With much of the things we take for granted brought to a standstill by the need for nations everywhere to observe the precautions necessary to prevent the spread of coronavirus, we're all trying to get creative about what can be done about sports.
According to Yahoo Sports, NBA executives are actively kicking around ideas of possibly sending the NBA players to an isolated site involving 30 teams, one arena and no fans:
Though news of the coronavirus pandemic has been discouraging, NBA executives still cling to hope of arranging a one-site, fan-less, 16-team playoff and a five-to-seven-game regular-season prelude, according to multiple NBA sources.
“They’re very determined to have a champion,” one industry source said.
The playoffs could be reduced to a slew of best-of-three series across the board. A single-elimination format has been all but ruled out — only under consideration as a last resort.
“Nothing is off the table,” another league official said.
Dan Beyer and Ephraim Salaam discuss in depth what seems to be the motivation to get the NBA back up and running so quickly. When the issue of safety is the highest concern, Beyer thinks taking the right of amount of time makes the most sense unless the NBA doesn't want lose the narrative of the success of LeBron James and the LA Lakers.