The NBA has decided to push back the possibility of opening practice facilities at least a week, possibly further.
Over the weekend, it was announced that the NBA would begin opening practice facilities in states where its stat-at-home restrictions were being slowly eased. In the original report, the NBA would allow practice facilities to open beginning May 1.
However, Monday afternoon the NBA released a follow-up memo that points to the opening of practice facilities to be pushed back a week, at least. It leaves room for the league to push it back further, should they see fit.
In the memo sent out, the NBA also set out guidelines for policies that must be followed when/if practice facilities begin to open in the next couple of weeks.
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This recent development isn’t surprising, to say the least. In order to help keep the competitive balance in this hiatus, it would be flat-out unfair for some teams to be able to have access to practice facilities vs. other teams continuing to have to quarantine in other states where restrictions haven’t been eased.
In the climate we’re living in, however, it’s almost impossible to craft out a potential timeline in which the first true step in getting back to basketball is safe enough. Even with strict guidelines, we are currently operating under unprecedented territory.
Tough decisions will certainly need to be made soon, but it’s also important to note that safety will be at the forefront of each of them.
There’s no question that everyone wants to get back to basketball and sports as a whole. However, there’s really no blueprint on how to do so.
The waiting game continues for the league and the players, at least for another week and a half. There’s still a chance that a first step could still be pushed back. The hope is that we get to some sort of semblance of normalcy soon. At this point, though, nothing is a given.