Can Adam Sliver run for President of the United States? Seriously, one has to applaud the job he has done with the NBA Bubble so far. Use the MLB commissioner and the MLBPA as examples, they avoided a possible lockout with ugly negotiations when the players objected a 50/50 revenue split.
At the end of June, the MLB agreed with the MLBPA to have a 60 game season. This agreement allowed players to get their full pay prorated with the games played. It has been known for a while that MLBPA and MLB bump heads on a lot of issues and while their original start date of July 4th got pushed back to July 23rd, It was cool to see any resemblance of sports on the tube.
The NFL, with Roger Goodell as their commissioner, also is having communication issues with NFLPA about a NFL Restart. July 19th, Cleveland Browns Wide Receiver Odell Beckham tweeted out to paraphrase the NFL has yet to instill protocols about Safety and testing in regards to COVID-19.
“The NFL has ignored the safety recommendations from the experts that THEY hired. We all love this game and want to go out and compete with our brothers. The NFL needs to provide a safe work environment for us to do that.” #WeWantToPlay Richard Sherman, San Francisco 49ers DB.
There are multiple tweets trending #WeWantToPlay with numerous of NFL players feeling a certain type of way how the NFL is handling this. On July 21st, the NFLPA and NFL agreed to cancel all preseason games and cut the roster size down to 80 players.
Originally, the roster size was 90, but due to COVID-19 and Safety reasons forced the downsize. There are still ongoing discussions about fan attendance, so the NFL is not out the woods yet.
The theme that I am trying to resonate with the Hardwood Nation readers is that while there have been disagreements with all the leagues in regards how to handle this pandemic and the safety of everyone involved, it seems that the NBA had less resistance compared to some of the other leagues. That’s not to say the NBA had some pushback, and to be honest, to see them kick off scrimmages had some thinking, how did we get here?
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