Adam Silver Provides Latest Update On NBA Season’s Future

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver provided ESPN with an update on if and when the league may resume activity, Friday. His update is bad news for NBA fans.

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“Based on the reports that we got from varied outside officials, current public health officials … we are not in a position to make any decisions,” Silver said. “And it’s unclear when we will be.”

Silver says he intends to resume the season at some point to avoid a complete cancelation. As for now, the league is monitoring the availability of testing, the number of new infections, and updates on a potential vaccine.

“There is a lot of data that all has to be melded together to help make these decisions,” Silver said. “That is part of the uncertainty. We are not even at the point where we can say if only A, B and C were met, then there is a clear path.

“I think there is still too much uncertainty at this point to say precisely how we move forward. I’ll add that the underlying principle remains the health and well-being of NBA players and everyone involved. We begin with that as paramount.”

Silver also says the number of players who have tested positive for COVID-19 is higher than initial reports; however, he did not expand for privacy reasons.

“We are looking at all those things right now,” Silver said. “I’d say that in terms of bubble-like concepts, many of them have been proposed to us and we’ve only listened. We are not seriously engaged yet in that type of environment because I can’t answer what precisely would we need to see in order to feel that that environment provided the needed health and safety for our players and everyone involved.

“I know it’s frustrating — it is for me and everyone involved that I am not in position to be able to answer the question. … There is still enormous uncertainty around the virus as well. Now there is a lot that is changing quickly and we may be in a very different position some number of weeks from now. But it is why I initially announced at the beginning of April that I felt with confidence we would not be able to make any decisions in the month of April. I should clarify that I didn’t mean to suggest that on May 1 I would be in a position.”

[Via]