Risk Vs. Reward: Mavs Have No Plan To Open Gym, Cuban Says
DALLAS - The NBA announced on Wednesday that all 30 practice facilities for each team in the league can open up as early as this Friday, as long as the openings are in accordance with local restrictions. This would be a welcome event for NBA players dealing, as we all are, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic hiatus.
But not so fast, says Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
"The problem obviously is that because we can’t test people, then we can’t assure anybody’s safety, whether they’re basketball players or anybody else,'' Cuban told podcasters @bdameris and @MFollowill. “Even though we can try to take all different kinds of precautions, it’s just not worth it – particularly when our guys are staying in shape and they’re going outside and shooting on outdoor hoops and working out in various ways.''
The Mavs of course have plenty of reasons to wish a return to the floor. This turnaround season had a chance to be all about the NBA Playoffs, and even success in the playoffs. Dallas is frozen right now with a 40-27 record in the Western Conference, which is good for the No. 7 seed. .... and a chance to climb.
That return to the floor for games would start with a return to the practice facility, under strict guidelines. But Cuban - as much as he wants basketball back, and wants normalcy back - has been preaching patience for most of this entire hiatus. (He says the return to games requires a health situation that is "perfect.'') And he's been a powerful voice on this subject in the NBA and beyond.
"I just don’t think,'' Cuban says, "the risk is worth the reward.”
