The NBA and other sports leagues have been trying to come up with ways to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, and one of the ideas being floated by the NBA is to play games in empty arenas. If it comes to that, Kemba Walker would rather not play at all.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on Friday that the NBA has informed teams it may become necessary to play games in front of only “essential staff” and not allow fans to attend. Walker doesn’t like the idea, but he understands the seriousness of the situation.
“That would be terrible,” Walker said, via Tom Westerholm of MLive.com. “That would be boring. They might as well cancel the whole game before that. That would suck. But at the end of the day, it is getting serious. I don’t know. It would be very weird though for sure.”
The NBA wants to avoid having to postpone or cancel any games, so playing games without fans may be the only way to carry on with the season if the outbreak continues to worsen. That would obviously be incredibly strange for players, and no one wants it to come to that.
We’ve already seen players break out special handshakes in response to the info the NBA has shared about the coronavirus. The reality is this is a unique situation that is is forcing sports leagues and other organizations to adapt by the day. We may eventually see something unprecedented like a meaningful game in front of 15,000 empty seats.
