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This is not about you, me or the millions who watch sports in America. At its core, the resumption of games is about powerful and wealthy men, accustomed to winning in life, knowing their legacies depend on how they manage the coronavirus. Nothing much is at stake, only the future survival of leagues and the scrutiny of history: which commissioners and owners pivoted successfully in a health crisis, and which lost the swab war.

In this athletic Game of Thrones, Adam Silver is best positioned to win the pandemic. And it should be said, here and now, that hed better win, as a shutdown of the NBAs celebrated bio-Bubble would throw the league into financial chaos and bring more attention to its troubles in China. An ESPN investigation shocker, I know, the broadcast partner reporting dirt on its business bedfellow revealed human rights concerns at the NBAs China-based youth academies, raising questions about a league that rushed too quickly to tap the vast sports economy of a Communist country.

All of which adds even more urgency to the most audacious undertaking in league history, a controlled basketball environment at Walt Disney World. No sports organization has embraced the technical explosion and social complexity of the 21st century like the NBA, and if any commissioner has a chance of conquering a fraught mission completing a season while keeping 1,500 human beings safe from COVID-19 it is Silver.

The world `anxious would describe how I feel, he said.

Frightened would work, too.

As sure as Charles Barkley is round, the NBA restarts its season with only minimal talk about the virus. Thats because Silver, in collaboration with Disney Company chief executive Bob Iger, hatched a grand design that made medical sense from its infancy: Protect 22 teams and more than 350 players from the worlds infectious ravages by placing them in isolation, in a community of hotels and glammed-up gyms, and having them test for the virus daily with rapid results from a private laboratory. In basketball, an 0-for-344 percentage sounds like another bad week for the Knicks, but inside the Silverdome, its the most recent sign that the experiment is working so far: zero positives among players for the second consecutive testing period.

Juxtaposed against the life-threatening chaos of Major League Baseball, which already is losing a Whack-a-mole game of outbreaks and frantic re-scheduling, the NBA again presents itself as a forward-thinking trailblazer. While MLB irresponsibly paints the Miami Marlins as a rogue, protocol-breaking team and refuses to stop its season amid virus hell, Silver was typically practical when asked on ABCs Good Morning America how hed respond if 17 members of an NBA franchise were infected like the Marlins.

If we had any significant spread at all, wed immediately stop and what wed try to do is track and determine where theyre coming from, Silver said. I would say, ultimately, we would cease completely if we saw this was spreading around the campus and something more than an isolated case was happening.

As so-called MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is now painfully aware, a season is not sustainable in 2020 without an NBA-like Bubble. The almighty NFL and college football soon will reach that conclusion, with likely dire consequences, while the NHL, WNBA and Major League Soccer remain optimistic all after adopting the NBAs isolationist lead. If Manfred is the predictable early misfit in the swab war, Silver looks like the visionary.

From my standpoint, its going very well, and Im cautiously optimistic that were on the right track, Silver told the New York Times this week. But I also recognize what were doing has not been done before, and the competition is just beginning. The real test will come when players are commingling, playing basketball without masks and without physical distancing.

Never lose sight of that: So much still could go wrong, even when so much has gone right especially when COVID-19 remains out of control beyond the Bubble in Florida. We should avoid calling it a Bubble, Silver warns, because it isnt hermetically sealed. Its his way of saying the controlled environment is neither fool-proof nor Lou-proof, as shown by the protocol violations of three players, including Lou Williams of the title-contending Clippers, who was excused by the league for a family funeral but also strayed to an Atlanta strip club for dinner. I dont care if Magic City is known for its chicken wings; did Williams ever think about the Magic Kingdom, the potential virus exposure throughout a league? He has been confined to quarantine the new NBA term for jail for 10 days, missing two games that could cost his team in the playoff seeding race. But in the bigger scope, Williams pit stop is what keeps Silver up at night. Its the blueprint for disaster: players tiring of being confined to life with each other, in a season that wont end until October, and sneaking off to who-knows-where at the risk of contracting the virus and sabotaging the plan.

