To be sure, a slightly funny fine of $50,000 followed. This kind of fine obviously can't make Harden change his lifestyle. After all, the money is only about 0. 1% of his annual salary, which is equivalent to a fine of 100 dollars paid by a person with an annual income of 100 dollars.
Meanwhile, it is reported that john wall, DeMarcus Cousins and George W. kenyon martin triggered COVID-19's contact tracking mechanism after they decided to go to someone's apartment for a haircut. Then, for the Rockets, nothing is more difficult than kenyon martin's positive test for COVID-19, which eventually led to the postponement of the game. Similar things happened in the rematch park before. Thanks to the Rockets, Daniel House was a nightmare for them at that time. Now, the alliance is facing the first severe challenge brought by the COVID-19 epidemic.
If players can't stay at home when there is no away game, except when they have to go out to work, buy food and other necessities, then the league will no longer trust them. By then, President Adam Xiao Hua will have to come up with Plan B in his pocket faster than he thought. Or, more accurately, this plan B will be the concept of a small isolated competition park.
Long before the news came out that "the league decided to change the start time of the game from the middle of 65438 10 to the end of February now, so as to save 500 million dollars", Xiao Hua and michele roberts, executive director of the players' league, had seriously discussed the possibility of the existence of the regional isolation park. Regional Segregation Park, as its name implies, is what the League learned from Orlando rematch park. Through a certain period, these experiences will be applied to several specific Segregation Parks in a shorter time.
Xiao Hua said: "We have been considering whether to build a small isolated park, and we have not ruled out any possibility. I think that if in the end, we have to go back to that closed environment to play, according to the news we have heard, it is obvious that long-term isolation is absolutely unbearable for our players and other participants. "
"I think it is definitely unrealistic to normalize isolated parks. In my opinion, for all of us, the rematch in Orlando Apartheid Park can only be regarded as an accident, because we had to work under unusual circumstances, and the existence of Apartheid Park was feasible at that time. I'm just thinking, when I think that our players and their families have to bear the pressure of separation, I can also imagine that the normalization of isolated parks will not work. As you can imagine, we have many choices. As for which scheme to adopt, it depends on the actual situation, and we will also consider other schemes if necessary. But as far as the current situation is concerned, the current arrangement seems to balance the interests of all parties. "
What needs to be clear is that the postponement of a game has not brought a crisis to the arrangement of the league. More importantly, on Wednesday, I randomly asked the general managers of several teams about the postponement of the game. They believe that unless the league plans to cancel the game, they are skeptical about the way the league officials respond to the epidemic.
In addition, unless the Rockets are a complete outsider, their failure to comply with the league's health and safety regulations will be regarded as a dangerous signal by the league, which may also be the beginning of the end of the non-closed game. Moreover, this season's league is surrounded by the "cruel scene" caused by the external epidemic, which will only make "Plan B" more attractive. We still have a few months to vaccinate low-risk people. Xiao Hua vowed that the NBA would not jump in line for vaccination. At the same time, the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States is far worse than when the 1 1 League decided to suspend the competition in March.
At that time, about 65,438+0,000 Americans were infected with COVID-19, of which 365,438+0 died, which means that even if any player tested positive for the virus at that time, it would be enough to suspend the league as soon as possible. Rudy gobert became the 0 th patient and was suspended for 4 months.
Up to now, the cumulative number of cases in the United States has reached 6.5438+0.84 million, of which 326.665438+0.50 people died. So if you are a letter brother, what is your wisest thing to do? Running for Miami Heat (or running for Boston Celtics on Wednesday night)? (Note: Florida, where Miami is located, and Wisconsin, where Boston is located, are currently suffering from serious epidemics).
When I was writing this column, my mobile phone was buzzing, and I received a tweet from the Los Angeles Times, which read: "Hospitals in California are crowded with more than 2 million cases of COVID-19, and the surge in the number of cases shows no signs of slowing down." There has been enough such news, and it is time for the league to reconsider the method of isolating the park. Obviously, the park can rely on the "omnipotent" dollar to maintain the game.
We all understand the motivation of the league to increase the start time to 65438+the end of February. Due to the global outbreak of COVID-19, the alliance lost about1500 million dollars. Xiao Hua and the league bosses saw an opportunity to delay financial losses, that is, to start the game one month in advance. However, you should know that this is not the league's plan in the late semi-finals. At that time, Xiao Hua made it clear in public and private that he hoped the NBA would start in the middle of June of 5438+ 10. After that, it was obvious that economists took over the dialogue between the league and the players' union, and the players' union finally agreed to cooperate with the arrangement of the league's early start. In order to keep their own profits, all the people involved in the NBA are also scrambling to make progress.
However, as Roberts told us in an interview on June 5th, 10, the decision of the league to play in a non-segregated environment will largely depend on the "questioned core demand of the league": exchanging players' health for the league's local market.
"Frankly speaking, I personally prefer the last practice of American professional baseball-if your team has spent more than half a season or played most of the regular season, if you want to win the championship at a certain point and reduce the risk brought by the epidemic, then you need to play a four-week playoff in an isolated environment instead of the usual 12-week playoff. I think players may feel the same way-but I want to emphasize again that no one wants to deliberately build an isolated park-but I think players may be more willing to play in an isolated park at this point. "
Finally, as Roberts expected, Harden wandered around many cities with his spare energy. As for his new nickname, it may be "chaos" (translator's note: Willy Nilly, the abbreviation of old English sentences, is often used for teasing because of rhyme), and his teammates have made similar mistakes. What kind of problems the NBA will encounter next seems to be the focus of attention.