NBA return: coronavirus and Black Lives Matter loom large for player buy-in

The NBA is set to be the first North American sports league to return to action but questions are rightly being asked of the plan to restart games.

One of the reasons is that the NBA is set to resume in a “bubble” at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, a state which has seen a spike in the number of positive tests for coronavirus over the last week as teams begin to arrive.

You might see the numbers as not alarming in and of themselves, depending on your view on the coronavirus, conspiracies and conservatism with a small “c” during the crisis.

But others have pointed out that cases are on the rise in Florida, to the point where on Saturday authorities there reported collectively more cases than the UK, Germany and Italy combined.

These cases have included several from other sports outside basketball with Florida-based NFL and MLB teams reporting cases.

When and how to restart sport is a concern for every league and team as they lose money every day that there is no action. Other countries have already returned and they have not got it right.

Tennis is the most stark example. Grigor Dimitrov and Borna Coric have tested positive after playing in Novak Djokovic’s charity Adria Tour across the former Yugoslavia. Dimitrov was one of several players filmed partying with Djokovic in a Belgrade nightclub.

Elsewhere, there have been a spate of positives in the Russian Premier League, putting the integrity of the league into question.

Critics have pointed out that this NBA “bubble” is not airtight. There are holes when it comes to Disney staff and media coming in and out, while even the players are not locked in.

Those players may choose to exercise their right not to go at all. Teams are reconvening on Tuesday and the players have until Wednesday to inform them if they choose not to play ahead of the NBA’s July 30 resumption.

Players will not be punished if they choose not to play – although they will lose money on a pro-rata basis for the missed games, which some would argue is punishment itself.

Still, some are choosing to skip the end of the season and not for the reasons you’d necessarily expect.

Trevor Ariza is sitting out because of a custody dispute over his son while Davis Bertrans is opting-out so as not to risk another injury. The Latvian soon to be free agent has twice torn his ACL and at 27 this could be his last big contract.

Others have threatened not to play. LeBron James was vocal about playing in front of fans before backtracking while Damien Lillard was not looking to play if the Blazers could not reach the play-offs.

On top of all of this there is Black Lives Matter, a cause that many players have spoken out and stood up for during the league lockdown and ongoing protests following the death of George Floyd.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said that providing a platform for social justice issues is “a central goal” for the restart. Many of his players agree it has to be.

Some observers see Silver’s statement as a concession to player calls, led by Kyrie Irving, to consider skipping the rest of the season for the cause. Irving is injured but Los Angeles Laker Avery Bradley has said that the player coalition wants to see any such plans before agreeing to play.

Lou Williams of the Los Angeles Clippers has threatened to not play if Black Lives Matter does not get a proper platform in the bubble.

“If we do suit up, how much of our platform can we really use?” Williams said to Tomer Azarly of Clutch Points. “Can we get a, ‘Black Lives Matter,’ patch on our jerseys? Can our jerseys say, ‘Black Lives Matter’? Can the court say, ‘Black Lives Matter?’”

Offering a platform is a dilemma for all leagues coming back, not just the NBA.

Black Lives Matter is on the back of all English Premier League shirts, while the NHS logo is enclosed with a heart on the front of them.

Fine gestures, both. But they are still just gestures. The latter will not get significant funding change from a government that hates football and footballers, just as the former is as anaemic as football’s earlier T-shirts denouncing racism. Neither is engendering lasting change.

Will there be anything more that the NBA can do? Perhaps not, but it needs to.

The question on whether to resume is not a problem unique to the NBA, nor is Black Lives Matter, but the NBA, more than any other league, needs to get its return right.

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This is not a first impression that they can afford to get wrong.

If their virus bubble is burst with a coronavirus case from any of its weak points, then the schedule will struggle to be played – and the US leagues looking to it for answers will have nothing. Fail to prove that they do not live in a bubble when it comes to understanding their players’ demands for social justice and those players walk.

Get either wrong and they risk their season being over one way or another.