The NBA has been the rumor capital of the sports world over the last few weeks. After initially coming to an agreement on a return for the league's 2019-20 season, players began pushing back while starting a conversation amongst themselves on what the right move to make is. Yahoo Sports' NBA insider Chris Haynes confirms those conversations have been led by Brooklyn Nets guard and one of the National Basketball Players Association's Vice Presidents, Kyrie Irving.
Haynes has been reporting on the NBA's return front for weeks, and as one of the NBA's leading newsbreakers and reporters, there aren't many as “in the know” as him.
Haynes recently joined ClutchPoints' Battle for LA Podcast with Tomer Azarly and Ryan Ward to detail not only the conversations Kyrie Irving led, but also how these talks affect the NBA's plans to return.
Tomer Azarly: What was the call with Kyrie Irving and the NBA players like?
Chris Haynes: It was a call that lasted about an hour and 40 minutes. At one point it had up to 84 players on that call, but basically it was a call to allow for the players who felt like their voices weren't being heard throughout this process. It was a platform for them to speak their mind. You had Mo Bamba from the Orlando Magic. Donovan Mitchell from the Utah Jazz. Young guys who didn't voice their thoughts on what should happen. When the players association approved the league's 22-team format, that's when a lot of players felt like, ‘Damn I didn't get a vote. Where was I? I didn't hear anything about this. I should be able to have a say-so on if the league restarts or not in Orlando.'
So this was a platform given to these guys to voice their opinions and Kyrie Irving let it be known on that call that his preference was not to be in Orlando. He felt like there were a lot of things that needed to be done with the social climate the way that it is, racial injustice, and the aftermath of the George Floyd tragedy, he felt like there were more important things to be done than just playing basketball. Dwight Howard agreed with him, Avery Bradley had similar sentiments. Carmelo Anthony felt that way as well. They're the minority, I just want to say that, but it was basically a call to give everybody who wanted to speak or felt like they haven't been able to speak in the past, give them a platform to do so.
Al-Farouq Aminu, he is somebody who is very quiet, but he was voicing his concern with going and he was also voicing his concern with not going, but he was speaking out.
Ryan Ward: Is this thing gonna happen? Are we gonna have an NBA season?
CH: Yeah, there's not enough opposition for this season not to resume. I understand the big headlines that's gonna come from players who are against going, but there's not enough of them to turn the course back. With that being said, even Kyrie Irving, after listening to his peers talk about the pros and cons of going, after listening to everybody, said at the end of the call, ‘Look, I'm gonna do what my peer group says is the right thing to do.' So if everybody votes that we need to be in Orlando, he said he would be in Orlando.
TA: Was there any miscommunication in the way players found out about the NBA's agreement to restart and its details? It feels like a lot of players are finding stuff out the way fans are — on Twitter.
CH: You have to understand the steps that were in play. When it was reported about the owners approving this 22-team format and then the players association agreeing to that 22-team format a couple days ago, that just meant that they agreed to that format. There are other steps in play now. Now there are negotiations that need to happen to reassure that the players do feel comfortable going over there. It's one thing to agree to a format. That doesn't mean that they're agreeing to play right now under the conditions.
Like I said, there's not enough opposition within the players, the group of 450 players, there's not enough opposition to say this thing is not gonna happen. It's gonna happen. There's too much money at stake and I'm making this clear: This is strictly for financial purposes, period. Because if the CBA wasn't up, if there wasn't a clause where the owners could rip up the CBA and start a new one, I would think most players would say, ‘You know what, we're gonna scrap this, it's not worth it. it's not worth it from a safety standpoint and the timing of what's going on in our society, in our communities, as black players and black people, as individuals, there's no point in going there right now. There's more serious things that need to be addressed.'
TA: What's the biggest hurdle that stands in the way of an NBA restart?
CH: The biggest hurdle is that the league has to come up with their protocol saying how everything is gonna play out in Orlando. The Players have to see it, review it, and they have to decide on if they're comfortable with that.*
*This episode with Haynes was recorded on Monday afternoon. Haynes, Shams Charania of The Athletic, and others have reported numerous new details on the NBA's proposed plans for the Orlando bubble, including hotels, amenities, and a day-to-day schedule.
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You can listen to the entire podcast with NBA insider Chris Haynes here:
Apple: Battle for LA Podcast
Spotify: Battle for LA Podcast
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You can follow Tomer Azarly for all your Clippers and NBA news on Twitter and Instagram.
You can follow Ryan Ward for all your Lakers and NBA news on Twitter and Instagram.
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