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 late July 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 near Walt Disney World assuming there are no setbacks. That tentative agreement became finalized late last month, which cleared the way for the long-awaited restart to this season for the National Basketball Association (NBA), even though there is a slight chance it can be derailed because of the pandemic.
Last Friday, the league, and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) finalized the terms of the deal that will allow the league to restart the season at the Disney World campus, the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL on July 30.
In recent weeks, most of the players have rejoined their squads in preparation to make 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.
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 June 22 to report to their home cities. June 23 was when the players began to be tested for the Coronavirus.
From early tests of 302 NBA players on June 23, 16 players tested positive for COVID-19. Among the players to test positive include three players from the New Orleans Pelicans, though the release of those that tested positive were not revealed by Pelicans Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin under the HIPAA privacy rules. Spencer Dinwiddie and DeAndre Jordan of the Nets also tested positive for the Coronavirus, along with All-Star center Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, forward Derrick Jones, Jr. of the Miami Heat, guard Malcolm Brogdon of the Indiana Pacers, and forward Jabari Parker, and Buddy Hield of the Sacramento Kings.
In the last five days from June 24-29, the number of players tested for COVID-19 went up to 344 and nine more players tested positive for the Coronavirus, bringing the new total to 25 positive tests of the 351 players that have been tested since testing began on June 23.
Of the 884 staff members of the NBA that were tested for the Coronavirus between June 23-29, 10 total tested positive.
Griffin said in a press conference on June 30 that the three players who tested positive for the Coronavirus are in “self-isolation” currently and are getting tested on a daily basis.
“To this point, we have had positive tests,” Griffin said at that presser. “From a HIPAA standpoint, I’m not going to talk about any of those individuals. We’ve had multiple players test positive. The league has a system in place that was designed to catch these cases. That system worked, and we’re just going to deal with it the best we can moving forward. From a basketball standpoint, I think you’re going to see COVID have an enormous impact on teams, and even some of the teams that went into the bubble as a playoff seed. You’ve seen that Brooklyn has been really damaged by the COVID situation. So again, this is something where we’re all at the mercy of the same enemy.”
Any player that test positive for the Coronavirus will be self-isolated until that player satisfies the public health protocols to be let out of isolation after being cleared by a medical physician.
According to a report from ESPN, Jokic is expected back from Serbia before the Nuggets head to Orlando. He said that he is feeling “great” after testing positive for Coronavirus. But will still need to negative tests within 24 hours before being cleared to travel.
Wednesday began Phase 3, which will go from July 1-11 where the players will begin individual workouts at their team’s facility. All 22 teams needed to submit their final rosters for the restart today, Wednesday July 1.
One team that has hit a snag in this part of the restart process has been the Denver Nuggets, who have closed their practice facility after two members of their traveling party tested positive for the Coronavirus this past weekend, with a third testing positive earlier in the week, according to Arnie Stapleton of “The Associated Press.”
All three according to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski are asymptomatic.
Nuggets head coach Michael Malone recently revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies saying that he believes he had the Coronavirus four months back.
It was also reported by ESPN that the Miami Heat had to close their training facility on Friday after a second player tested positive for the Coronavirus. The Heat did not release the identity of that second player.
The teams will continue to have just individual workouts in their facilities before the start of a two-week training camp this Tuesday. It remains unclear if the Nuggets will re-open their facility before the team flies to Orlando for the restart on July 7 to resume the NBA campaign that was put on pause on Mar. 11 because of the worldwide pandemic, which to date has taken the lives of over 128,000 people here in the U.S.
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.
Phase 5 will have the teams conduct three scrimmages against teams from the 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), 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), 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), 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.
The set plan for the restart to finish the regular season will have each of the 22 teams 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 start of the 2020 NBA Playoffs beginning with the First-Round will be on Aug. 17. The Conference Semifinals will start on Aug. 31. The Conference Finals will be on Sept. 15, with the NBA Finals beginning on Sept. 30.
The 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.
The details of how the games will be broadcasted from each of the team’s local broadcast or for games to be nationally broadcasted on ESPN, ABC, NBATV and TNT.
The eight squads who saw their seasons conclude are 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. The details of how these Offseason Training Activities (OTA’s) will be conducted for those eight teams has yet to be released.
