The most magical place on Earth might become a safe haven for the NBA.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the league is considering resuming its season at Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, FL.
It’s an idea that has been floated around the basketball community for weeks, though there was no confirmation of the NBA considering such an idea until now.
Disney’s Wide World of Sports is a 220-acre athletic complex that features numerous courts to host several games at the same time, hotels to lodge either 30 or 16 teams depending on if the NBA resumes the regular season or jumps straight into the playoffs, and is roughly 30 miles from the Orlando Magic’s training facilities.
The idea would allow the NBA to carry out its plan of getting back to action while keeping all players and personnel in a centralized location to limit the exposure of COVID-19. The league has been postponed since March 11 when Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert first tested positive for the virus.
Other possible locations that have been floated around include Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and the Bahamas.
Whichever neutral-site city the NBA opts to go with, there needs to be cooperation from the government, health organizations, and its employees — which will add potential roadblocks.
Widespread testing must be made available and medical personnel has to be on-call to ensure all involved are healthy. Just one positive case of coronavirus would derail the entire comeback.
Players would also have to agree to leave their families amidst a pandemic, spending the next few months in isolation away from home in such uncertain times.
