How NBA, NHL, NCAA, MLB should resume from coronavirus hiatus | Marcus Hayes
Winter seasons should freeze the standings and cease for 3 weeks, have every player and coach tested, then resume with playoffs with no fans present for another month. March Madness gets delayed just as long,
This, too, shall pass.
The coronavirus will not end the world. It will recede. If it does so in a timely fashion, then we should be ready to adapt to whatever form normalcy takes.
Utah Jazz players Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and Thursday, after which waves of postponements, cancellations, and suspended schedules crashed in — all shamefully, sadly later than they should have come.
But come, they did, except for a few high school and college competitions — basketball got canceled, and the NCAA wrestling championships followed suit.
Winter sports should freeze the standings and cease for three weeks, have every player and coach tested, then resume with their playoffs with no fans present for another month. Comcast Spectacor announced Thursday afternoon that its Wells Fargo Center, where the 76ers and Flyers play, will be closed at least through March. Baseball should shut down until April 2, then start the regular season April 9, no fans until May. March Madness, canceled Thursday afternoon, should be delayed just as long and should resume, but with no fans. The NCAA could still do this.
During Bloody Thursday, most sporting events were canceled or postponed. It should be all, everywhere: College. High school. Middle school. Club. This is close to what happened with spring sports, exactly 10 minutes after this column posted Thursday afternoon, in the Central Bucks School District, where they were suspended. At about the same time, Montgomery County schools and gyms temporarily closed.
These suspensions are half measures. End the sports now. Pick them up next year. Following the lead of the Ivy League, college basketball conference tournaments petered out Thursday. Take it a step further, like the Ivies: All schools at all levels should cancel all spring sports. Once again, intelligence begins in the Ancient Eight.
This doesn’t mean the lucrative men’s and women’s basketball Division I NCAA Tournaments need to die; more on that later.
We need a framework for resumption of athletic leagues and sporting life when the coronavirus interruptions recede, assuming they recede within the next month.
The Plan, detailed
Every player, coach, and club personnel must pass a COVID-19 test.
When play resumes, no player, coach, or club personnel should be forced to work. This, regardless of the level of play, and regardless of the players’ importance or irrelevance; the bench warmer shouldn’t have to suit up just because the star wants to. Period. People should not be compelled to risk their lives in their workplace, and sports workplaces are nasty by nature.
NBA: Freeze the standings. Resume the season in 3-4 weeks with the playoffs; admit no fans for at least another month. Scurrying to finish the season would run too long. Teams might return with time left in the regular season — the 76ers’ final game is April 15 — but resuming play for four or five games would be a strength-of-schedule nightmare. Mandate that players report to workout facilities to retain conditioning. If the playoffs started today, the No. 6 seed 76ers would face the No. 3 seed Boston Celtics. That would be a rematch of the 2018 second-round series that exposed the shortcomings of Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and coach Brett Brown. It also cemented the folly of trading up to draft Markelle Fultz over Jayson Tatum, who used the series to announce his stardom to the NBA. Sigh. Good times.
NHL: Same as the NBA. Freeze the standings. Resume the season in 3-4 weeks with the Stanley Cup playoffs. Again, scurrying to finish the season would run too long, and resuming and playing four or five regular-season games to ramp up to playoffs would be a strength-of-schedule nightmare. Mandate that players report to rinks to retain conditioning. If the playoffs began today, the Flyers, as a No. 4 seed, would play their arch-rival Penguins, No. 5, and hold home-ice advantage. This normally would be a gigantic advantage for the Flyers, who lead the NHL with 25 home wins, but playing in an empty barn probably would negate any benefit. Admit no fans for another month.
Major League Baseball: Resume spring training on April 2, for a week. Begin the season April 9. Starting pitchers won’t be stretched out, and relievers won’t be ready for bounce-back appearances, so play the first month with 30-man rosters. Delay the new three-batter minimum rule for one month, when rosters shrink back to the new, expanded, 26-man limit. Admit no fans for another month.
NCAA, high school, and youth sports: Done. See you next semester ... except for the big basketball tournament, which generates more than $700 million each year. Treat the players like the pros, since, wink wink, that’s what we know they are. Select the tournament teams this weekend — both men’s and women’s, because of gender equity, and because the women’s tournament rocks. Keep the athletes on campus, practicing, conditioning, preparing. Resume play in three weeks at the previously chosen tournament sites, optimally with no fans in attendance.
Disclaimer, and sermon
Granted, these are imperfect solutions, but these are uncharted waters, and the severity and lethality of the novel contagion should not continue to be dismissed, as often has been done by President Trump and his sympathizers. The coronavirus isn’t a cold, and it isn’t the flu. To suggest that it is like either is ignorance multiplied by malpractice magnified by political agenda.
No, the coronavirus is as much as 10- to 35-times deadlier and, generally speaking, much harsher in the victims it lays low. It can scar your lungs, damage your liver, sicken your guts, and it can last a long time. And that’s just what we’ve learned in the past three months.
There is no argument to be made. Just shut it down. Everything. There doesn’t need to be a champion of anything; not at the cost of even one life.
Yes, kids seem to emerge from this illness with limited effects, and yes, kids love to play sports, but you know what else kids love?
Grandma and Grandpa.
Grams and Gramps don’t do nearly as well.