While nobody knows anything for certain, all signs are pointing to the NBA attempting to resume its coronavirus-hit season as soon as July, but one of the biggest questions that the league must answer is where the games are to be held — it turns out that the answer might involve the Magic Kingdom.
The NBA setting its sights on Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, probably raises quite a few questions among sports fans: What, the Walt Disney World with Mickey Mouse and Space Mountain?
On ESPN’s First Take, Los Angeles Lakers guard Danny Green confirmed reports that the league is seriously looking into playing games at Disney World.
Photo: AFP
“It looks like we have multiple options for locations, but I think leaning toward Orlando and Disney to where it’s the safest,” Green said.
The NBA soon afterward released an announcement through spokesperson Mike Bass: “The NBA, in conjunction with the National Basketball Players Association, is engaged in exploratory conversations with the Walt Disney Co about restarting the 2019-2020 NBA season in late July at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida as a single site for an NBA campus for games, practices and housing.”
If the NBA were to restart the season, they would want to limit the number of people involved, so the ideal spot would be a controlled, centralized environment to lower the risk of outside infection.
As the NBA’s announcement says, Disney World would provide its own housing accommodation for players and staff in the form of hotels, as well as basketball courts that could handle both practices and official games.
It is difficult to imagine a place more controlled than Disney World, especially since it is owned by a private entity, but it also does not hurt that the teams would be in Florida, which seems determined to reopen more quickly than most other states in the US.
The idea was first raised a few weeks ago by Yahoo Sports writer Keith Smith, who wrote an extended piece about how Disney World would be the perfect place for the NBA season to resume.
It seemed, on paper, to be a ludicrous idea, but unconventional problems call for unconventional solutions — and Smith’s idea promptly gained traction within the league itself.
Players would not be shooting hoops among the rollercoasters.
In an interview with SB Nation, Smith made a strong case that it would not take much to convert existing spaces into basketball courts.
“[The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex] has three primary indoor facilities that would be the hub of this,” Smith said. “I assume two would be set up for games. The third is a giant, customization space.”
For some, playing at Disney World might cheapen the 2019-2020 season, but even if all goes to plan, it would most likely end up being a shortened season — the league could decide to skip right to the post-season.
Holding all of the games in one location would render home-court advantage essentially meaningless.
Even in the best-case scenario, an NBA champion crowned at Disney World would probably “feel” different for many fans.
One doubts that the NBA itself is too concerned that people would not take the remainder of the season seriously — it is not like the league has had any issues associating its brand with animated characters in the past.
The biggest drawbacks would be the same as trying to continue the NBA season anywhere.
Any plan would require frequent testing for COVID-19 — not just of the players, but of the other NBA and Disney World employees who would be in regular contact with them.
Anyone testing positive would have to be quarantined and, should the number of positive tests get out of hand, the league would probably be forced to shut down for a second time.
Assume the season restarts and, as a direct result, somebody gets infected and suffers life-altering health effects or dies.
That is something that would weigh on the minds of those deciding whether to play in the middle of a pandemic.
Is the league so eager to crown a champion that it is willing to risk a tragedy at the so-called “happiest place on earth”? The answer is starting to look more and more like “yes.”
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