served as Vice President of Basketball Operations. He becomes the fourth executive under their lead executive with the Thunder Sam Presti to be hired by an NBA team for their GM slot. Weaver also became the ninth African American GM in the NBA.
“We would have loved to have gone but we knew we were in a rebuild situation. We didn’t deserve to go as far as our record was concern,” Pistons head coach Dwane Casey, whose gone 61-87 in his one-plus seasons on the Pistons sidelines said to NBATV’s Matt Winer late last week.
“For us it would have been good for us to continue to improve. To work with our young players…It would have been good from that standpoint more so than anything else. Just the player, continued player development piece that we were going through right now with our rebuild.”
“Hopefully, will get a round robin type thing with the eight teams that weren’t invited to Orlando to be able to have some competition because it’s a long time between Mar. 11 and the first of December as far as having no competition for a lot of young players.”
There was speculation of restarting the season with only the 16 teams in playoff position already, which would have been the safest and quickest way to the NBA to return to action and declare a 2020 champion.
The decision to include the 16 teams that are in position to make the playoffs plus the six squads within at least six games of each No. 8 and final playoff spots in the Eastern and Western Conference will allow teams to gear up for the playoffs by playing said eight regular season games.
The NBA used the historical context of teams making a late season run at the postseason as their lead for how many teams to bring to Orlando.
The main reason for increasing the number from 16 to 22 squads coming to Orlando was money.
If the NBA made the decision to cancel the season in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the players would have faced a loss of $645 million in salary for those 259 regular season games not played.
Bringing those 88 games back will reduce those lost wages from said $645 million to $300 million, which is a big deal.
At the moment, the players paychecks are being withheld by 25 percent, and if the remaining regular season games did not happen, the players would have scene that reduction in their respective salaries go from 25 percent to 40 percent, according to ESPN’s NBA Front Office analyst Bobby Marks.
This point was brought into clear context on last Tuesday’s edition of ESPN’s “NBA: The Jump” where a graphic of the designated percentage of basketball related income that was instituted in 2001-02 put into context the BRI split from the last three CBA negotiations that the players got 55 percent of the split from 2001-04; 57 percent of the split from 2004-11 and it is down to 50 percent from 2011 to now. It could end up between 49-51 percent once this season concludes.
By those games being added back, the players will not see a major reduction in their salaries and it will allow teams to retain some of their local television revenue, which was in serious jeopardy of going down the drain.
It also means that the owners according to what former Assistant Director of Basketball Operations for the Suns and now an ESPN NBA analyst since 2012 Amin Elhassan said on last Tuesday’s edition of “NBA: The Jump” that if all the players come to Orlando to finish out this season they take it in good faith and will not invoke force majeure, where they tear up the current CBA and they have to construct a new one from scratch.
The addition benefit of the Wizards, Trail Blazers, Pelicans, Kings, Spurs, and Suns coming to Orlando is they will have the chance to play their way into the 2020 postseason over a two-week period.
If team in the No. 8 spot in both the East and West finishes four games or more up on the No. 9 Seed, the team at No. 8 earns the last playoff spot. If that No. 8 Seed finishes four games or less in front of the No. 9 Seed, there will be a play-in tournament to decide who gets that No. 8 and final playoff spot.
If there is no need for a play-in tournament, the start date for the 2020 NBA Playoffs could possibly be moved up by several days.
According to ESPN.com’s Senior NBA writer Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA is expected to take an aggressive approach to move up the start dates of each playoff series once the previous round series concludes.
Once the players get to Orlando and be in the bubble of the Wide World of Sports Complex, the NBA plans to daily test the players, coaches, and support staff of each team for Coronavirus according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and NBATV. It remains unclear if the league will have those in the bubble do a nose swab test or an antibody test.
There will also be layers of protection in place in the bubble such as social distancing, temperature checks, use of mask when appropriate and sanitizing.
If a player or anyone test positive for COVID-19, they will begin treatment and recovery for at least 14 days as they will be moved into “isolation housing.”
Player will not be allowed to enter each other’s hotel rooms, which will be cleaned once a week
The NBA does not expect to halt play due to a player, coach or member of a team’s support staff testing positive. Instead they will be isolated and monitor their surrounding colleagues.
