NOOO GOD. NO GOD PLEASE NO. NO. NO. NOOOOO!
The NBA is "angling" to cancel the 2019-20 season after China's CBA shutdown, per @WindhorstESPN
"There is a significant amount of pessimism right now." pic.twitter.com/memSPluBxQ
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 4, 2020
For the first time in seemingly over a decade, there was significant parody between the teams and we have no clue who would’ve made the NBA Finals. Now, we may never find out.
This past week, China halted their leagues return as they prepared for a second wave of Coronavirus. The troubles stem from asymptomatic carriers of the virus and the fear is they could come into arenas and pass the virus along (again). They were having trouble creating an environment where you could play games, broadcast them, and also isolate everyone.
The NBA is paying close attention to what the CBA does, and just watched the league shut its doors for a second time. As we hit April, they playoffs would’ve have been starting two weeks from now. We’ve reached a point where early June would be an optimistic return date for basketball. For next season to start on time, it would mean cutting the rest of the regular season and skipping straight to playoffs. Once the playoffs begin, fans likely wouldn’t be able to attend in order to avoid large crowds. The NBA has discussed playing playoff games in the Thomas & Mack Center or a casino ballroom.
So, the most reasonable scenario for the NBA is starting back up two months from now at the earliest, no fans can go to the games, the court for playoffs might be in a ball room and it would need to be rushed so next season can start on time?
Yeah, okay I see now why they are angling this way.
Here’s some teams I think this affects the most:
Lakers – In the season where Kobe tragically passed away, it would’ve been cool to see his purple and gold win a ring for him. Not to mention, the clock is ticking for Lebron’s title window. This doesn’t feel like it was supposed to end this way.
Clippers- If anyone was going to ruin the Lakers storybook ending (that wasn’t Coronavirus), it was going to be Kawhi Leonard. He steals joy from opposing teams. He is the terminator, he doesn’t care about your sappy endings. Before the season was angling towards being cancelled, we were angling towards an all LA Western Conference Finals.
Bucks- Milwaukee was the most dominant team of the season before it was suspended. They need to assert their dominance in the playoffs and make the NBA Finals at the very least to keep Giannis when he becomes a free agent. Without a full body of work for the team, his free agency decision becomes murkier. If they run the table this year, win close to 70 games and then a title, Giannis goes back after 2021. Right? Guess we will never know.
Sixers- It took literally one night of Al Horford and Joel Embiid playing well together for the universe to come to a screeching halt and the season to get cancelled. Unbelievable stuff.