No doubt the attention to detail in this vast undertaking is staggering. But one fluky quest for chicken wings is exactly the foolishness that could burst the Bubble. The league does such a good job of being hypercautious when they bring them back to the bubble, that I dont really feel like thats where our jeopardy is. I dont think we have any kind of real opportunity to sort of pop the bubble, said David Griffin, basketball operations boss of the Pelicans, on a Zoom call with reporters. I think the real issue is going to be, as this goes along further and further: Is there more and more pull to sort of break rank and just walk off campus? Thats when youre really going to see how well this is insulated.

A collapse of the Silverdome would be devastating to a league that has its own existential issues. The NBA is investing more than $180 million in Orlando with hopes of finishing a postseason and recouping lost broadcast revenues. If not? With no vaccine or cure in immediate sight, chances are slim of inviting fans into arenas during a 2020-21 season scheduled to tip off ready? on Dec. 1. With ticket sales and corporate sponsorships amounting to 40 percent of total revenues, the league is facing a financial crisis. Even the most well-heeled team owners, such as Golden States Joe Lacob, are raising capital with a murky future in mind. Houstons Tilman Fertitta (restaurants), Miamis Micky Arison (cruise lines) and Indianas Herb Simon (malls) have taken massive hits in accompanying businesses. Put it this way: The Timberwolves wont be the only franchise up for sale if fans cant return next season. Meaning, as National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts said, the NBA might be back in the Bubble mere weeks after a champion is crowned.

Unless, of course, the players dont want to return, which is possible.

Then, you have no NBA.

But for now, Silver can consider it a small victory that the virus is not front and center on Opening Night. Well be watching to see how many, if not all players, decide to kneel during the national anthem, a gesture Silver will support despite a longstanding NBA rule requiring players to stand for The Star-Spangled Banner. Said the commissioner: I respect peaceful protest. I understand these are unusual times. And unlike MLB, where an immature meathead such as Joe Kelly prioritized purpose-pitch revenge on the trash-can-beating Astros during a pandemic, the NBA is talking story lines!

Will LeBron James win his fourth championship, the most daunting ever attempted by a superstar, while advancing his social justice platform like never before? Is it Giannis Antetokounmpos turn to rule the sport and sign long-term in Milwaukee? Are the smallball Rockets a sleeper pick with a rested James Harden and Russell Westbrook? Are the Clippers deep enough to deal with a revolving door of players coming in and out of the Bubble?

Yes, the NBA has its own loons, such as Denvers Michael Porter Jr., who thinks COVID-19 is a conspiracy to control the global population. I think the coronavirus is being used obviously for a bigger agenda, he said. I mean, because of the virus, the whole world is being controlled. Youre required to wear masks. And who knows what will happen when this vaccine comes out? You might have to have the vaccine in order to travel. Like, that would be crazy.

Like, shut up, dude. And wear a damned mask.

Adam Silver cant do anything about free speech, even the weird stuff, when he heartily endorses such liberties. What he can do is try to steer his basketball league through a raging, unprecedented storm without risking lives. None of this should be happening, of course, and sports should not have resumed in America until next year. But if youre going to try, at least be smart about it.

Rob Manfred is letting the coronavirus control him. Adam Silver, a wiser man, will try to control the coronavirus.

Until he cant.

https://barrettsportsmedia.com

Jay Mariotti, called the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century, is the host of Unmuted, a frequent podcast about sports and life (Apple, Podbean, etc.). He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and radio host. As a Los Angeles resident, he gravitated by osmosis to movie projects. He appears Wednesday nights on The Dino Costa Show, a segment billed as The Rawest Hour in Sports Broadcasting. Compensation for this column is donated to the Scripps College of Communication General Fund at Ohio University. He can be reached on Twitter @MariottiSports.

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NBA Positioned To Win The Pandemic....And It Better - Barrett Sports Media