It’s Becoming Clear, The Lakers Played Their Last Game This Season

It’s March 25 and the NBA still doesn’t have a clear path forward. It’s nearly April and the league is still grappling with any semblance of a future plan amid life with the novel coronavirus.

The NBA, as it were, isn’t unlike any of us.

We’re all dealing with a tremendous amount of anxiety while our life is suddenly devoid of much of the recreation that would alleviate that stress. This includes the Lakers and their inspiring season.

Their sprint to the playoffs came to an abrupt halt when the NBA decided to go dark due to the increasing threat of a growing pandemic. A mad dash to greatness is paused at 49-14, 5.5 games ahead of the Clippers and 19 games away from putting a nice bow on it all.

So how close are we to getting any closure to the season? According to Adrian Wojnarowski’s latest for ESPN, the next step is unclear.

The reporter offers a snapshot of uncertainty, executives mulling over significant quandaries such as when and if the season can be salvaged.

The report does give a date but even that is tinged in doubt.

“The loosest of drop-dead dates on completing the NBA Finals is Labor Day weekend in early September, sources say, which teams say necessitates games starting back up by July 1 — and practice facilities reopening weeks before that,” writes Wojnarowski.

But there are reasons nobody has come out with a firm date. For one, there is no way to guarantee we are ahead of the disease by the start of summer or whether it’s safe to re-start a season without also rekindling another outbreak.

The reason stated in the report, however, is far more optimistic as the season could very well “start later in July and finish later in September.” No one wants to limit the possibilities at so early a juncture.

Another issue addressed that exacerbates the dilemma is player fitness. Imagine starting the season two months from now when players have waned from top physical in-game fitness. It’s hardly an ideal situation to begin another playoff chase.

My fear is the league starts too soon and positive test results lead to players being quarantined for two weeks.

Imagine the postseason beginning before there is a legitimate COVID-19 remedy. Now imagine a player like LeBron James or Anthony Davis getting a positive result just days before a series starts.

The more you read between the lines, the more you begin to see just how impossible it would be to conclude this turbulent, exhausting and emotional 2019-2020 campaign.

We will have enjoyed the Lakers coming hot out of the gate when most pundits believed they would struggle early in the season.

We will have been healed by the camaraderie they showed following the tragic passing of a basketball icon, Kobe Bryant.

And we will get through this remarkable time largely on our own strength and thanks to some fond memories of a team that at the very least deserved to see how this story ended.

If this is the end of 2020, so be it. It’s not a lost season, because it wasn’t lost on any of us. Much like life, the season will be remembered more for its tribulations than its triumphs, for its adversity over the accolades.

A championship would have been nice, sure. It would have been wonderful. But it was never guaranteed.

2020 will conclude, if this is the end, as a reminder that life doesn’t always grant you a final bow or a grand exit.

The moment is all we have, so savor it. Cherish it and one another.