With the NBA suspending its season due to the coronavirus pandemic, many fans are wondering when – or if – it will restart. Assuming it does restart, will the NBA finish the regular season, or will it go straight to the playoffs? Will the playoff field be diminished? Will older players be at greater injury risk after a prolonged time off?
So. Many. Questions.
“I think at this moment, all of that will take care of itself,” former NBA point guard B.J. Armstrong said on Tiki & Tierney. “We’re dealing with something that’s much bigger than that. Our leadership – our 30 owners and our commissioner and our teams – I think they are communicating in a way that they are very responsible not only to their immediate cause, which is their business, but [also how] it’s going to affect others: fans, people, all of the people that are outside of the immediate NBA family. I applaud them because we are part of the world. We are part of this global community, and we’re playing our part. We want to be responsible in not only the health of our business, but we want to be responsible for the health of others and all people who allowed us to entertain them for years. We’ll see how this plays out, but right now there’s a lot of concerns – and we’re concerned about all right now because this will affect all people around the world.”
Armstrong, who is an agent, has clients all over the world and has been communicating with them, and others, non-stop. He has been impressed by humanity’s response to the pandemic.
“What’s amazing is when something like this does happen, you get a chance to see human beings work at their optimum level,” Armstrong said. “It doesn’t matter what religion you are. It doesn’t mater what race you’re from. It restores your hope in all of humanity because you’re seeing people working to resolve an issue. . . . You see people working to help people. Somehow you get past languages. I don’t speak Mandarin. I don’t speak fluent Italian. I don’t speak German. But it’s amazing how when you need to get something done, it finds a way.”