Professional Sports
Quick overview of where sports stand.
Here's the latest update on the four major professional sports.
National Basketball Association
The NBA will tentatively resume play on July 31 with 22 teams in the field. Games will be played in Orlando Florida.
Players will have to be in "lockdown" in Orlando as they finish off the postseason with no fans in the stadium. The idea is to isolate the teams to prevent any exposure to COVID-19.
The New York Times is reporting that not all players are happy about the Orlando option - especially with the Black Lives Moment in full swing. Some players want to continue to have a voice in the movement and may sit out the season.
Rudy Gobert was the first NBA player to test positive for COVID-19. He tested positive on March 13, 2020. Got to love this tweet:
Before leaving a post-practice interview session, Rudy Gobert touched all the tape recorders that were placed before him on a table. He is now the NBA's Patient Zero for coronavirus after becoming the first player in the league to test positive. https://t.co/eKXF7Ymw0f pic.twitter.com/EQXRfy73nO
' WKRN News 2 (@WKRN) March 12, 2020
National Hockey League
Training camps for the 24 NHL teams resuming play will open July 10. The 2019-2020 season will resume with only Stanley Cup qualifying teams.
One thing complicating the comeback is that an unnamed Boston Bruin player has tested positive for COVID-19. (This is the first know case among the Bruin's team.)
The Boston Bruins have the best season record when all play was stopped on March 12th because of COVID-19.
The NHL plans to have 24 teams return with a chance to win the Stanley Cup, eight top clubs playing each other to determine seedings while the bottom 16 meet in eight playoff qualifying series.
Major League Baseball
The 2020 season is uncertain - players rejected the latest contract negotiations as they wanted more pay for the short season. The league office has said that asking for more with no fans in the stadium is not realistic.
The Major League Baseball Players Association has asked MLB to go ahead and schedule the start of the MLB season. They have asked for plans by June 15th.
Once an official schedule has been announced, players will return to "spring training" to get ready for the 2020 season. The season would start at least 3-weeks after the spring training.
The MLB has publicly reported that multiple players have recently tested positive for the virus. The league has not filed any reports on what baseball would look like once play has resumed.
National Football League
NFL season is currently scheduled to start on time. There are rumors that they plan to have fans in the stands during preseason games.
Back in May, Dr. Anthony Fauci has publicly stated that it's possible for the NFL season to start on time. He said it's possible to fill the stadium as long as people are social distance. Which means that the stadiums would be about a third full so that people would be about six feet apart.
He said that one key thing is that the NFL would have to do an abundance of testing and be willing to sideline key players if they test positive.