Hindi naitago ni NBA Commissioner Adam Silver ang kanyang pangamba sa posibleng pagkalat ng coronavirus sa loob mismo ng Disney World campus sa Orlando na maaaring mauwi sa tuluyang kanselasyon ng 2019-20 season.
Pahayag ito ni Silver ilang linggo bago ang inaabangang pabubukas ng NBA season kung saan ilang mga players at staff na ang nagpositibo sa COVID-19.
Ayon kay Silver, hindi raw ititigil ang season kung may isa lamang na mag-test positive sa coronavirus test sa loob ng bubble.
Pero kung kumalat naman aniya ang deadly virus, posibleng ito na raw ang maging hudyat para tuluyang i-shut down ang season.
“We won’t be surprised when they first come down to Orlando if we have some additional players test positive,” wika ni Silver.
“What would be most concerning is once players enter this campus and then go through our quarantine period, then if they were to test positive or if we were to have any positive tests, we would know we would have an issue.”
Gayunmman, positibo si Silver na magagawa ng liga at ng kanilang mga health partners na mapigilan ang pagkalat pa ng virus.
“I think we do have the ability to trace, of course to try to understand where that positive case came from,” ani Silver. “We can actually analyze the virus itself and try to track whether there is more than one case, if it’s in essence the same virus and same genetic variation of the virus that is passed from one player to another or two people have gotten it on the campus independently. So those are all things that we are looking at.”
Una rito, ilang mga NBA stars tulad nina Damian Lillard at Joel Embiid ang nagsabi na duda sila sa konsepto ng NBA bubble.
May ilan na ring mga players ang tumangging maglaro sa nalalabing bahagi ng season.
Sa pinakahuling datos, halos 30 mga players na ang kinapitan ng COVID-19, kung saan ilan sa mga ito sina Nikola Jokic ng Nuggets, Derrick Jones Jr ng Miami Heat, at maraming iba pa.
