OPINION: NBA Is A Success Story Amidst America’s Failure

While the pernicious use of racial justice messaging on National Basketball Association jerseys and courts did not allow viewers to forget at least one of the major issues facing us in 2020, it did provide a remarkable escape from another.

Sports have become even more of an exercise of holding one’s breath as a fan in recent months as teams endure outbreaks of COVID-19, seasons come under threat on a daily basis and stars come in and out of quarantine. However, the NBA has risen above the rest of professional sports to prove not only to American sports fans, but to the country as a whole, that COVID-19 can be beaten. The league played 88 seeding games for a total of 22 teams, followed by another 84 playoff games for the remaining 17 teams with zero positive cases reported among players. It took an inordinate amount of resources and protocols, but clearly it was a cost worth pursuing.

The Atlantic’s James Hamblin put it best, saying “It’s a testament to human ingenuity and resilience how quickly we can reinvent things and get people back to work, safely and effectively, when a group of billionaires has a direct financial stake in making it happen.”

It is really worth reflecting on the top-down leadership the league had not only from their commissioner Adam Silver, but from team owners as well. The league shut down on March 11 when Utah Jazz forward Rudy Gobert tested positive, developed a nuanced solution based on available scientific evidence and were able to successfully finish their season after about a four-month delay.

The contrast with the rest of America’s experience with COVID-19 has been striking. The lack of top-down leadership left governors competing for PPE early-on, and holding their states to inconsistent standards as the virus spread. We lagged well behind in even diagnosing how bad the problem was as testing remained scarce. We were told in late February by White House adviser Larry Kudlow on CNBC that “We have contained this. I won’t say air-tight, but it’s pretty close to air-tight.”

That same week on Feb. 26, the President of the United States told Americans that coronavirus was on the verge of being gone.

“You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero,” President Donald Trump said.

Ever-rising case numbers and deaths in Wisconsin alone eight months later show the only thing “close to air-tight” were the bags of hot air spewing that garbage in the first place.

While the United States as a whole has become polarized around how seriously to take this virus, the NBA showed calm and considerate leadership. They did not leave it up to 22 team owners to determine what was right for them based on their perceived risk. They distributed resources and protocols, made testing widely available and got safely back to work.

Our government meanwhile has basically just told us to shut up and dribble.