If a team test positive for COVID-19, several players or staff members test positive would be the one thing that could bring the restart to the season to a halt. Small or otherwise expected number of cases will not put the breaks on the restart to the season in Orlando.
Any player or support staff that leaves campus without approval will face being quarantined for at least 10 days and enhanced testing. If anyone fails to comply with any of the protocols, they will be first subjected to a warning, fine, suspension and/or removal from campus. The league also said it would create an anonymous hotline to report potential violations within the bubble.
Everyone on campus except players will wear proximity alarms.
As far as who will be allowed in the bubble in Orlando, each of the 22 teams will begin with 37 people from each team, with a report saying that 28 people from each of the 22 teams will be the minimum that the coaches and league executives settled on.
With the potential for teams to be on campus for up to three months and practicing for extended periods of time, the need for extra personnel will presumable big a huge help as teams go through a training camp and practices, which the GMs of nearly every team were in unanimous favor of.
There will be a limit on the amount of players from other teams, media, team executives, league/union personnel and some sponsors can attend games.
With there being a set of guidelines in place, that is over 100 pages long and especially because the state of Florida has had a serious uptick in cases of people getting the Coronavirus, the NBA has a plan in place to resume their season where the players and support staff can be as safe as possible.
Even with all those protocols in place, five-time All-Star lead guard for the Trail Blazers Damian Lillard said to Mike Greenberg on Monday’s special edition of ESPN’s “Sportscenter: The Return to Sports” that he does not feel “100 percent” comfortable being in the bubble in Orlando, but it is a “risk” he is willing to take.
He added basketball is something that he and his NBA brethren “do” and how they take care of their families and how they provide to improve their communities that they play in or where they are from.
“So, to play the game that I love, to resume the season, you know is I guess a risk that I’m willing to take,” he said.
As far as players having their families possibly come to campus and stay, with that number being likely three members would be allowed to join players in Orlando after the First-Round of the postseason. Then teams will be allowed to reserve hotel rooms for limited player guests.
When it comes to who can come in and out of the bubble, Commissioner Silver, who does not want the campus at the Wide World of Sports to be referred to as a bubble because he said that some of the employs of Disney will be going in and out of the campus but will not be in the same room as the players.
There is still the issue of how the league will handle individuals that come to the campus who are at high-risk for getting COVID-19, like the several head coaches, assistant coaches and support staff who are over the age of 60—including Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich (71), the oldest head coach in the NBA, Mike D’Antoni (69) of the Rockets, Alvin Gentry (65) of the Pelicans, Terry Stotts (62) of the Trail Blazers, and Rick Carlisle (60) of the Mavericks.
The expectation is that all five leading men on the sidelines for their respective NBA squads are expected to be in Orlando for the restart of the season, but it will only increase the concern of the possibility for the Coronavirus infiltrating the bubble.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stated on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” back on June 4 that it was possible “certain coaches” could possibly not be on the sideline at the restart “in order to protect them.”
“I think one of the things we know, we’ve learned a lot about the virus since we shut down in March, and the data is demonstrating that for the most part, and there are exceptions, that [it is] healthy young people that are the least vulnerable,” Silver said to Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal two weeks and four days ago. “But there are also people involved in the league, particularly some of the coaches, who are obviously older people and we also know people at any age who have underlying conditions are most vulnerable.”
“So, we are going to have to work through protocols that maybe, for example, certain coaches may not be able to be the bench coach. They may have to retain social distancing protocols. And maybe they can be in the front of the room, a locker room, or a ballroom with a whiteboard, but when it comes to actual play, we’re not going to want them that close to players in order to protect them. So those are all issues that we are continuing to work through.
In response, Coach Gentry told Shelburne that of Commissioner Silver’s answer that it “doesn’t make sense.”
“Unless we’re going to line all the coaches up and give them physicals to determine all the underlying conditions, how are we going to determine who is at high risk?” Gentry asked. “At the end of the day, they’re the league. They’re going to make the choice.”
Coach Carlisle, the President of the NBA Coaches Association said that he spoke to Commissioner Silver, who did admit jumping to an unproven conclusion with his comments on “Inside the NBA.”
