Could the NBA playoffs replace the summer league? | Off the Dribble

We are in uncharted territory with the outbreak of coronavirus.

The situation often is changing by the hour.

The latest change came Sunday evening when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that for the next eight weeks, organizers (whether groups or individuals) cancel or postpone in-person events that consist of 50 people or more throughout the United States.

This could give real meaning to the phrase “summer league."

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— Marc Narducci (offthedribble@inquirer.com)

In the past, summer basketball meant the NBA teams having their rookies and young players holding their biggest competition in Las Vegas.

Now it could mean watching the NBA Finals.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN went on Twitter to give his take on the NBA schedule. He tweeted: NBA owners and executives increasingly believe a best case scenario is a mid-to-late June return to play -- with no fans. League’s scouting for possible arena dates all the way thru August.

That eight-week CDC recommendation would end on May 9, but who can say it won’t be extended past eight weeks?

One thing that would favor the NBA is that there is less competition in the summer. There will be baseball and probably hockey, but when talking about less competition, it means that there is no NFL.

The NFL is a television ratings magnet and any other sport that has to compete usually suffers.

The summer is a slow time in sports. So maybe the NBA can make the best out of a highly difficult situation, even if the games do indeed go on in empty arenas.

It would be interesting to see if basketball throughout the summer can work with the American public.

We could find out soon.

Even though there won’t be basketball for the foreseeable future, there will still be basketball coverage both in this newsletter and The Inquirer.

We are starting a 12-part series on the 12 most memorable 76ers playoff games. These are not the 12 best performances, but the games that were memorable. (Hint: there will be a few Sixers losses in here.)

What we would like from our readers are suggestions on your most memorable playoff games, and what you remember most about them.

We will publish them in the newsletter.

For purposes of our series, we will have the playoff games of the Sixers, from their first season after moving from Syracuse for the 1963-64 season through last season.

We’d especially like to hear from anybody who attended the Sixers’ win over San Francisco that clinched the 1966-67 championship.

You can send the suggestions and comments on twitter or email me: mnarducci@inquirer.com.

In addition, we hope to run more of your questions in the ensuing newsletters on all Sixers and/or NBA topics.

So we hope to hear from you on all Sixers topics, especially the memorable postseason games. The tentative schedule is to begin running Golden Dozen Sixers Playoff Games later this week.

We’re really looking forward for your feedback on this project and all Sixers-related information.

On March 16, 2008, Denver blitzed Seattle, 168-113. That was the most points put up in an NBA game since Phoenix beat Denver, 173-143, on Nov. 10, 1990.

In the Denver win over Seattle, the Nuggets placed eight players in double figures, led by Carmelo Anthony’s 26 points. Former Sixer Allen Iverson had 24 points for the Nuggets. This was Seattle’s last season in the NBA. The team would move to Oklahoma City the next year.

Seattle was led by then-rookie Kevin Durant, who had 23 points. He turned out to be a pretty good player.

Interesting fact: Denver shot 16 of 31 from three-point range and Iverson didn’t attempt a three and Anthony was just 0 for 1.

Question: If past crisis stage by end of April (no flu season), hospitals will be able to handle critical cases. As long as all athletes tested & re-tested, then rare + cases would be handled like flu (isolate athlete). Limited fans likely initially if kept apart; Normal by August? — @jerry25a on Twitter

Answer: Thanks for the note, Gerald, and for being a dedicated reader. I don’t know if anything will be totally normal by August, but the hope is that things will be much better. I think a lot depends on whether people listen to the instructions from health officials and stay isolated during the next several weeks, if not longer. From a sports perspective, it also may not be normal. As the above story stated, we could be having NBA playoffs in August and that isn’t something we consider normal.