The NBA was caught with just a few games and the playoffs to finish before suspending play due to the coronavirus, but now ESPN’s NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy is predicting that the rest of the season will never be played.
Speculation is rife that since the NBA was nearly done with its 2019-20 season, the rest of the games and the playoffs could be deferred to sometime after the coronavirus scare is past.
Many have said that the NBA could just finish the season later, and maybe draw even more viewers and attention from sports-starved fans in the doing.
But Van Gundy thinks it’s all going to be no dice. He just can’t see the NBA getting back in gear, according to the Boston Globe.
“I understand how you can start again, but what’s the plan if the next person gets sick, like another Rudy Gobert-type of situation, we’re going to play through it? We’re going to cancel it again? That, to me, is why I don’t see any of these things taking place,” Van Gundy told the paper.
Van Gundy even worried that the mania over the Wuhan virus could affect next season. “I have no idea how they can pull off the season, and I have no idea what’s going to happen, and I hope next season isn’t impacted,” he said.
The league had been making plans to finish out its season without fans in the stands. But when Rudy Gobert tested positive after making a bad joke about the virus, plans to continue playing came to a screeching halt.
By March 11, the league announced that the season was on hold until officials could be sure that players, officials, and even fans would be safe from contracting the virus.
Meanwhile, by some estimates the NBA could lose a billion dollars in lost revenue if the season is canceled.
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