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.
Although NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum declined to give an estimate of the total amount of revenue that might be salvaged by the restart and the completion of the 2020 postseason.
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 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, being the Magic and Grizzlies when play does resume finishes four games or more ahead of the No. 9 Seed, the team at No. 8 earns the last playoff spot with no play-in tournament necessary.
If that No. 8 Seed finishes four games or less in front of the No. 9 Seed, then a battle for that last spot will be decided through a play-in tournament that will be a best-of-two series-where the No. 9 Seed will have to win two head-to-head tilts to claim that final playoff spot. The No. 8 Seed only has to win one game of the best-of-two to clinch that 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 we have a single player test positive, whether an All-Star or a journeyman, that player would go into quarantine,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said last Friday afternoon during a media conference call that also featured other NBA executives, NBPA leaders Michele Roberts, Thunder 10-time All-Star guard Chris Paul, and Andre Iguodala.
Commissioner Silver added during that conference call, “This is what we’re going to be living with for the foreseeable future. This is a closed network. While it’s not impermeable, it is protected.”
As far as putting the breaks to a playoff series if a single player test positive-whether four-time Kia MVP LeBron James or a benchwarmer-Commissioner Silver said the league would treat it as if a player gets injured.
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 halt the restart to the season in Orlando.
“We’re never going to say there’s nothing that would cause us to change our plans,” Commissioner Silver said, adding that there has no definitive number of positive that exists at the moment.
When asked about the outcome of 16 of the 302 players (5.3 percent) who took the COVID-19 test that came back positive, Roberts, the NBPA’s Executive Director said that even one positive is concerning but did say, “If nothing else, it tells me that the great majority of players have been doing what they should have been doing…One is too many, but 160 would have been devastating.”
Commissioner Silver on the other hand said that the 5.3 percent positive rate was in line with what “The Association’s” data suggested in accordance of the factors such as age and the locale of the players. It was also noted that those 16 players are seriously ill.
In partnership with Advent Health, NBA Senior Vice President David Weiss, who overseas player health programs said on that aforementioned conference call at the start of last weekend will have a health clinic within the Wide World of Sports campus and that local hospitals in the Orlando area will be at the ready if someone on campus falls seriously ill.
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.
There will no fans allowed to attend games at they Wide World of Sports Complex once the season restarts.
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.
Those guests will also need to adhere to the same precautions as the players and coaches and will be tested for the virus daily, at least at the beginning of their stay in the bubble according to Commissioner Silver.
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.
For those players that will have a legitimate reason to leave the bubble for the birth of a child like Mike Conley of the Jazz and Gordon Hayward of the Celtics, there is a process in place for them to re-enter the bubble. For Conley, his wife of six years this Sunday the former Mary Peluso is expecting their second child in late August, while Hayward's wife Robin is expected to give birth to their fourth child in September.
"It's a pretty easy decision for me on that. I've been at the birth of everyone of my children," Hayward said early on Friday to the media at the Red Auerbach Center about being at his wife's side for the birth of their fourth child. "And I think there are more important things in life. So, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I know the NBA has a protocol in place for that type of thing and hopefully I can do the quarantining and testing in the appropriate amount of time and be back with the boys [his teammates]."
That process of a player being able to return to the bubble from an excused absence according to ESPN.com's Malika Andrews is if that player leaves for less than seven days and test negative for COVID-19 every single day they are gone, they would come back to the bubble, and be able to quarantine for only four days, assuming they continue to test negative before being remerged into play with their team.
If a player does leave without an excused absence and decide to return to the bubble, they would be subjected to quarantine for 10 days.
Andrews also said that she talked to an assistant coach from one of the 22 teams to be a part of the league's restart who is also expecting a child, that coach is expected to enter the bubble late.
There is still the issue of how the league will handle individuals that come to the campus, especially with the rise in COVID-19 positive cases in both the state of Florida and nationally 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.
Commissioner 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.”
Two coaches that will not be on the sidelines for the league's restart are 66-year-old assistant coach Lionel Hollins of the Lakers who was deemed a higher risk individual due to underlying medical conditions. Also not participating in the Orlando bubble is 67-year-old assistant coach Jeff Bzdelik of the Pelicans after consulting with the team's physicians.
