The NBA and NBPA are engaging in exploratory conversations about a likely resumption of play at Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex as a singular bubble site for games, practices and housing.
There’s been a lot of information regarding this all week in the lead up to the NBA’s announcement Saturday afternoon and still a lot of questions to be answered, but for the time being, it certainly looks like the NBA is on track to make a return in the summer.
Here’s a look at what we know so far about the NBA’s potential return and possible next steps that will need to be figured out before it can become reality.
• Straight-up resuming the regular season with all 30 teams and then heading into the playoffs.
• Playing directly into the playoffs with the standings as they were as of March 12.
• A “playoffs-plus” idea that would give more teams a chance to compete for a final playoff seed.
The first two are very self-explanatory, but the “playoffs-plus” concept is worth a little more clarification.
This is the most radical idea, but also seems like the one that could most likely be the one to stick because the idea behind this format, which appears to have gained the most steam, would be to do so with a limited number of teams.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA’s preference isn’t to have every team resume the season, and in Charania’s report about this proposed “playoffs-plus” format between 18-24 teams were floated as the number of teams that would be involved.
The logic behind limiting the number of teams returning to play seems sound enough. The fewer people at the bubble site the safer, obviously. Not to mention, it doesn’t seem worth it for teams that are very much out of the playoff picture, like the Golden State Warriors, to ramp up and go through the rigmarole of preparing just to play what amounts to just a handful of games and risk injury to key players – or even their lottery positions.
Additionally, according to Wojnarowski, should this “playoffs-plus” format get opened up to the entire league, the idea of rewarding some of the league’s bottom-feeders with a chance in the post-season was met with much skepticism.
The reason for this is because the driving idea behind the “playoffs-plus” option, according to Charania, is it could involve a play-in-style tournament for either the No. 8 seed, or 7 and 8 seeds.
Additionally, another way it could work is that the first round of the playoffs would be replaced with an international-competition-style, round-robin group stage with each team playing two games against their group opponent and the top two teams from each group advancing to the second round.
Either way, rewarding the league’s worst teams with a chance to pull a George Mason-like run in the NBA playoffs doesn’t seem to be appealing to many.
Why Disney World?
In the lead-up to the NBA’s announcement, there were reports that the NBA was debating between Disney World in central Florida and Las Vegas as its preferred bubble destinations.
By all appearances, it would seem as if Mickey Mouse has won this particular battle, and the rationale behind it is quite apparent.
First off, the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a massive, 255-acre campus with multiple arenas that could host many different games and practices simultaneously, and has already done so for the NBA as the host of the Jr. NBA World Championship in recent years.
Secondly, Walt Disney World is a gigantic 40-square mile plot of private land with about 24,000 hotel rooms to house players and coaches as well as other team and event staff.
And lastly, you can’t discount the relationship between the NBA and broadcast partner ESPN, which is primarily owned by Disney.
It doesn’t take much to connect the dots that it would likely please ESPN to go to a location with its own name in the facility’s title, and with the amount of money at stake for the NBA, pleasing a key broadcast partner is just the smart thing to do.
According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, the NBA is slated to lose about $900 million in television revenue should the 2020 post-season fail to happen, so prioritizing broadcast partners seems like the right call from the NBA’s perspective.
Extensive testing to come
Should the NBA decide to continue with a plan to play at Disney World in July, getting set up there is but one gargantuan task that will then lead to another, perhaps even bigger one: Maintaining the bubble.
The NBA, of course, is aware of this and, according to a Charania video report from Thursday, the league is looking into an extensive COVID-19 testing program.
Charania reports that NBA commissioner Adam Silver expects to have daily COVID-19 testing when the league returns and, most notably, no stoppage in play necessary should someone test positive, as that person would then go into self-isolation in their hotel room as the team continues on.
There are, of course, complications.
While daily testing would be vital for the league to run, where and how the NBA gets its tests is of the utmost importance. The league came under fire when the Utah Jazz used Oklahoma state’s tests, and when the Brooklyn Nets bought private tests it was viewed as big business using its affluence to jump the line ahead of the public in the midst of a global pandemic.
The perception of the NBA has reportedly been front of mind for Silver and any return-to-play plans would have to take into consideration the public’s supply of tests.
