Will The NBA Reason Return?

The biggest question in the basketball and sports world, when will it all be back? For all of us, the NBA fans, we have been contemplating this since March 11th, the day that the NBA season was suspended. A lot has changed since that point, and so has my mindset on what will happen with the rest of the 2019-20 season, and with the 2010-21 season. Today, I will be going over my thoughts of what I think will happen, and any possible alternatives/solutions to the problem.

In my personal opinion, I do not think that the NBA season will return. Now, I love the NBA and everything about it, and as tough as it is for me to say this, I’m just being realistic. Every part of me wants it back, all of us do. But, I just don’t see it happened.

The NBA recently postponed both the NBA Draft Combine and the Draft Lottery. Both of these events were set to be in May. The NBA Draft is set for June 25th, but will likely be pushed back to a further date as well. So, some of the biggest events each year for the NBA have been postponed. This is not a good sign if people want the season back. These events will start to interfere with the 20-21 season if they continue to be pushed back, and that will be a bigger mess in itself.

There are no good alternatives for the NBA season coming back. You have the option of playing in a ‘bubble zone’ or ‘bubble city’ where teams can play. You have other ideas like playing in Disneyworld or MGM. None of these things are really going to help. None of these alternatives will really fix anything. If you play in one of these ‘bubble cities/zones’, you are still putting people at risk to this virus, when we have still not controlled it.

Nobody in the world has fully controlled this virus, and it would be pretty stupid to put more people at risk as of right now. I think that the only way that these types of alternatives would work is if the virus was put under a little bit more control. As I’m writing this, the US has 1.16 million cases, and there are almost 3.5 million cases worldwide. This thing will not be in control for a while.

And, if you wanted the NBA to come back, you would have to have lots of tests for all the people involved, players, coaches, staff, media, security, and everybody in between. With the lack of testing for normal people in the US, it’s not very smart to hoard all the tests for the NBA instead of giving it to people in need. That just would not be right. People are desperate for help, and the NBA and the sports world, in general, would be wrong in just trying to think for themselves and trying to get the season back.

So, with the coronavirus not being in check, ther being no great alternatives and not being enough testing, it would not be smart to have the NBA season go on.

But, here are some alternatives to the season.

First, you name the Bucks and the Lakers champions. These two teams deserved it the most, they were the two best teams in the league and were destined to meet in the Finals. Just call both of them Regular Season Champions.

Next, you would have to do the draft lottery virtually, and same with the draft. Unfortunately, you probably could do the draft combine because of all the players being in one space with all the media and scouts, it would not be a good idea. I know that it is unfair to some people who are desperate to get noticed to get selected, but unfortunately, that’s just the way it is.

Then, you would do the draft virtually. The WNBA and the NFL has already done this pretty smoothly, so this one should not be much of a problem. I mean, the NFL has 7 rounds. If they can do it, the NBA can sure do it, and do it well.

Then, you would have to start free agency. This would be in the summer, and I think that the NBA might give teams some more time to sort stuff out. One hopeful for this is, that some people are saying that we might have this more under control by then, and we could have some more leeway in terms of social distancing and contact. I mean, likely you would still have some restrictions, but I mean some of this might go away by then, so it might not be that bad. But, you would still have a little longer to sort out all of your free agents and off-season doings.

Training Camps and all that, we’ll have to see where we are at come late summer and fall. That is a long way from now, and I don’t want to make any assumptions, but hopefully, some of these things can resume.

Now, with the 20-21 season, lots of things can happen. If the coronavirus is not fully under control, then it would be unwise to start the season, and the NBA should prepare for the season being delayed. Or, at the very least, there being no fans for a period of time. Again, whatver happens regarding the season, we will have to wait and see what will happen with the coronavirus and the state of things. So, the season could be suspended, or it could be played without fans. We’ll just have to wait and see.

In January or February, when we were just hearing about this coronavirus thing, I was never thinking what would happen. When the NBA got suspended, and all of our normal lives seemed to be put on pause, I was just shocked, like everybody else. Words cannot describe what I was feeling when I got the news about sports, social distancing, and schools being closed. It was just all so much to take in at once.

A couple of months ago, I never thought I would be writing about this topic, Will The NBA Come Back? If somebody said that I would post something titled that in January, I would have said that they were crazy. The NBA would be the playoffs by now, and the reality we are in could not be farther from what it should be. I miss the NBA, sports and the small things like going to the gym to play basketball, or just going to school. All of us have adapting to this whole situation, and we will come out of this, we all will. We will fight this thing until it is gone.

Thank you to all the brave men and women out there who are risking their lives for us. Thank you to everybody who is social distancing, you are saving lives and stopping the spread of this virus. Thank you to everybody who has donated something for the cause. Everybody, is you just do your small part, this virus and quarantine period will be over.

“Tough times don’t last, tough people do.” — Robert Schuller