While this may not seem like a big deal to the average fans, Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, who won six championships with the Bulls in the 1990s said that having two of the best assistant coaches in NBA history on the sidelines alongside fellow Hall of Famer Phil Jackson in the late Tex Winter and John Bach was very "important."
"They are so important in the locker room, on the sidelines, throughout the practices,"Pippen said on the Monday's edition of ESPN's "NBA: The Jump" of having those extra points of view on the sidelines. "It's important to hear their criticism, and their point of view of the game. But they also bring a lot of positive feedback. And I think that's what's missing the most is that the younger players always want to please those older coaches and make sure that they get a good repore coming back from those coaches."
Along with working with the players, those assistant coaches as ESPN's Brian Windhorst pointed out on Monday work closely with the head coach.
He also said that one thing a lot of head coaches want on their staff is what Windhorst referred to as a "Old Head" to provide the lead man on the bench calm, to give advice on off days, practices and a lot of things inbetween.
That is why when Lakers first-year head coach Fank Vogel put his staff together when he got the job back in the offseason is that he wanted his coaching staff to be highly inexperienced, which led to him to hire Hall of Famer Jason Kidd, the aforementioned Hollins, Phil Handy, Miles Simon, who spent much of his career coaching overseas and in the NBA G League as did Mike Penberthy.
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, which consists of Brian Wright for the Spurs, Calvin Booth for the Nuggets, Elton Brand for the 76ers, James Jones for the Suns, Koby Altman for the Cavaliers, Marc Eversley for the Bulls, a more recent hire, Scott Perry for the Knicks, and Trajan Langdon for the Pelicans. Masai Ujiri serves as the President of Basketball Operations for the Raptors.
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 set the date of 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.
Those players who have opted out of the league’s restart because of injury, they have caught the virus and do not want to risk their health or the health of their family or they want to keep their focus on social justice include Irving and his Nets teammates Kevin Durant, Jordan, Wilson Chandler, Taurean Prince, which was reported on NBA on TNT Tuesday on Tuesday night, and Nic Claxton; the aforementioned Bradley, forward Trevor Ariza of the Trail Blazers; Davis Bertans of the Wizards; forward/guard Thabo Sefolosha of the Rockets; and Willie Cauley-Stein of the Mavericks.
The previously mentioned Dinwiddie, who tested positive again for COVID-19 on Tuesday after consulting with doctors of the Nets tweeted @SDwinwiddie_25 that in his best interest for him and the team that he will sit out the restart in Orlando, and that he will "support the guys every step of the way! #AudienceOFOne"
Lakers eight-time All-Star center Dwight Howard, who was undecided about rejoining the Lakers for the restart in Orlando said yes, telling CNN on Tuesday night, "I feel like we have a great opportunity, the Lakers do for winning the title this year."
Howard also said that he will donate his salary, which is around $700,00 according to ESPN's NBA Front Office Insider Bobby Marks that he earns in the bubble to his charitable foundation "Breathe Again."
The most prominent name to announcing he will not be in Orlando for the league's restart was All-Star Victor Oladipo, who broke the news to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski in the early part of Friday morning. Oladipo did say though that he would travel with the Pacers to Orlando to continue his rehab the right quadriceps muscle that he ruptured in January 2019, and while he will not play he will get paid.
Earlier in the week Oladipo said that he does not have a deadline for making his decision and his taking it
day-by-day. He also said that he fears after taking so much time off that he fears
reinjuring that right quad that he sustained in January 2019 that shelved him
the final 46 games of 2018-19 and the first 37 games of this season.
"At the end of the day, it takes time for your body to heal," Oladipo said earlier in the week. "...We've had an extensive period of time off to go back and ramp things up again, I'm susceptible to injury more so than anyone else seeing as how I was already injured beforehand, and I wasn't 100% when I came back to begin with."
"A part of rehab is working your way back and getting yourself to 100%, so at the end of the day, going back and turning things up as quickly as we're about to do, and pretty much going to playoff formation and playoff games after eight games, I'm more susceptible to injury than anyone else is. So it's not about now. It's about longevity."
