Los Angeles Lakers veteran Jared Dudley doubled down on his confidence that there will be a resumption of the 2019-20 season, so long as the coronavirus pandemic does not go haywire.
The Lakers forward insisted the proposed “bubble” method of holding all games in one state (or perhaps two different spots like Disney World and Las Vegas) should minimize infections and allow players to finish out a season that was roughly 75% done before it came to a halt on March 11:
“We’re going to be safe in this bubble because of the testing we’re going to be doing before every game,” Dudley told ESPN New York Radio, according to Steve Popper of Newsday. “That’s why Adam Silver wants to wait another month or two to be able to sign off on it because he wants everybody in society to be able to get tests first. And second, the data will show the virus that between the ages of 19 and 35, it’s what, 0.001% that someone has died and that’s not even a professional athlete.”
Like many other players, coaches, and executives, Dudley is expecting a three-week window for players to gear back into shape before the rest of the season resumes and the playoffs start.
The veteran utility player expressed maximum confidence that the league would find a way to resume the season, barring some unforeseen circumstances:
“If we don’t hit a spike and we don’t have a second wave of corona come back in the next two, three weeks, I am 100% confident, me personally, that we will figure out a way to have a season,’’ said Dudley. “Adam Silver has already come out and said he’ll make a decision in two to four weeks, so around that June 8 to 12 type of date, expect a decision. Hopefully the 15th, we go into training camp… I could see by that second week of July us playing games, in a neutral site, bubble.”
Perhaps not expecting a second wave of the novel coronavirus could prove as a grave mistake, as health and safety specialists have seen it happening in other countries like China, Japan, and Korea after the countries instinctively lifted their stay-at-home orders.
Silver is preparing players to play even if there is one or more cases of infection within the bubble, noting that if the season was to be canceled after one case, they should not try to come back at all.
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