Although the United States is devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBA season is expected to restart soon. The new coronavirus has infected almost 4.5 million Americans and killed over 150,000 of them. The most affected states are California, Florida, New York, Texas, and New Jersey, in exactly this order.
The NBA league’s Orlando-area bubble restart will offer a different perspective towards the players and the television audience. There are no fans allowed in the stands because of reasons that we’re all aware of, and it will be interesting to see how this situation will unfold.
The NBA will assure the familiar noises during matches even without crowds
This is what the NBA promised because it would be awkward for the players otherwise. Stan Van Gundy, who is a former NBA coach, will serve as an analyst for TNT broadcasts on opening night. The man emphasizes the need for some kind of background noise:
“I think the idea is right, because with no noise, it’s almost eerie,”
“I mean, it’s just not what any player or coach is used to.”
Sara Zuckert, who is NBA head of Next Gen telecast, declared that the new season will have at its disposal an “audio soundscape” that mimics teams’ home arenas as accurately as possible.
Van Gundy also added:
“It’s not like (NBA Commissioner) Adam Silver sat down and said, ‘Hey, you know, let’s do some of these things. They’ll be better than having fans at the game.’ That’s not what happened,” Van Gundy said. “It was we can’t have fans at our game, how can we make the atmosphere the best it can be under the circumstances? And that’s what they’ve attempted to do.”
The overall picture regarding the pandemic doesn’t look too good in other countries as well. Even though the spread of the novel coronavirus is experiencing a significant decrease in Europe, the situation worsens in the US, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and other countries.