Wizards All-Star guard Bradley Beal, the NBA's No. 2 scorer at 30.5 points per night, who was on the fence about being a part of the restart, chose to sit out because of an injury to the rotator cuff in his right shoulder, which according to team GM Tommy Sheppard will not require surgery. This is a big blow to the Wizards chances of in their quest for one of the two final playoff spots in the East, especially how the Nets are coming into this restart with a thin roster.
"So, I get it from every standpoint," Beal said about players who decide to play or not in the league's restart last week. "I'm literally like right in the middle. I'm not swayed one way or another. Like money wise I'm fine. I'm one of the guys who-It will effect me but I won't be too effected, you know? So, I get it from the standpoint of those who, you know, need to go down there and play to support themselves and their family. So, I'm just kind of in the middle honestly."
The reality is though, if the Wizards, who will be without again Bertans and All-Star lead guard John Wall, whose missed the entire season recovering from surgery on his right Achilles made the playoffs, their stay would have been very short because they would have more than likely faced the Bucks or the defending NBA champion Raptors in the opening-round of the 2020 Playoffs.
Lou Williams, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year for the Clippers is also on the fence of being a part of the restart because he does not want to distract from the “Black Lives Matter Movement.”
Clippers head coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers did say earlier in the week that he believes his entire team will be in Orlando for the restart.
Nets General Manager Sean Marks said his team is committed to the restart despite the withdrawals saying, “Look, we have a job to do. Again, we have to bring a team to Orlando. We will bring a team to Orlando. We will go down there and we will compete. That’s our jobs here.”
Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka in a Zoom call on Tuesday that the factors Howard is considering for returning are the ability to continue his messaging as a contribution to the fight for social justice reform and that the mother of his six-year-old son passed away tragically.
“We have been working very closely, and I’ve been in contact with Dwight often and his agent,” Pelinka said. “There was an opt out date that Dwight did not give notice that he was opting out. So, we are going to continue to work through those extenuating circumstances with Dwight.”
When 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 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 Hawks on Monday offered to transform their 700,000 square foot home arena, State Farm Arena into a voting precinct for the fall November elections that will allow for a smooth experience for voters registered in Fulton County and the city of Atlanta.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe said on Wednesday’s edition of “NBA: The Jump” that the Pistons and Bucks are also going to use their home arenas in Little Caesars Arena and Fiserv Forum respectably or their practice facilities as poling places and voter registration places.
This idea was the brainchild of Hawks Chief Executive Officer Steve Koonin, who said that came out of inspiration by the recent protests and equality rallies that have taken place in Atlanta, GA and he was especially moved by the surge of young people, who have in the past represented the lowest amount of registered voters in elections raise their voices.
“If nothing came out of this protest to create change, then we all failed,” Koonin said.
“We aim to be a community asset, and in order to fulfill that goal, we need to be more than just a basketball team.”
Turning State Farm Arena into a major voting precinct will resolve the plethora of issues caused by COVID-19 from the practice of social distancing, starting with early voting on July 20 for the runoff election on Aug. 11. State Farm Arena will also be the central headquarters for Fulton County residents to register as well as be the site where absentee ballots will be processed and votes to be tabulated safely.
“That was our No. 1 priority moving forward and we should be able to do this with ease,” Koonin also said. “In October, we will provide a spacious and safe and secure environment that will be good for social distancing. We will be able to stagger according to CDC regulations. We’ll keep people moving through quickly. All staff will be in masks and there will be hand sanitizers throughout the building. This is not a library. This is a giant building with great connectivity.”
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.
Igoudala, the NBPA’s Vice President said that the league’s restart will provide “a beacon of light” from what has happened because of the pandemic on the job market, the unrest in the streets and fans not having sports to watch on television.
“I’m excited for what we can do that is a lot bigger than the game…. It’s never a shut up and dribble situation. You’re going to continue to hear us,” Paul, the President of the NBPA added.
According to ESPN, the Thunder will start a program geared for African American students where the team and CAA Sports will seek to close the opportunity gap in Tulsa, OK, with the goal of helping them to find a career path in sports and other lucrative industries. The plan is to begin this program in the year 2021, 100 years after the Tulsa Race Massacre.
