OKC Thunder’s Chris Paul Sheds Light On The NBA’s Current Situation

Chris Paul joined a teleconference on Wednesday in which he gave his thoughts on the current state of the NBA and how COVID-19 has affected the 2019-20 season.

Paul is not only the leader of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are the current 5th seed in the Western Conference at 40-24, but he is also the President of the National Basketball Players Association. He has always been a leader in the league as a whole and has a very influential voice in regards to the present and future of the league.

As expected, one of the main things he discussed was life during the absence of the NBA and his thoughts on what to expect going forward. He mentioned that players will play a big part in what happens if the season were to resume.

“I’m just letting you know, and I don’t think the league would do it anyway, but if they were like, ‘Hey, you got two weeks, and then we’re going,’ that’s not going to happen…Whatever the amount of time is, just know that players will have input and the say-so, because we’re the ones playing. That comes first. We don’t ever want to put guys in a situation where their injury risk is higher than ever before.”

Another interesting point Paul made was the fact that not every player has equal opportunity during these times. Without access to gyms and team workout facilities, players are forced to adapt to what they have at their home and is easily accessible. 

“I get what we’re dealing with right now, a lot of hypotheticals, but I don’t know, this is the thing with having 450 players in the league and being in a situation like this, where some guys have access to weight rooms, some guys don’t. Some guys have access to facilities where they can train or do this or can run. That’s why, whatever happens…we always go back to the players.”

Paul has the luxury of having an outdoor goal at his home in Los Angeles. Other players around the league, like reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, mentioned at the start of the NBA hiatus that he did not. This puts players around the league in very different situations across the board. If there were a resume to the season, perhaps a short training camp before resuming play would be a necessity.

Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat made sure his teammates were not at a disadvantage like Antetokounmpo. Just last week, he sent basketball goals to all of his teammates to continue to stay in shape and get shots up. Prior to Butler doing this, Goran Dragic was the only player on the team with a basketball goal of his own.

Regardless of who is able to get shots up or whether there will be a short training camp, there is still no plan of action to resume NBA action. While several ideas have been discussed by members of the media around putting the league in a ‘bubble’ and away from the outside world, Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports had an interesting suggestion — Disney World.

The NBA season was suspended on March 11. Now, six weeks later, we still don’t know if or when it will resume. Every single day, the landscape of the entire world changes as breakthroughs are made in testing while the number of cases continues to rise. Paul made a very interesting comment in the teleconference, mentioning the virus itself is in complete control rather.

“This is a situation where no one knows. The virus is actually in complete control.”

There are endless hypothetical scenarios that the NBA is considering as they look to get the 2019-20 season back up and running. Regardless of the logistics, Paul and other players around the league are itching to get back on the court.

“We’re just want to play. We’re trying to figure out what that looks like. Right now, I’m just focused on playing, playing in some form or fashion.”

As much as NBA fans want the season to resume, the players want to play just as much, if not more. It comes down to safety and making sure the situation is handled the right way. 

As every region of the country has different timelines of returning back to normal, things get extremely tricky. The league would like to make sure that the resume of play is permanent and another suspension doesn’t happen if things do not go right. Any day could be the day that we get more information on the road forward, but for now, we are still in the dark and left wondering what will happen to the 2019-20 NBA season.