“The health and safety of our coaches is first-and-foremost. It’s entirely possible that an NBA coach in his 60s or 70s could be healthier than someone in their 30s and 40s,” the head coach of the Mavericks said. “The conversation should never be solely about a person’s age. Adam assured me that we would work through this together to help determine what is both safe and fair for all of our coaches.”
During games when the league does restart in late July, referees and front row coaches do not have to wear masks, but coaches that sit in the backrow on the bench will be required to wear a mask.
Players from opposing squads can watch each other’s games at the aforementioned arenas on campus.
The amenities each team will have include players-only lounges with televisions and video games, pool, barbers, manicurists, and pedicurists. They players will be encouraged to enjoy social activities outdoors.
For those that play card games, the deck will be disposed of after each session, and there will be a sufficient number of card decks available.
The other issue that the NBA has to tackle before the restart is what will happen to players if they decide they do not want to come to Orlando for the restart because of their concerns with the COVID-19 Pandemic and the fact that they want to focus all their energies to tackling the social unrest in our country following the recent deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks at the hands of law enforcement in their respective states or unapologetic racists.
In a report from Wojnarowski and Malika Andrews of ESPN report that All-Star guard and Vice President of the NBPA Kyrie Irving of the Nets and Lakers guard Avery Bradley have been leading a “Players Coalition” that has been put together to take the lead in voicing a growing number of players uncertainty about joining the NBA’s restart in Orlando.
In early June, Irving said of the league’s decision to restart the season, “I don’t support going into Orlando. I’m not with systemic racism and [expletive]. Something smells a little fishy.”
Among the things that this coalition wants to hear what the “The Association” and its sponsors, and team owners will do to address issues affecting the African American community.
Bradley strongly is calling for the owners of the 30 NBA squads to do more saying that all the “weight” should not be placed on your players to take care of the issues, and that “remaining silent and in the background” will no longer fly.
What this coalition really wants is an increase in team executives (GMs) amongst the ranks of team decision makers. Currently African Americans make up 27 percent (eight) of the head coaches and just 27 percent (eight) of GMs in the NBA.
To bring this into context, Masai Ujiri is the only African American in the league that is the president of Basketball Operations with the defending NBA champion Raptors.
In a statement last Monday to ESPN from that coalition, it wrote in part, “WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH! We are combating the issues that matter most: We will not accept the racial injustices that continue to be ignored in our communities. We will not be kept in the dark when it comes to our health and well-being.”
It is unlikely though the NBA will force a player that is unwilling to participate in the restart. So, it is reported that the league has set the date of this Wednesday, June 24 as the deadline for players to let their respective team of their decision to or not participate in the restart, with the date of this Thursday, June 25 for “protected” or “excused” players. Players who chose not to go to Orlando, according to ESPN will be docked pay
When Commissioner Silver appeared on “Inside the NBA” as mentioned in early June, it was on the heels of the death of the aforementioned Mr. Floyd by a Minneapolis, MN Policeman, who put his knee on the 46-year-old’s neck on May 25 for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.
The death of Mr. Floyd as well as the most recent death of Mr. Brooks has sparked a world-wide level of people taking to the streets to protest for police reform and social equality for over three weeks now. Many former and current NBA players have joined in those protests like Stephen Jackson, Timberwolves All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns and his teammate Josh Okogie in Minneapolis MN, and Celtics swingman Jaylen Brown and Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon in their hometown of Atlanta, GA.
Other players who have been out with the protestors have included Harrison Barnes of the Sacramento Kings; All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks; two-time Kia MVP and perennial All-Star Stephen Curry of the Warriors; fellow perennial All-Stars and California natives in Russell Westbrook of the Rockets and DeMar DeRozan of the Spurs, and Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard.
According to a tweet from ESPN.com’s Malika Andrews @malika_andrews at the start of this weekend that Commissioner Silver in speaking at Creative Arts Agency Amplify Town Hall said “The Association” and the NBPA have had discussions about having civil rights activists and speakers talk to the players virtually in Orlando to keep the engagement on social injustice, while also exploring other avenues to “directly engage in policy.”
After conversing with Shams Charania of “The Athletic” and “Stadium,” Lakers All-Star center Dwight Howard in a statement said “In a time like this where we are fighting for equal rights, it would be contradictory if we told our own players to not play and as we say…As radical as Kyrie may sound, he is 100 percent correct. We are no longer slaves, so every man has a right to transparency in order to make sound decisions…If anyone of us chooses to sit, it has nothing to do with another player’s right to play. Not once has any of us told one of our fellow brethren not to go to the Orlando Bubble Experiment and we stressed that in our meetings.”
