OT Shaquille O'Neal says it isn't worth it for NBA to resume play: 'I think we should scrap the season'

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cb...-play-i-think-we-should-scrap-the-season/amp/

I think we should scrap the season. Everybody go home, get healthy, come back next year. Just scrap the season. Just scrap it. To try and come back now and do a rush playoffs as a player? Any team that wins this year, there's an asterisk. They're not going to get the respect. What if a team that's not really in the mix of things all of a sudden wins with a new playoff format? Nobody is going to respect that. So, scrap it. Worry about the safety of the fans and the people. Come back next year.

Look, I understand how players are feeling. I really do. But any team that gets it done this year, there's going to be an asterisk on that championship.

 

I agree. It will have an asterisk anyways.
Lets just start planning early for next season so we can be ready for most anything.

 

Easy for him to say. He's already made his fortune.

The average NBA player's career is 4.8 years long. It's a pretty narrow window to make your career income. If I were an NBA player I'd be telling Shaq to STFU. Lots of other people who make their livings on NBA revenue are going to really take a hit as well, from owners on down.

The players and owners are much better off trying to cobble together some form of limited playoffs or something.

Hell, even a best of 7 championship series between the Lakers and Bucks in a completely quarantined arena is better than nothing. Give the two teams three weeks to get ready and let's go. We could have the 2019-20 NBA champs* decided in June still.

 

Agree, these guys need to finish as many fan's had to keep working so they could enjoy benefits, so the players should get their rear ends back to work, safely and provide the essential entertainment they are paid billions for, it could be them being required to punch a clock at Fred Meyer or Olive Garden.

 

For the first time ever maybe...I'm agreeing with Shaq

 

.....so the biggest money maker for the NBA is the NBA playoffs. Not having that may not make much of a dent in this year's income for them, but my experience is that if there's less money to go around, less money will go around.

So in your opinion, there's absolutely no way to produce an NBA product without killing NBA players? I'm all about safety, but I think that's pretty over-broad. Given how many hundreds of millions of dollars could be made even off of just an abbreviated championship series like I describe, I think it's perfectly possible to do it.

You give them 3 weeks before it starts to get their bodies back in shape however they choose to. (I can easily imagine them getting some gym equipment together if they haven't already.) After two weeks, they get tested. On the third week they completely isolate while working out. Test again. You give them a week to practice as a team under quarantine. Test again. You keep them quarantined for two weeks or however long the series runs. The series runs in an empty arena in neutral territory. Test halfway through. If at any time they test positive, they are off the team. If either team has more than two members test positive, they forfeit. No fucking around.

I really fail to see how it's more likely they die under the above scenario than just leaving them to their own devices.

Ratings for this series would go through the roof, if only because there's nothing competing with them. Throw in the novelty factor of an empty gym and everything else, it'd be absolutely nuts.

 

I just don't see the point of playing without fans. And this "Bubble Plan" is nonsense. Either you go "All In", regular season finished in full, fans in seats. Or scrap season, start on time in October. Fans don't have to go to games. Those who choose too, can. You can wear a mask if you feel better about it. Which i probably would do. I remember, pre-virus, when someone would cough or sneeze in a grocery aisle , i went the other direction. Just did. As a asthma sufferer, i would take precautions. I wear a mask now when i go to the store. But if people are going back to work, then Concerts and games need to get going too. Butts in seats. Either do it right, or don't do it at all. Just my opinion.

 

And if you are sick, "PLEASE STAY HOME". That goes for work , or play. I had a great boss in Colorado, and he would chastise us if we came to work sick. He was ahead of the curb. He always said, "don't come to work, and make everyone else sick". I hope that old way of thinking, get to work unless your on death's door, has gone by the wayside.

 

As a fan of the NBA, I'd absolutely love this kind of a series. It'd probably be the most memorable NBA finals in my memory no matter what happens.

People want a little normalcy. It's only natural. I don't think it's realistic to expect to just put a cork on society and vacuum seal it for a year or 18 months until everything is better. I'm all about social distancing and treating this pandemic seriously, but it's about mental health as well. There's a responsible way to do this that's reasonably safe, while giving people a little bit of normalcy as well.

If you don't, I think people are going to give up on quarantining and just say fuck it at some point. We're already starting to see it.

 

Thinking about this more, I think it is worth investing in 1000 kits if necessary to do this. The NBA set a fantastic example to the country when it shut down the league in response to the virus. Even non-fans realized instantly that the NBA was putting a shit-ton of money where their mouth is on this. It made a lot of people wake up.

I think a series like I'm describing would actually be helpful in reinforcing how serious this is. Every game there'd be tons of context by announcers and players, all talking about all the crazy precautions they are taking. The message would be, if the NBA is going through all these extremes to make this happens, maybe you shouldn't fucking get your panties in a bunch just because you can't get your goddamned nails filed.

 

I just think a 30-45 day playoff with precautions on TV at Wally World would be a huge TV revenue generator, which the league needs, essential. The players are young healthy and need to earn their millions. If my kids can go to work everyday, contractor, electricians, physical therapist, mechanic, NBA ballers can too with the proper precautions.

 

What should not determine public safety when it comes to this pandemic in my view is the economy.....let's make our hospitals safe first and our schools and grocery outlets...people are getting impatient for entertainment and my fear is that impatience will lead to a longer gestation period for wave after wave of reoccurring infections....China and S Korea are back to double digit infections daily now after it had tapered off.....this is at least a 2 year battle we're facing....what's on tv is just not that important in the grand scale of the human condition

 

We certainly don't want to go into a deep deep depression!

 

Especially if we knock the Lakers out!
With Nurk ZMan back we would be dangerous in Wally World! Plus it would be a nice spring board to next year.