Adam Silver Discusses The NBA’s Return With Players

NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke with player representatives from the National Basketball Players Association, which included executive director Michele Roberts, NBPA president Chris Paul and a number of other players, regarding the logistics of the league’s return.

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“This could turn out to be the single greatest challenge of all our lives,” Silver warned, noting that 40% of the league’s revenue comes from game night earnings.

Silver pointed that that “The CBA was not built for extended pandemics,” explaining that future salary caps and basketball-related income could be affected by the situation.

The commissioner went on to say that the league could resume playing from a single arena to limit air travel: “There’s no point in adding risk for flying all of you city to city if there’s not going to be fans,” Silver said. “We think it would be safer to be in a single location, or two locations, to start.”

Silver plans to return with a full-playoff run, but is considering play-in tournaments, which would give more teams a chance to compete who were robbed of a late-season playoff push.

“Until there’s a vaccine, or some cocktail preventing people from dying from the virus, we are going to be dealing with this collectively,” Silver told the players. “The ultimate issue is how much risk we’re all comfortable taking.”