BENGALURU: Slowly but surely, sports is getting back to its feet in certain parts of the world. Baseball, football and golf have resumed in South Korea, while the Bundesliga in Germany restarts on Saturday. Some other European football leagues too plan to get back in action next month.
Gradually reopening its doors is the NBA, one of the biggest sporting leagues in the world. Basketball authorities in the US allowed teams to open facilities last week, after the stay-at-home order was relaxed in the country.
As a result, 10 teams including the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings have opened their practice facilities for voluntary workouts. The league has laid measures like only four players to work out at one time, with other safety precautions.
“The NBA has done a tremendous job of leading this. There has been a lot of work done by the medical experts throughout the league and in our local community in Sacramento that has guided us in our response of opening our facility for individual workouts,” said Roy Rana, assistant coach of Kings, in an online press conference.
“We are following to the T the directives that have been passed onto the local health professionals, the NBA and then obviously all our internal teams. So far, I can say that it is going smoothly. Players and the staff are committed to creating a safe environment,” he said.
This reopening is one of the first steps taken by the NBA, but there is no clarity on the road ahead. The regular season was scheduled to end by April 15 and the playoffs were to start three days later. With no action for the last two months, things lie uncertain. One does not know if the remainder of the season would be played or things would start with playoffs from current standings. It could be decided in the next four weeks or so.
Despite the uncertainty, teams remained in touch with their players. Most of it was via video calls. Most of the Kings players also maintained fitness at their home gyms. But the biggest challenge for them would be to get back to match fitness if and when the season resumes.
“We have never been in a season like this. It is going to be a unique challenge. It is unprecedented for everyone, not only for the Kings. It is going to take time for the players to return to the level of preparation where they can perform at the high level. Right now we focus on a daily basis and support our players physically and mentally, and try to keep them as healthy as possible. Once we get a direction as to where we are headed as far as the season is concerned, we will move to the next phase, about physical preparations,” said Rana, who believes things would be challenging for coaches as well.