-
Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
- Thread starter Bucklion
- Start date
-
- Tags
- no defense
ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Rudy Gobert reportedly tests positive for coronavirus; Thunder and Jazz players quarantined
The NBA has temporarily suspended the season following Wednesday's Jazz-Thunder postponement
Just prior to tip-off, a Thunder medical staffer "sprinted" onto the floor to meet with officials, according to a report from Royce Young of ESPN, who was at the arena. After a brief consultation, head coaches Quin Snyder and Billy Donovan were brought over and both teams then made their way back to their locker rooms.
As the teams walked off the court, the referees then got on the headset with the league, and after a brief discussion, they too left. That then led to an eery delay that included the Thunder mascot shooting halfcourt shots, children performing a dance routine and Frankie J giving a mini concert that was initially scheduled for halftime.
After about 30 minutes, the Thunder PA announcer told fans that the game was off. "Due to unforeseen circumstances the game tonight has been postponed," the PA announcer said. "You are all safe."
Entire article: https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...navirus-thunder-and-jazz-players-quarantined/
Upvote
0
Jake
Once a Buckeye, always a Buckeye
‘17 The Deuce Champ
Fantasy Baseball Champ
'18 The Deuce Champ
If the NBA comes back a month or so from now they could just say the regular season is over, the standings are the final standings, and have their playoffs.
But everything is up in the air at the moment.
But everything is up in the air at the moment.
Upvote
0
ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
The NBA Made the Only Choice it Possibly Could
Unprecedented.
Awful.
And necessary.
The NBA suspended its season indefinitely on Wednesday after a Utah Jazz player—All-Star center Rudy Gobert, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to SI.com—tested positive for COVID-19. The coronavirus has spread across more than 100 countries, causing a global pandemic. In a statement, the NBA said it “will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward.”
The decision shocked millions.
It shouldn’t have.
The NBA did the only responsible thing. The coronavirus is spreading everywhere. New U.S. cases pop up by the hour. President Donald Trump suspended all travel from Europe on Wednesday. Worldwide cases are numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Deaths are climbing. It isn’t contained. There is no known cure.
And now an NBA player has it. This was always the league’s nightmare scenario. On a conference call with team owners on Wednesday, there was a frank discussion about ways to save the season, a source familiar with the call told SI.com. Owners weren’t wild about the idea of playing in front of empty arenas, but it beat the alternative of suspending play and losing hundreds of millions in television revenue.
This, though, was the game changer. A player tests positive, he’s quarantined. His teammates are quarantined. His recent opponents will have to get tested, and perhaps quarantined. Even if the opponents play, wiping an entire team off the schedule simply isn’t workable. This was always the event that triggered the nuclear option.
“I think it’s a smart move for the NBA to do this,” said Nuggets forward Paul Millsap.
Added Mavericks guard J.J. Barea, “I think it’s a great decision by the NBA. They know what they’re doing. I think it’s better to be careful. Do it now rather than do it later.”
The arguments for playing, when there were arguments for playing, were that these were the finest athletes in the world. So a couple may pop for coronavirus—so what? To an elite athlete, coronavirus amounts to little more than the sniffles. Heck, Gobert felt well enough to play when he learned his diagnosis.
But that misses the point. An NBA player may be fine. But what about the friends of the NBA player? What about the family of the player? What about the friends and family of those friends and family? This is how a virus spreads, and at this point no one has any idea to stop this one.
“This is people’s lives at stake,” said Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. “This isn’t about basketball, this isn’t about the Mavericks, this isn’t about when do we start or will we start—this is a global pandemic. People’s lives are at stake. I’m a lot more worried about my kids or my Mom … than I am about when we play our next game.”
Still: How long will the NBA stay shuttered? The short answer: No one knows. “There is currently no timetable,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. In an ideal world, within a few weeks the spread of the virus slows and teams can return safely, perhaps in empty arenas. The season could be resumed, the playoffs finished and months later, hopefully, everything returns to normal.
But league officials understand this could get worse before it gets better. The rate the virus is spreading isn’t slowing. Health officials are cracking down on large gatherings. Before the NBA suspended play, the Warriors were preparing to hold a game in an empty arena. Ohio was urging teams to play in empty arenas. D.C., too. State of emergencies were being declared everywhere.
While acknowledging the fluidity of the situation, several team and league officials expressed skepticism that the season could be salvaged.
Can the NBA still pursue a plan to play in empty arenas? Maybe, but that still doesn’t mitigate the risk for players, who could easily spread the virus throughout the league. ESPN reported that the last five teams who played the Jazz are being asked to self-quarantine, and officials for several other teams told SI.com it’s likely all their players will be tested in the coming days.
The coronavirus needs to be contained nationally before the NBA can consider a return.
A lost season would be crippling, but there may not be an alternative.
The NBA made a hard choice on Wednesday. But it was the only one.
