Rockets owner tells President Trump NBA season will finish with playoffs
Houston Rockets owner and billionaire businessman Tilman Fertitta has told President Donald Trump that the 2019-20 NBA season will finish, at some point, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
As Sopan Deb of The New York Times shared on Twitter, Fertitta spoke with the President while at the White House on Monday. Fertitta explained that the campaign might not finish, in full, before the league enters its postseason:
"I think that we would play some games just to get it going again and create interest and then go right into the playoffs," Fertitta reportedly said.
Not all NBA teams had completed the same number of games when the league suspended operations on March 11 after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. It's not known if the Association would look to even things out, as much as possible, before advancing to some version of the playoffs.
Win percentage could be used to determine postseason seeds, if necessary.
It's worth noting that the NBA and National Basketball Players Association haven't announced any agreement for the completion of the season during the pandemic. In late April, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported the league could look to Walt Disney World Resort as a temporary basketball haven this summer.
Any regular-season and playoff games likely would occur behind closed doors and without fans in attendance.
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