You might even see the players feelings expressed on their jerseys as the league and the NBPA is in talks to allow players when play restarts in Orlando to wear jerseys with personalized social justice messages on the backs instead of their last names according to Paul like “Black Lives Matter” or “I Can’t Breathe,” names of social justice organizations or the names of individuals whose lives were taken at the hands of law enforcement.
Paul also said to ESPN that the NBPA plans to reach out to the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin and Rayshard Brooks and others who as mentioned whose deaths at the hands of the police have sparked outrage and protests across not just the nation but the world for permission to wear their names on the back of their jerseys.
“I was just thinking about how forward-thinking our league is and how passionate the players in our league are about different issues,” Paul said. “Our guys have been marching on the front lines and using their platforms. If guys are choosing to come down to Orlando to make sacrifices and play this game, why not be able to play and still say his or her name at the same time?”
“At marches they are saying, ‘Say his name…George Floyd. Say her name…Breonna Taylor’ Obviously, we have to reach out to the families to see if that is OK.”
One thing that will be a go when the games do occur again is the playing of the national anthem, even though there will be no fans in the stands confirmed by Commissioner Silver. He also confirmed that the Canadian anthem would be played before at Raptors games.
There is a rule on the NBA’s books since the 1980s which requires all players to stand “in a dignified manner during the anthem.”
During an interview with the Time/Times 100 Talks said about allowing players to kneel during the anthem that he was not “comfortable” with the word “allow” when it comes to the players kneeling during the national anthem.
“We’ve had a rule on our books that goes back to the early [19]80s. It proceeds even [the late] David Stern’s tenure as Commissioner that calls players to stand in a line at attention during the national anthem.”
“I also understand the role of protests. And I think that we’ll deal with that situation when it presents itself.”
To put into perspective the seriousness of this rule in the NBA, former Nuggets guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, the former Chris Jackson was suspended for a game back in 1995 for not standing with his teammates during the national anthem.
In reality, the focus has been so much on the kneeling that many pro athletes and even some collegiate athletes have done during the national anthem over these past four years in protests against minorities not being treated the way that is preached by the national anthem, beginning with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. What has gotten lost is the message behind the act, which is police brutality and how our nation has more often than not been very hateful in their actions towards minorities.
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 on July 30. 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; 6/26/2020 www.nba.com story, “NBA, NBPA Sign Off On Finalized 2019-20 Comeback Plan,” by Tim Reynolds of “The Associated Press;” 6/26/2020 www.nba.com story “NBA, NBPA Announce COVID-19 Test Results;” 6/26/2020 www.nba.com story, “Silver Outlines ‘Safe And Responsible Plan’ for NBA Comeback,” by Steve Aschburner; 6/30/2020 www.nba.com story, “Pelicans’ David Griffin Says 3 Players Tested Positive For Coronavirus,” by Michael C. Wright; 7/1/2020 6:30 p.m. edition of ESPN’s “NBA: The Jump,” with Rachel Nichols, Zach Lowe, and Richard Jefferson; 7/1/2020 ESPN news crawl; 7/1/2020 www.nba.com story, “Despite Virus Cases, Nets Say No Thoughts To Skipping Season Restart,” by Brian Mahoney of “The Associated Press;” 7/1/2020 www.nba.com story, “Everything You Need To Know About The 2019-20 NBA Season Comeback;”
7/2/2020 8 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Ro Parrish and Steve Smith, with NBA on TNT’s Kenny Smith; 7/3/2020 3 p.m. edition of ESPN's "NBA: The Jump," with Rachel Nichols, Chiney Ogwumike, Paul Pierce, and Malika Andrews; 7/3/2020 www.espn.com story, “Pacers’ Victor Oladipo To Sit Out Restart of NBA Season;” 7/3/2020 www.espn.com story, “Source: Heat Close Training Facility After Second Player Tests Positive,” contribution from “The Associated Press” and Five Reasons Sports Network; 7/6/2020 3 p.m. edition of ESPN's "NBA: The Jump" with Rachel Nichols, Scottie Pippen, and Brian Windhorst; 7/7/2020 3 p.m. edition of ESPN's "NBA: The Jump," with Brian Windhorst, Amin Elhassan, and Kendrick Perkins; https://www.espn.com/nba/standings; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Hayward#Personal_Life; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Conley_Jr.#Personal_Life; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_George_Floyd.
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