The big thing that needs to be considered by the players though and the coalition set up by Irving and Bradley that if there is a sense of mutiny by the players from the owners perspective, they will be out for blood and go after what was lost during this essential strike, especially if there are no fans in the stands next season, which makes up for a huge part of the NBA’s BRI.
What also needs to happen is the star players of the NBA in order to create real change where more minorities are head coaches and lead executives in the league need to be more connected with the owners of their respective teams.
To put this point into perspective, the Top 15 of the 30 NBA owners in Steve Ballmer of the Clippers ($51.4 billion), Joseph Tsai of the Nets ($9.7 billion), Micky Arison of the Heat ($7.8 billion), Ann Walton Kroenke ($7.8 billion), Robert Pera of the Grizzlies ($7.1 billion), Dan Gilbert of the Cavaliers ($6.5 billion), Tom Gores of the Pistons ($5.6 billion), Joshua Harris of the 76ers ($4.3 billion), Mark Cuban of the Mavericks ($4.1 billion), Tilman Fertitta of the Rockets ($3.8 billion), Gayle Benson of the Pelicans ($3.1 billion), Glen Taylor of the Timberwolves ($3 billion), Michael Rubin of the 76ers ($2.9 billion), Antony Ressler of the Hawks ($2.7 billion), and Michael Jordan of the Hornets ($1.9 billion) have a combined worth of $121,700,000,000.000 in personal wealth as of November 2019.
This kind of money can buy a lot of influence. It can decide what school districts get funded. What communities get the kind of business that can have a positive impact in a certain community and what communities are negatively impacted. It also impacts which candidates are supported financially for races at the federal, state, and local levels, which can make a huge difference when we have huge happenings like the aforementioned pandemic we are in currently.
The NBPA has stated last week that they are committed to “deepen” its commitment to civil rights organizations and institutions whose focus is on ending police brutality and addressing voter suppression and giving support to the economic development happening in communities that are marginalized.
The Players’ Association also said it will do its part to increase voter participation and be the driver for civic engagement through new and existing partnerships.
Through its foundation, the NBPA added that it will continue matching its players philanthropic endeavors and work to develop a leadership education series as a way to use its platform to advance the cause for social justice.
The fact that the NBA got to a point where it is in position to restart its season has become more than just getting players back on to the court. It is about giving people not just something to take their minds off all the stuff going on in the world right now from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic but the racial injustice and social inequality that minority communities have been facing for far too long.
It is important that we get sports back into our lives and the NBA has worked tirelessly since it went on hiatus on Mar. 11 to position itself for a restart.
Barring a serious turn in events in Orlando, the 2019-20 NBA campaign to crown a champion will get underway in late July. More than that though, this is hopefully a major step in some necessary healing, strategizing, organizing, and mobilizing for a moment that will change our nation for the better from now to November and beyond.
Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 6/4/2020 www.espn.com story, “Adam Silver Pondering If Older Coaches Should Be On Bench When NBA Returns,” by Tim Bontemps; 6/5/2020 www.espn.com story “What We Know and Don’t Know About The NBA’s Return To Play,” by Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst; 6/16/2020 www.essentialllysports.com, story “We Will Not Just Shut Up and Play: Kyrie Irving and Coalition Issue Statement Regarding NBA Resumption,” by Aaron Mathew; 6/16/2020 3 p.m. edition of ESPN’s “NBA: The Jump,” with Rachel Nichols, Amin Elhassan, and Paul Pierce; 6/17/2020 3 p.m. edition of ESPN’s “NBA: The Jump,” with Rachel Nichols, Paul Pierce, and Kendrick Perkins; 6/17/2020 8 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Stephanie Ready and Dennis Scott; 6/18/2020 3 p.m. edition of ESPN’s “NBA: The Jump,” with Rachel Nichols, Amin Elhassan, and Kendrick Perkins; 6/18/2020 8 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Ro Parrish and Sekou Smith, with report from Matt Winer; https://www.espn.com/nba/standings; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_George_Floyd.
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