Should the NBA pause or shorten season due to mounting COVID cancellations? Vaccinate player & staff urgently?

[MalagaBulls]

Lots of chatter with more games being cancelled. Should they pause the season 30 days while all players & staff are vaccinated (This is my question)? And then just cancel those scheduled games? A bubble location is out of the question.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/261126/NBA-Has-No-Plans-To-Pause-Season-Despite-Concerns-From-Executives

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[the ultimates]

The vaccinations should be for frontline medical personnel and high-risk groups like the elderly until there is more supply. Both the players and owners knew the risks of starting the season and having it outside the bubble. Can they pause the season for a month I guess but this thing isn't getting under control in a month.

[TheSuzerain]

So I'm pretty confident the NBA could buy the necessary vaccine for all players/staff. But they are surely scared of the optics (although I don't think it would be that bad, just need one of the sports leagues to go first).

But it pretty soon should be a player's union issue, where they say we're not playing until vaccine is procured.

It does take like a month to get both your shots and be "immune", so they'd have to move quick.

[Hangtime84]

Season will be shorten

[ChettheJet]

Any pause doesn't eliminate the problem. Sorry but professional sports doesn't rate players moving to the head of the line to get vaccinations. The league needs to hammer on the players, coaches and staff that they need to take all the precautions, keep getting tested and take responsibility to be able to continue to play and continue to make millions of dollars. If that's not enough of an incentive above and beyond staying healthy and not risking death then they can just get a regular job and live like the rest of us.

[ZOMG]

Any pause doesn't eliminate the problem. Sorry but professional sports doesn't rate players moving to the head of the line to get vaccinations. The league needs to hammer on the players, coaches and staff that they need to take all the precautions, keep getting tested and take responsibility to be able to continue to play and continue to make millions of dollars. If that's not enough of an incentive above and beyond staying healthy and not risking death then they can just get a regular job and live like the rest of us.

Agree with most of this.

However, we just don't know what started the current surge of infections around the League. It doesn't take much. Lots of players have families they live with - a wife gets infected, doesn't have symptoms but infects the player. Maybe another player gets it from his kid. The games, practices and team dinners go on.

And suddenly we have 25 guys in "health and safety protocols".

I'm sure some players still don't take it seriously, but the average NBA dude is pretty smart. They know this is nothing to F with and it could endanger their whole career. That's why I'm more inclined to believe the surge isn't the result of many people breaking the rules, but a combination of factors and plain old bad luck.

It's so, so hard to keep this virus in check if you relax even a little bit.

There's one thing I do find strange, though. Considering these guys get tested every single day (and TWICE on game days), the League must catch almost all of these infections at a VERY early stage. I mean, so early that it's pretty unlikely the infected player has become infectious himself. But still they force every "close contact" into a hardcore 10 day quarantine - and for the rest of the team its business as usual as long as there's enough warm bodies to play the games. There's just a huge disconnect here.

[MalagaBulls]

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