And to those ends, The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor reported that the NBA has begun research into “group testing,” a procedure that could see many more get tested with fewer tests needed.
Here’s O’Connor’s explanation of what “group testing” is:
“Group testing is simple: Several samples from multiple individuals are taken and “grouped” together into the same lab test—this could be done randomly, or by mixing samples from members on the same team. Between five to 20 samples are usually mixed into the same test, which reduces the amount of tests needed, saving time, money, and resources. If the test is positive, those people’s samples would be separately retested to locate which individual sample(s) are responsible for the positive test in the group.”
The other problem the NBA will have to tackle if they do test daily is what happens when someone tests positive, especially a star player.
It’s well and good to say that play won’t stop and a player has to go into isolation if they test positive, but let’s say, for example, the Los Angles Lakers are facing the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Finals and LeBron James tests positive the night before Game 1, that would likely leave the Lakers without their most important player for the championship series. What does that do for the so-called legitimacy of the 2020 Finals?
It’s not difficult to envision a scenario where key players on multiple teams are forced out of the lineup because of a positive test and thus throwing the entire competition’s balance out of whack.
Wins and losses may seem like a small thing, ultimately, in the face of a public health crisis, but for the reputation of a professional sports league, this is a potentially huge problem.
Next steps that need to be sorted out
Lastly, here’s a very quick rundown of possible next steps that the NBA will have to get figured out before the season resumes.
• For non-American players, such as Dallas Mavericks all-star Luka Doncic, who may have decided to quarantine abroad, or even for members of the Toronto Raptors who stayed in Toronto and are working out at OVO Athletic Centre, the guidelines need to be clarified.
Do players need to be quarantined before they can start doing any work with their team in the bubble site? And if so, for how long?
• How long will the post-pause training camp last? And how many, if any, exhibition games will teams be allowed to play?
• If there are regular-season games that will be played, how many more will the NBA look to complete? According to Charania, getting the total number of 72 or 76 has been floated.
• What will the playoff format look like? Will it be the usual East vs. West? Or will all the teams just be re-seeded? With such strange times in the league’s history, the idea of taking just the best teams into the playoffs that many have wanted for years could actually happen this year.
• Charania also reported that some of the latest possible dates for the season to finish are Sept. 7 (Labour Day), Sept. 15, Oct. 1, Oct. 15 and Nov. 1. This is important to figure out as it impacts when the league’s draft could be held, when free agency would open and when the next season could be started.
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings made another investment this week in a young standout, signing Moritz Seider to a seven-year contract worth nearly $60 million.
The Red Wings announced the move with the 23-year-old German defenseman on Thursday, three days after keeping 22-year-old forward Lucas Raymond with a $64.6 million, eight-year deal.
Detroit drafted Seider with the No. 6 pick overall eight years ago and he has proven to be a great pick. He has 134 career points, the most by a defenseman drafted in 2019.
He was the NHL’s only player to have at least 200 hits and block 200-plus shots last season, when he scored a career-high nine goals and had 42 points for the second straight year.
Seider won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie in 2022 after he had a career-high 50 points.
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman is banking on Seider, whose contract will count $8.55 million annually against the cap, and Raymond to turn a rebuilding team into a winner.
Detroit has failed to make the playoffs in eight straight seasons, the longest postseason drought in franchise history.
The Red Wings, who won four Stanley Cups from 1997 to 2008, have been reeling since their run of 25 straight postseasons ended in 2016.
Detroit was 41-32-9 last season and finished with a winning record for the first time since its last playoff appearance.
Yzerman re-signed Patrick Kane last summer and signed some free agents, including Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract worth $9.5 million after he helped the Florida Panthers hoist the Cup.
Veterans Tyson Beukeboom and Karen Paquin will lead Canada at the WXV 1 women’s rugby tournament starting later this month in the Vancouver area.
WXV 1 includes the top three teams from the Women’s Six Nations (England, France and Ireland) and the top three teams from the Pacific Four Series (Canada, New Zealand, and the United States).
Third-ranked Canada faces No. 4 France, No. 7 Ireland and No. 1 England in the elite division of the three-tiered WXV tournament that runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 12 in Vancouver and Langley, B.C. No. 2 New Zealand and the eighth-ranked U.S. make up the six-team WVX 1 field.
