At 1:30 Monday afternoon, the NBA playoffs will finally begin with the Denver Nuggets facing the Utah Jazz in a figurative bubble at Walt Disney World. No fans in the stands. No home-court advantage for the once heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers. No Utah point guard Mike Conley, either, after he flew home to Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday for the birth of his son.
But at least the playoffs that were supposed to start in April before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted all our lives will finally begin, which gives a slender ray of hope to everyone else still determined to play sports in some form or fashion.
And if everybody else on the planet can quarantine as effectively as the NBA has the past month in Florida, if players and coaches and support personnel can put the health of others above themselves at all times, if you can stage every game and practice in a single secure location – such as ESPN’s Wide World of Sport Complex near Orlando, where the NBA is playing – you can quite possibly dodge the wrath of COVID-19.
But that’s a big IF, and much bigger when you’re dealing with 90 or so football players instead of 15 or so basketball players. There’s also the not-so-little aspect of money. The NBA is supposedly spending $150 million to stage these made-for-TV playoffs.
The NBA can do that. Everybody else save the National Football League, perhaps not so much.