National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver has said the league has “no plans” to suspend its season despite the rising number of Covid-19 cases which have caused widespread disruption to the entire North American sports landscape.
The NBA has postponed seven games over the past week – including five over the past three days – while the high-profile Christmas Day schedule now has come under some doubt.
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According to reports, shifting game times of the league’s five-game slate on Christmas Day is a possibility, with maintaining the ABC network windows.
Even if the Christmas Day games go ahead as planned, sidelined high-profile stars such as Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young, Golden State Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins and Brooklyn Nets’ team-mates Kevin Durant and James Harden could all miss out.
The league, though, is determined to play as many games as it can, even with some teams being forced to play with severely depleted rosters.
This decision comes in sharp contrast to the one made by Silver in March 2020 to shut down the entire 2019-20 season after a single positive Covid-19 test.