“Our preparation time was short but efficient. This will be a strong team,” Canada coach Kevin Rouet said in a statement. “All the players have worked very hard for the last couple of weeks to prepare for WXV and we are excited for these next three matches and for the chance to play on home soil here in Vancouver against the best rugby teams in the world.
“France, Ireland and England will each challenge us in different ways but it’s another opportunity to test ourselves and another step in our journey to the Rugby World Cup next year.”
Beukeboom serves as captain in the injury absence of Sophie de Goede. The 33-year-old from Uxbridge, Ont., earned her Canadian-record 68th international cap in Canada’s first-ever victory over New Zealand in May at the Pacific Four Series.
Twenty three of the 30 Canadian players selected for WXV 1 were part of that Pacific Four Series squad.
Rouet’s roster includes the uncapped Asia Hogan-Rochester, Caroline Crossley and Rori Wood.
Hogan-Rochester and Crossley were part of the Canadian team that won rugby sevens silver at the Paris Olympics, along with WXV teammates Fancy Bermudez, Olivia Apps, Alysha Corrigan and Taylor Perry. Wood is a veteran of five seasons at UBC.
The 37-year-old Paquin, who has 38 caps for Canada including the 2014 Rugby World Cup, returns to the team for the first time since the 2021 World Cup.
Canada opens the tournament Sept. 29 against France at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver before facing Ireland on Oct. 5 at Willoughby Stadium at Langley Events Centre, and England on Oct. 12 at B.C. Place.
The second-tier WXV 2 and third-tier WXV 3 are slated to run Sept. 27 to Oct. 12, in South Africa and Dubai, respectively.
WXV 2 features Australia, Italy, Japan, Scotland, South Africa and Wales while WXV 3 is made up of Fiji, Hong Kong, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Samoa and Spain.
The tournament has 2025 World Cup qualification implications, although Canada, New Zealand and France, like host England, had already qualified by reaching the semifinals of the last tournament.
Ireland, South Africa, the U.S., Japan, Fiji and Brazil have also booked their ticket, with the final six berths going to the highest-finishing WXV teams who have not yet qualified through regional tournaments.
Canada’s Women’s Rugby Team WXV 1 Squad
Forwards
Alexandria Ellis, Ottawa, Stade Français Paris (France); Brittany Kassil, Guelph, Ont., Guelph Goats; Caroline Crossley, Victoria, Castaway Wanderers; Courtney Holtkamp, Rimbey, Alta., Red Deer Titans Rugby; DaLeaka Menin, Vulcan, Alta., Exeter Chiefs (England); Emily Tuttosi, Souris, Man., Exeter Chiefs (England); Fabiola Forteza, Quebec City, Stade Bordelais (France); Gabrielle Senft, Regina, Saracens (England); Gillian Boag, Calgary, Gloucester-Hartpury (England); Julia Omokhuale, Calgary, Leicester Tigers (England); Karen Paquin, Quebec City, Club de rugby de Quebec; Laetitia Royer, Loretteville, Que., ASM Romagnat (France); McKinley Hunt, King City, Ont., Saracens (England); Pamphinette Buisa, Gatineau, Que., Ottawa Irish; Rori Wood, Sooke, B.C., College Rifles RFC; Sara Cline, Edmonton, Leprechaun Tigers; Tyson Beukeboom, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England);
Backs
Alexandra Tessier, Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton, Que., Exeter Chiefs (England); Alysha Corrigan, Charlottetown, P.E.I., CRFC; Asia Hogan-Rochester, Toronto, Toronto Nomads; Claire Gallagher, Caledon, Ont., Leicester Tigers (England); Fancy Bermudez, Edmonton, Saracens (England); Julia Schell, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England); Justine Pelletier, Rivière-du-Loup, Que, Stade Bordelais (France); Mahalia Robinson, Fulford, Que., Town of Mount Royal RFC; Olivia Apps, Lindsay, Ont., Lindsay RFC; Paige Farries, Red Deer, Alta., Saracens (England); Sara Kaljuvee, Ajax, Ont., Westshore RFC; Shoshanah Seumanutafa, White Rock, B.C., Counties Manukau (New Zealand); Taylor Perry, Oakville, Ont., Exeter Chiefs (England).
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.
The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.
He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.
Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.
He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.
Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