Entire article: https://www.si.com/nba/2020/03/12/nba-season-suspended-only-possible-choice
The NBA Does Not Need to Return Any Time Soon, If At All This Season
Let me start by saying I am obviously in no way an expert on pandemics. I’m one of many idiots who watches hours of basketball, sends some attention-desperate tweets and occasionally writes stories about the NBA. But I am confident in saying this: There is absolutely no need for the NBA to return any time soon in the wake of Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19 and the subsequent season suspension. And if the season is ultimately canceled, it does not matter in the slightest.
The NBA is, frankly, not very important during a pandemic. I don’t wish to minimize the impact suspending the season will have on numerous people, particularly the low-wage workers at arenas or people in NBA cities who rely on game nights for their income. I also think the league—itself a multibillion-dollar enterprise—and team owners, a group of billionaires, can find a way to ensure those who will be most financially impacted by the suspension will still be compensated if anyone truly cares about their well-being. (Mark Cuban has already said he will put together a program for such people in Dallas—that’s absolutely the right thing to do.)
But as for the actual games? Who cares right now? We live in unprecedented times. It’s unclear how many Americans are even suffering from the coronavirus, and until testing for the disease is dramatically improved, it doesn’t matter if there are travel bans or if people want to “brave” going to public places. Our country will not have a handle on this disease or its potential impact. This is a healthcare crisis on an unknowable scale, and if that means the 2020 season ends on March 11 and never resumes, then so be it.
Gobert’s diagnosis opens up a litany of complications. How many media members has he interacted with since contracting COVID-19? What about his teammates? Fellow NBA players? Trainers? Arena staff? Fans? How many friends, family members, and strangers did those potentially exposed by Gobert then interact with? There’s no more overreacting. Gobert alone could have exponentially spread the virus because of how many thousands of people are in the NBA orbit at a single game. This is merely an example of how just one person can spread a virus to countless others.
The NBA is assuredly going to meet very soon to discuss how to handle this hiatus. There‘s a simple answer: Wait. What’s there to discuss? The season should not resume until there’s a much better understanding of the coronavirus and how many people are actually affected. Concerns about logistics—will arenas be available for playoff games in August?—can be erased if the league simply admits to itself that resuming the season should be of low priority.
I know sports are typically an escape from what's going on in the world. But if the NBA comes back, it will be for money. That’s all the league has to lose in the wake of an outright cancellation. Because the games, the statistics, the trophies, the narratives, and all the things that come with the NBA mean very little compared to compounding the effect of a pandemic that is already being poorly handled in our country.
The bottom line is this: The NBA season does not need to resume until it is clear America has a handle on COVID-19. Until the CDC, HHS, WHO, federal government, and whoever else is in charge can say with confidence that mass gatherings won’t put thousands at risk, there’s no need to play an NBA game.
With a player infected, the league should not even risk playing games in front of fans. Crowning an MVP or making already relatively wealthy people even more money should aggressively pale in comparison to making sure there is a societal control of this issue.
Eventually, there will be an NBA game again. I like to think the media will even be allowed back in locker rooms. But there’s absolutely no need to rush back to a sense of normalcy just so there’s some kind of conclusion to this season.
The NBA did the right thing in suspending play. Frankly, it probably should have taken more aggressive measures before March 11. For now, the best path forward for the league is to wait and get educated. If that means the NBA season ends prematurely, that should be the least of anyone’s concerns.
Entire article: https://www.si.com/nba/2020/03/12/nba-suspended-coronavirus-no-need-to-return
Unprecedented.
Awful.
And necessary.
The NBA suspended its season indefinitely on Wednesday after a Utah Jazz player—All-Star center Rudy Gobert, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to SI.com—tested positive for COVID-19. The coronavirus has spread across more than 100 countries, causing a global pandemic. In a statement, the NBA said it “will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward.”
The decision shocked millions.
It shouldn’t have.
The NBA did the only responsible thing. The coronavirus is spreading everywhere. New U.S. cases pop up by the hour. President Donald Trump suspended all travel from Europe on Wednesday. Worldwide cases are numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Deaths are climbing. It isn’t contained. There is no known cure.
And now an NBA player has it. This was always the league’s nightmare scenario. On a conference call with team owners on Wednesday, there was a frank discussion about ways to save the season, a source familiar with the call told SI.com. Owners weren’t wild about the idea of playing in front of empty arenas, but it beat the alternative of suspending play and losing hundreds of millions in television revenue.
This, though, was the game changer. A player tests positive, he’s quarantined. His teammates are quarantined. His recent opponents will have to get tested, and perhaps quarantined. Even if the opponents play, wiping an entire team off the schedule simply isn’t workable. This was always the event that triggered the nuclear option.
“I think it’s a smart move for the NBA to do this,” said Nuggets forward Paul Millsap.
Added Mavericks guard J.J. Barea, “I think it’s a great decision by the NBA. They know what they’re doing. I think it’s better to be careful. Do it now rather than do it later.”
The arguments for playing, when there were arguments for playing, were that these were the finest athletes in the world. So a couple may pop for coronavirus—so what? To an elite athlete, coronavirus amounts to little more than the sniffles. Heck, Gobert felt well enough to play when he learned his diagnosis.
