Sports
Kevin Durant’s Manager Rich Kleiman Says NBA Season May Not Be ‘Salvageable’
Steve Jennings/Getty ImagesPessimism abounds regarding the potential restart of the 2019-20 NBA season, which was suspended on Wednesday, March 11, after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.The disease has spread worldwide, and the latest figures from the World Health Organization have confirmed more than 976,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 50,000 deaths as…
Steve Jennings/Getty Images
Pessimism abounds regarding the potential restart of the 2019-20 NBA season, which was suspended on Wednesday, March 11, after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.
The disease has spread worldwide, and the latest figures from the World Health Organization have confirmed more than 976,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 50,000 deaths as of the evening of April 3.
With that in mind, Rich Kleiman, who is Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant‘s manager, said on The Will Cain Show on Friday that “it's hard to imagine” the season returning, citing the latest news surrounding COVID-19:
“It's hard for me to imagine an NBA season could return when you hear the numbers of casualties predicted, when you hear the number of people that will be inflicted by this. And to think that these guys can just go. And I do understand that all of us are working within these conditions for sure.
“Maybe some things just aren't salvageable. In these lockout seasons, when the lockout ends, they don't go, ‘OK, well let's add another 32 games on the end of it.'
“And I get it. They'll have to be something to be figured out from the financial standpoint. And I'd love to be able to have a voice in that, because I understand it's real.
“But what I do know is that maybe, this just can't be fixed.”
Kleiman's comments came prior to Brian Windhorst's Friday report in which he stated that “it is clear that the NBA is angling to set up a deal that enables them to shut the season down.”
Windhorst did say the NBA isn't in a position where it feels it has to do that yet, but he also said he believed “there is a significant amount of pessimism right now” about resuming play after speaking with members of the players' union and the league.
Both Kleiman's comments and Windhorst's report follow news from Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix, who spoke with a source that said the league's only shot at a postseason to wrap up 2019-20 would be a truncated playoff in Las Vegas without fans in the late summer.
However, Mannix also noted that scenario would bring about a series of obstacles, most notably the need for readily available rapid testing for the thousands of people who would come to Vegas and be involved in the events in some capacity.
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