The NBA isn’t stopping looking for solutions to restart the season once everything is fine for teams to start playing again. The league suspended the season earlier this month after Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for the COVID-19.
After that, a lot was said on when they were going to return to action, with contradicting reports seeing the light every day. The league has made it clear that they want to resume the season at some point in the summer, and now they reportedly have a big plan in mind, involving the city of Las Vegas.
According to Jabari Young of CNBC, the league is planning a special tournament to decide which teams make the playoffs before making a bigger one to crown a new champion.
The NBA could decide to cancel the remainder of its regular season and create a play-in tournament for lower-seeded teams to enter the postseason. The league could then set up a best-of-five series for the first round, before moving to a one-and-done tournament to determine the two teams that will play in the NBA Finals, which would also be a best-of-five, people familiar with the planning said.
The tournament and NBA Finals would be held in Las Vegas at the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion, where the league hosts its annual Summer League events.
This is a good plan for the league, given the fact that they are losing millions due to this hiatus. The 2019/20 season was very exciting until it got suspended, and fans surely want to see their favorite players finish the job they had in mind.
Still, only time will tell what is going to happen here, but the league looks set to study any alternative they have to finish the season. However, some things need to happen before that. The coronavirus crisis is reaching its peak in the US and there is no certain timetable to say when we’re going to see some basketball again.
