Posted on 03/07/2020 3:00:50 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
NEW YORK - - The NBA wants its teams to prepare to play games without fans if necessary because of the coronavirus crisis, but LeBron James already says he won’t play basketball in an empty arena.
The league circulated a memo to its teams Friday telling them to prepare in case it becomes necessary to play games without fans or media, as sports leagues in Europe have already done. The memo detailed potential actions that teams might need to take “if it were to become necessary to play a game with only essential staff present.”
But when James was asked about that possibility after he scored 37 points in his Los Angeles Lakers’ 113-103 win over the league-leading Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night, the NBA’s leading active scorer was definitive.
“We play games without the fans? Nah, that’s impossible,” James said. “I ain’t playing if I ain’t got the fans in the crowd. That’s who I play for. I play for my teammates, and I play for the fans. That’s what it’s all about. So if I show up to an arena and there ain’t no fans in there, I ain’t playing. They can do what they want to do.”
The memo, obtained by The Associated Press, says teams should identify which team and arena people would be necessary to conduct games, and be able to communicate quickly with non-essential staff, as well as ticket holders and corporate partners.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Not a huge fan of LeBron. He has it right. It’s not the gig to play to an empty hall.
But it would be something entertaining for millions of people who are afraid of getting this virus and dying to watch.
I doubt it’s in his contract saying there must be fans there
Are you are right of course it’s ten thousand times better with fans.
But it is what it is
It’s not in his contract to play only if the stands are full. While there are usually thousands of fans watching live there are millions watching on TV.
He’s an entitled bozo who doesn’t need to have lives risked and lost while speeding the spread of the disease (and fast spread is what risks our medical system being overwhelmed to the point that those who need special hospital care might not be able to get it) because he doesn’t want to bother playing a few minutes of basketball a few times a week if slobbering fans aren’t there feeding his ego.
“Are you are right of course it’s ten thousand times better with fans.”
They could always put fake cheering and cardboard cutouts of fans. Just sayin.
The NBA is already devoid of actual content except the “playoffs”.
Let their Chinese financial input drop to zer0.
He just might talk himself out of a job.
For real.
Lol
He talks like he’s the owner. Up is down now
This is getting really stupid. I read one interview with a guy who got it who said the flu was worse, that it was more like a mild version of the flu yet here we got everyone treating it like a modern day version of the black plague.
Yeah, it’s a massive international conspiracy.
That’s the ticket.
Because, as everyone knows, basketball is all about LeBron.
Arrogant twit.
I would not doubt it at all, at all. The media in this country is fake, the politicians are liars, China is corrupt as it gets. I do not believe ANYTHING I read in the media, anything.
I have to imagine communicable disease is a constant risk with the NBA crowd. Why change policy now? Truly, what has changed?
I don’t watch the pro basketball, live or on TV. I am an entertainer and a sober and rational analyst. The NBA is substituting hysteria for good management.
Joe Biden could be the warm up act.
So LeBron is just proving yet again that he like most professional entertainers today doesn’t play for the love of the game the way it was done in the beginning but rather for his ego and naturally for the money.
So even down under the zambooies misbehave. Good to know.
Lebron doesn’t seem to realize that filling an arena with potentially infected fans also increases his risk of being infected.
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