NEW YORK - As the cases rising in the United States and the virus entering NBA teams' facilities though confident about the set up for the resumption, NBA commissioner, Adam Silver admitted that the spread within the NBA community could lead to a stoppage again.
On his TIME 100 Talks interview, the NBA commissioner was questioned about the chances of the league not moving to Orlando as planned and go back to operations because of the current COVID-19 detections.
Silver who never wants to go full steam about the whole new normal adjustments shared on TIME that what the league learned about this virus and in the pandemic is more on the unpredictability as everyone on the league including the players union checks then data on a daily basis.
He also mentioned that if there will be things that may need to change especially those out of the scope on what they are playing for, the league is open to revisiting the plains that they have to finalize in order to ensure the safety of everyone.
The NBA commissioner mentioned that currently, there are daily testing conducted but the exact numbers were not confirmed yet.
But if the league would see a huge number of infections and continuously spreading within the NBA community then it would prompt for a halt again.
When asked if what will the league's plan B if the spread will continue that will cause another stoppage, Silver replied that NBA will continue to ask assistance and advice from a panel of doctors, experts, and scientists.
Silver stated that the observation continues as the pre-resumption process goes on for they looking into a lot of factors in determining the cases, if it is isolated or not, and understanding how the community got infected.
Those are the key factors that will have a huge impact on their judgment whether they will continue or not. But Silver stated that if cases will be uncontrollable and continue to rise the only option is to stop as we cannot run from this virus.
But in terms of safety, the NBA commissioner believes that it is safer on the Orlando campus rather than off-campus because there we are aware of the status of the employees where testing is applied, ESPN reported.
Silver also emphasized that the plan to resume at Walt Disney World Resort is somehow a model for other industries on how they restart their operations as well.
The NBA commissioner shared that they will respond and observe as to what will happen within the process, but the biggest factor will be if there will be a spread within the NBA community.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN shared on Tuesday that the Denver Nuggets locked their practice facility on Saturday after the two members of the team's 35-member delegation to Orlando tested positive with COVID-19 aside from their star Nikola Jokic who is positive as well with coronavirus in Serbia and their coach, Michael Malone who admitted that he tested positive as well with coronavirus during the season pause in March.
On Tuesday, the Brooklyn Nets just reopened their practice facility after its closure for days due to the recently tested positive center DeAndre Jordan and guard Spencer Dinwiddie.
