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With the recent news of social distancing guidelines being extended for the United States through April 30, chances are that sports aren’t going to return prior to May, most likely well into May or beyond. Your guess is just as good as anyone else’s as to when sports, both professional and collegiate, will be back.
While the future of every league around the world is represented by a giant question mark right now, Marc Stein of the New York Times shared a very interesting tweet on Sunday.
Reports have indicated recently that the English Premier League and Professional Footballer’s Association have had discussions about possibly resuming the season and playing the remaining 92 games with no fans and hosting the televised matches in just one or two cities. According to Stein, ‘similar concepts have been making NBA rounds for days.’
Today's big story in England centers on the Premier League exploring all 20 teams convening in one or two locations to play out the remaining 92 games with no fans and televise them all
Similar concepts have been making the NBA rounds for days, but we can't forget that …
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 29, 2020
While LeBron James has made it pretty clear that he doesn’t want to play in empty arenas, I think it’s safe to say that every NBA fan and player in the league would be in favor of a similar move to this. After all, basketball with no fans is still much, much better than no basketball. This would also be a strong move for the television side of the operation as well.
Stein was also quick to point out that the league could push games into later months in the year, but perhaps the biggest hurdle in any scenario is allowing players to get back into game shape which is easier said than done given the circumstance the entire world finds itself in at the moment.
Time is unlikely to be the insurmountable obstacle. The NBA can theoretically play games in July/August/September and move next season to different dates — as covered in a recent newsletter
The hurdles to resume games, from a pure health-and-safety standpoint, are considerable
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 29, 2020