The NBA has a lot of possible scenarios to consider as of right now depending on how quickly concerns over COVID-19 go away. But it’s hard to zero in on which scenarios might be the one they decided to run with.
In an interview conducted by Ernie Johnson on Monday Night, Adam Silver and Johnson discussed whether the NBA has a clearer picture for when it might return to play.
“The short answer is no,” Silver said. “Interestingly enough, I think if you and I on March 12 had been asked that same question, both of us would have said it’s hard to imagine that three-plus weeks later we wouldn’t have a better understanding of where we are.
“... Essentially, what I have told my folks over the last week is that we should just accept that at least for the month of April, we won’t be in a position to make any decisions. And I don’t think that necessarily means that on May 1 we will be.”
That isn’t ideal, as Silver said that in some ways he thinks he actually has less sure of an idea now of how the coming weeks will play out than he did in March. Silver said the notion that the break might just be 30 days long came because there wasn’t the expectation that much of the country would be shut down. He also made the point that the pandemic has led the NBA to think about possible changes to certain procedures for the future, "independent of this virus," including changes to player access or how food is served at games.
In addition, Silver confirmed the league has spoken to various cities about potentially hosting some sort of tournament or the remainder of the schedule there.
“It honestly is just too early given what’s happening right now to be even able to project or predict where we’ll be in a few weeks,” Silver said. “In a perfect world, yes, we would try to finish the regular season in some form and then move onto the playoffs. … Would we go to a single site? There has been a lot of conjecture about various cities and places that might hold a tournament. Again, we’re in listening mode right now.”