But that misses the point. An NBA player may be fine. But what about the friends of the NBA player? What about the family of the player? What about the friends and family of those friends and family? This is how a virus spreads, and at this point no one has any idea to stop this one.
“This is people’s lives at stake,” said Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. “This isn’t about basketball, this isn’t about the Mavericks, this isn’t about when do we start or will we start—this is a global pandemic. People’s lives are at stake. I’m a lot more worried about my kids or my Mom … than I am about when we play our next game.”
Still: How long will the NBA stay shuttered? The short answer: No one knows. “There is currently no timetable,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. In an ideal world, within a few weeks the spread of the virus slows and teams can return safely, perhaps in empty arenas. The season could be resumed, the playoffs finished and months later, hopefully, everything returns to normal.
But league officials understand this could get worse before it gets better. The rate the virus is spreading isn’t slowing. Health officials are cracking down on large gatherings. Before the NBA suspended play, the Warriors were preparing to hold a game in an empty arena. Ohio was urging teams to play in empty arenas. D.C., too. State of emergencies were being declared everywhere.
While acknowledging the fluidity of the situation, several team and league officials expressed skepticism that the season could be salvaged.
Can the NBA still pursue a plan to play in empty arenas? Maybe, but that still doesn’t mitigate the risk for players, who could easily spread the virus throughout the league. ESPN reported that the last five teams who played the Jazz are being asked to self-quarantine, and officials for several other teams told SI.com it’s likely all their players will be tested in the coming days.
The coronavirus needs to be contained nationally before the NBA can consider a return.
A lost season would be crippling, but there may not be an alternative.
The NBA made a hard choice on Wednesday. But it was the only one.
Entire article: https://www.si.com/nba/2020/03/12/nba-season-suspended-only-possible-choice
The NBA Does Not Need to Return Any Time Soon, If At All This Season
Let me start by saying I am obviously in no way an expert on pandemics. I’m one of many idiots who watches hours of basketball, sends some attention-desperate tweets and occasionally writes stories about the NBA. But I am confident in saying this: There is absolutely no need for the NBA to return any time soon in the wake of Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19 and the subsequent season suspension. And if the season is ultimately canceled, it does not matter in the slightest.
The NBA is, frankly, not very important during a pandemic. I don’t wish to minimize the impact suspending the season will have on numerous people, particularly the low-wage workers at arenas or people in NBA cities who rely on game nights for their income. I also think the league—itself a multibillion-dollar enterprise—and team owners, a group of billionaires, can find a way to ensure those who will be most financially impacted by the suspension will still be compensated if anyone truly cares about their well-being. (Mark Cuban has already said he will put together a program for such people in Dallas—that’s absolutely the right thing to do.)
But as for the actual games? Who cares right now? We live in unprecedented times. It’s unclear how many Americans are even suffering from the coronavirus, and until testing for the disease is dramatically improved, it doesn’t matter if there are travel bans or if people want to “brave” going to public places. Our country will not have a handle on this disease or its potential impact. This is a healthcare crisis on an unknowable scale, and if that means the 2020 season ends on March 11 and never resumes, then so be it.
Gobert’s diagnosis opens up a litany of complications. How many media members has he interacted with since contracting COVID-19? What about his teammates? Fellow NBA players? Trainers? Arena staff? Fans? How many friends, family members, and strangers did those potentially exposed by Gobert then interact with? There’s no more overreacting. Gobert alone could have exponentially spread the virus because of how many thousands of people are in the NBA orbit at a single game. This is merely an example of how just one person can spread a virus to countless others.
The NBA is assuredly going to meet very soon to discuss how to handle this hiatus. There‘s a simple answer: Wait. What’s there to discuss? The season should not resume until there’s a much better understanding of the coronavirus and how many people are actually affected. Concerns about logistics—will arenas be available for playoff games in August?—can be erased if the league simply admits to itself that resuming the season should be of low priority.
I know sports are typically an escape from what's going on in the world. But if the NBA comes back, it will be for money. That’s all the league has to lose in the wake of an outright cancellation. Because the games, the statistics, the trophies, the narratives, and all the things that come with the NBA mean very little compared to compounding the effect of a pandemic that is already being poorly handled in our country.
The bottom line is this: The NBA season does not need to resume until it is clear America has a handle on COVID-19. Until the CDC, HHS, WHO, federal government, and whoever else is in charge can say with confidence that mass gatherings won’t put thousands at risk, there’s no need to play an NBA game.
With a player infected, the league should not even risk playing games in front of fans. Crowning an MVP or making already relatively wealthy people even more money should aggressively pale in comparison to making sure there is a societal control of this issue.
Eventually, there will be an NBA game again. I like to think the media will even be allowed back in locker rooms. But there’s absolutely no need to rush back to a sense of normalcy just so there’s some kind of conclusion to this season.
The NBA did the right thing in suspending play. Frankly, it probably should have taken more aggressive measures before March 11. For now, the best path forward for the league is to wait and get educated. If that means the NBA season ends prematurely, that should be the least of anyone’s concerns.
Entire article: https://www.si.com/nba/2020/03/12/nba-suspended-coronavirus-no-need-to-return
Upvote
0