Wednesday’s suspension of the game between Rockets and Thunder, on the second day of the new season, highlights the difficulties the NBA faces during the coronavirus pandemic, exacerbated by the lack of discipline from one of its big stars, James Harden. .
The guard, the top scorer for the past three seasons, has been battling the Houston Rockets for weeks to transfer him to another team.
Harden, the absolute leader of the Texas franchise since 2012, joined the preseason late, releasing videos at the time showing him at various festivities in other cities.
Already in Houston, two days after the official premiere against the Thunder, the guard went to another party in an indoor room on Monday.
The NBA responded on Wednesday by fining the player $ 50,000 for violating the league’s protocols against the coronavirus, but did not apply a penalty game, and Harden was able to participate in the game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday.
“The precedent is that discipline is being set in motion. And it’s Christmas,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN on Thursday in evidence of his decision.
“It was James’s first violation under these new protocols and (the $ 50,000 fine) was the limit of my jurisdiction. It didn’t seem appropriate to suspend him for that act alone,” the executive said.
Silver pointed out that Harden was “lucky” that the Houston-Oklahoma City game was suspended due to coronavirus cases in the Rockets, as since he was quarantined, he would not have been able to play it and they had withdrawn his paycheck corresponding to the contest, which adds up to $ 572,985, according to ESPN.
The Guard, who has two more guaranteed contract seasons in Houston for $ 41.2 million and $ 44.3 million, wants to be swapped for a franchise with a higher chance of winning the ring than the Rockets, where he has won numerous individual awards , like the 2018 MVP (Most Valuable Player), but never made it to its highly anticipated finale.
“Disputes between teams and players must be settled behind closed doors … This is not the first time a star has expressed dissatisfaction,” said Silver. “You expect James to be a professional and respect every aspect of his contract.”
– “An Attention Call” –
The conflict between the Rockets and Harden has ruined the start of the NBA campaign, which was already shrouded in uncertainty due to the foreseeable consequences of the pandemic.
The league took refuge in the “bubble” headquarters of Disney World (Orlando) to play the past playoffs, but now the league is being replayed on the teams’ courts at a time when the United States is experiencing a strong resurgence. going through the pandemic.
In fact, six of the 30 franchises allow spectators access to their courts in a limited number.
On day two of the competition, the NBA was forced to delay the clash between the Rockets and the Thunder because the Houston team did not have the minimum of eight players available to enter the court.
Three of the players in the Texas franchise tested positive or inconclusive, and at least four others were quarantined for prevention.
Without providing identities, the NBA reported on Thursday that two positive test results had been applied to 558 players in the past week.
“I said we knew we were going to have business. Just like baseball had business and the NFL (American football) had business,” Silver recalled. “We will learn along the way (…) In the bubble, we also started with a series of protocols, but then we have been constantly adapting them as we learned more, and I think it will be the same situation here.”
“You never would have liked to see what happened on the second day of the season, but it may have a positive side and it may have reoriented everyone’s attention (…) I think we were used to (safely) operate inside of the bubble, ”said the commissioner.
“It’s a wake-up call for all of us,” he stressed. “Until we get to a point where vaccines are available to people in our community, which is probably a long way off, every day will bring new problems.”
The NBA planned to launch the campaign in January confident that advances in detection tests and vaccines against the virus would allow it to regain viewers, but ultimately, haunted by economic losses, it delayed the start of the Christmas period to the traditionally good television audience.