Adam Silver Made It Clear That He Has No Plans To Pause The NBA Season

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At the moment, things are a bit of a shit show in the NBA when it comes to covid and their health & safety protocols. Every 5 seconds we get another Woj/Shams bomb of another player going in, and we're at the point where replacement players are rushing like hell to chase team planes to their destination so games can actually happen

They've also told everyone to be prepared for the chance that Christmas games get postponed, and when you look at the star power that might not be available 

would it shock anyone if those games don't happen? That would be a damn shame because who doesn't love NBA Christmas? It's one of the best days on the NBA calendar in my opinion. 

Well today Adam Silver went on ESPN to address all this stuff, and here's what we know as of right now

You have to remember, at the end of the day Adam Silver is in the business of making money. You also have to remember that the NBA doesn't do a single thing that isn't collectively bargained, so that plays a role as well. So what the hell do they do? You can pretty much rule out any sort of bubble option I think. Not only would then players association probably reject that idea, but also where are you going to host it? Shit isn't closed like it was in the summer of 2020. Silver just said there isn't a plan right now to pause the season, so I guess the plan is just replacement players and crossing your fingers? I have to say, with so much of the league going on break during Christmas, do we think things will get better or worse when everyone is back? It'll be the same issue once we get to All Star Weekend. It sort of feels like we're stuck in this spot for the foreseeable future.

I did find it interesting that he touched on the competitive fairness of this whole thing. While there's obviously nothing he can do about it, I wonder how many owners feel the same way as he does. A quick look at the standings will show you how close things are. Teams that are gutted with protocols and are being forced to play all these replacement guys are in a tough spot. With no end in sight, who cares if it's a long season if it lasts the whole year? You start factoring in playoff seeding/playoff matchups/etc and there's no real denying that it shifts a competitive balance. For all that talk about how the bubble deserved an asterisk (I disagree), well what do we do for this season? Look at what teams like the Bulls and Raptors are dealing with. It's insane. 

What made the bubble different was everyone had to go through the same stuff. It was a bit of an equalizer. Now that's not the case. But I also don't think pausing everything would change all that much either. Can you guarantee that everyone will be careful? I'd say no. It really feels like Silver and the league are basically going with the

approach. The truth is it's not going anywhere and the league is going to have to figure out a way to live with it while also not putting teams at a competitive disadvantage. Good luck coming up with that solution. They certainly aren't the only league in that spot, so I wonder if they end up copying what the NFL is thinking about doing when it comes to asymptomatic players. 

Listen, I'm a moron. I am most certainly not a doctor or an expert of any kind really. I'm just someone that loves the sport of basketball and wants to live in a world where we get to see the best players go up against each other on a nightly basis. Whatever you have to do in order to make that happen is what I am in favor of. I don't care about politics, I don't care about agendas, I just want to watch good basketball. Will that ever happen? Who the hell knows.