Mark Cuban: America Needs Sports

Mark Cuban says that a specific date has never been mentioned in the NBA’s discussions around resuming the season.

The Dallas Mavericks owner said that he would be pro-anything that would get sport back up and running.

It’s emblematic of the problem that the NBA has during the coronavirus pandemic. The league must plan to resume playing, whatever that might look like, as soon as it’s appropriate. However, nobody knows when that will be, least of all Mark Cuban.

“I have no idea,” Mark Cuban said on Wednesday.

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Last week Cuban optimistically said that the league could restart “hopefully by the middle of May.” However, the  NBA had another setback Tuesday when the Chinese Basketball Association was delayed in restarting by the Chinese Government.

The CBA has been suspended since January because of the coronavirus. Given that China is ahead of the West in the pandemic’s timeline, this is not good news for American sports.

“I mean, the only thing I know is that we’re going to put safety first and we’re not going to take any chances,” Cuban said. 

“We’re not going to do anything that risks the health of our players, our fans, our staff, the whole organization. So right now, I really don’t have anything new to say.”

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The CBA and English Premier League have mooted containing teams in quarantined facilities in order to finish their seasons. A little bleak, perhaps, but Cuban would be all for it in the NBA.

“It sounds great to me, and I’ll tell you why: America needs sports,” Cuban said. 

“We need something to root for; we need something to be excited about. Everybody in North Texas wants a reason to have the Mavs back on, and to get excited and to cheer together — even if there’s not any fans, just being able to watch on television and get excited and yell at the TV and high-five people again. We just need that. And so I’m all for it. Whatever we can make happen, I’m pro-doing it.”