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Following the CDC’s announcement of no events with 50-plus people for at least eight weeks, there’s growing concern among NBA owners the league won’t return until June, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Sunday. The NBA suspended play indefinitely for a 30-day hiatus due to concerns with the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S.
CDC recommendation of no events of 50-plus people for next two months comes as a number of NBA owners and executives increasingly believe a best case scenario is a mid-to-late June return to play -- with no fans. League's scouting for possible arena dates all the way thru August.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 15, 2020
The G League also may be forced to cancel the rest of its season due to the outbreak. This is mostly because the season usually ends in April, which means everything gets pushed back.
Beyond obvious calender issues, the fact G League teams travel on commericial airlines and generally are money-drains for NBA teams make it even harder to move forward for rest of the season. No imminent announcement and G-League teams have been told to stay in town for now. https://t.co/nd1DdGeoV5
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 16, 2020
If the NBA were to return in June, chances are we’d go right into the postseason with the seeding that currently stands. That wouldn’t be fair for a handful of teams, but it’s really the only choice the League has to salvage some part of the 2019-20 season.