“We don't control anything!
The words are from Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, finalist last season.
The Floridian is not talking about a game system that escapes him or a player's whim.
“The contamination figures are climbing, it's a reality.
We are committed to continuing the work, we do it with the best scientific knowledge available to us and in accordance with protocols.
But… ”, he continues.
The coach evokes the Covid-19 epidemic which once again affects the NBA and jeopardizes the rest of the season.
The powerful American championship is already facing the first postponements of matches.
As a warning, a first had been postponed just before Christmas, Houston-Oklahoma City.
Since then, it has added up dangerously.
Sunday, the Boston-Miami game did not take place.
Due to positive cases, neither of the two teams had enough players to present on the scoresheet.
On the night of Monday to Tuesday, the Dallas-New Orleans and Chicago-Boston meetings could not be played either, always for the same reason.
And it may continue.
pic.twitter.com/n0u8aBqoAS
- Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 11, 2021
Many other franchises are affected by the disease.
Philadelphia must put players in isolation.
It happens more and more often, like the Memphis Grizzlies or the Brooklyn Nets, that players start warming up but are forced to go outside for testing because they are showing symptoms.
A point at the beginning of March to evoke a stop of the season
In the last official census of the League dated January 7, the NBA recorded 63 positive cases out of some 550 players tested.
Its leaders already know that the figure will quickly increase with another important parameter that it takes into account: the list of injuries of players who have resumed the season too quickly, who miss too many games, who compensate for the forfeits of their partners and cannot train.
Never in their history have the NBA's infirmaries been so full.
70 players are "out" at this time of year and again, the numbers are in a phase of worrying progression.
So will the NBA take another drastic step by putting the season on hiatus like at the start of the pandemic in 2020?
For the moment, she is not considering it: “We had foreseen that there would be postponements of matches and have planned the schedule accordingly.
There are no plans to interrupt the championship and we will continue to be guided by our medical experts, ”said spokesperson Mike Bass on ESPN.
In a country where the pandemic is still not controlled, it is a promise which the teams do not really dare to believe: “We know that the virus is spreading at the moment, summarizes the coach of the Celtics, Brad Stevens.
If it gets too much, an expert will have to make a decision.
"
pic.twitter.com/GVjsIAknH1
- Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 11, 2021
NBA boss Adam Silver has reportedly already planned regional bubbles here and there to isolate players and teams.
He leaves himself a flexibility of schedule until March 4 before taking a decision with serious consequences.
If the NBA goes on hiatus again, it will not be able to release its players in time for the Tokyo Games, if they take place.
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Last spring, just at the start of confinement in France, the NBA was the first major league to end its season, leading in its wake, all the championships and almost all the federations of the world.
The NBA is a standard value that sets the tone for others.
If it were to suspend its season, it is all world sport that can start to be scared.