The 2019-20 basketball season was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, in this article, you will find NBA Updates to keep you up-to-date on your favorite sport.
After a months-long pause, the league is going to get back in action on July 30th. Let’s take a look back to see how the coronavirus has impacted the NBA this season.
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NBA Update July 16th, 2020
Rudy Gobert Tests Positive; Season Paused
As the COVID-19 pandemic started to gain steam in North America, few people took it seriously at first. That includes Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who was essentially Patient Zero. After testing positive on March 11th, the league shut down all activities indefinitely. The previous day, Gobert had been at a press conference joking around – touching everything on the tables and microphones to indicate how silly the whole thing was.
After Gobert tested positive, other players caught it and the rest of the country started to get weighed down by the pandemic, it became clear that the NBA had made the right call.
NBA Settles On Bubble In Disneyland
In the height of the pandemic, there were all sorts of conjectures as to what would happen with the rest of the season. Some players had suggested that due to the coronavirus – as well as Black Lives Matter protests – that it would be best to end the season. However, after several calls with players-only and then the players and the league, they settled on a format and a location. While leagues like Major League Baseball plan to allow teams to play in their respective stadiums, the NBA decided their best course of action would be to house the players in one, specific location. After thinking about different sites in Las Vegas or Florida, they landed on Disneyworld in Orlando to plant their campus.
Will Play-Out Regular Season, Then Head To Playoffs
The NHL was also mid-season and decided to go straight to the playoffs but the NBA has gone a different route. Instead, they are going to play out eight more regular-season games to give teams that were close to being in the playoffs at the point the season was paused (mostly in the Western Conference) an opportunity to make the playoffs. After that, they are going to have their regular postseason as per usual.
One big change is that teams will obviously not have home-court advantage. That’s normally a big edge in the NBA but given the circumstances, everyone will be at a neutral site.
Bubble Drama Playing Out
The NBA’s bubble has been quite entertaining as players have been posting every day. Some players have already broken quarantine (Richaun Holmes left the campus to pick up food). Others have been sent home after testing positive for COVID-19 (Michael Beasley). Several Brooklyn Nets have decided to skip the remainder of the season. We could see more players pulling out as this continues. There are also rumors about players trying to sneak in females and models. In fact, Instagram model Anna Mya tweeted that she already received an invite.
Season Continues On July 30th
The 2019-20 NBA season will resume playing on July 30th. We’ll have a double-header that day with the Utah Jazz taking on the New Orleans Pelicans at 6:30 PM ET. That will be followed by the Clippers (-1) taking on the Lakers (+1) in the late game.
