MAAARING maantala ang pinakaaabangang debut ni Kai Sotto sa National Basketball League (NBL) makaraang ihayag ng liga na pinag-aaralan nitong iurong ang season opener dahil sa COVID-19 situation sa Australia.
Sa panayam ng ESPN’s Ball and the Real World podcast nitong October 1, sinabi ni league commissioner Jeremy Loeliger na bagama’t ang pag-bubukas ng liga ay nakatakda pa rin sa November 18, aminado siyang wala pang katiyakan ang lahat.
Ayon kay Loeliger, nananatiling top priority ng liga ang kalusugan at kaligtasan ng lahat ng stakeholders, kabilang ang fans, na plano nilang payagang manood ng mga laro sa sandaling magbukas ang liga.
“We’re still scheduled to start on November 18,” ani Loeliger.
“[But] given that we’ve always said our priority is our fans and allowing them to attend as many games in their home city as possible, it would be derelict of us not to continue to monitor and consider current circumstances of whether or not we push that date back a little further.”
Ang NBL season ngayong taon ay makasaysayan dahil maglalaro ang overseas players sa Down Under, kabilang si Sotto, na sasalang para sa Adelaide 36ers.
Magpapakitang-gilas din sina China’s big men Zhou Qi ng South East Melbourne Phoenix at Liu Chuanxing ng Brisbane Bullets.
Subalit ang pagkakaroon ng players na magmumula sa ibang bansa, ayon kay Loeliger, ay isa rin sa mga hamon na dulot ng pandemya dahil sa ipinatutupad na travel restrictions sa buong mundo.
Sa kasalukuyan, ang Australia ay may kabuuang 113,000 COVID-19 cases na may seven-day average na 1,849 hanggang noong September 30.
“We try to minimize disruptions to clubs and players as much as possible and we play in a code that happens to be a global sport and so a lot of our players are coming from overseas and wanting to play basketball,” dagdag pa niya.
“Officially it’s still November 18 but you’re 100 percent correct [that] there is certainly some murmur on the streets because of that fact that a lot of other codes are continuing to push back and we’re continuing to monitor the numbers on a day-by-day basis.”
Related posts:
NBL, WNBL TULOY NA ANG AKSIYON SA PAMPANGA
SOTTO UAAP JUNIORS MVP
(Dahil sa banta ng COVID-2019) 2 TORNEONG LALAHUKAN NI OBIENA KANSELADO
(Dahil sa banta ng COVID-19) FIBA ASIA QUALIFYING GAMES KANSELADO
PBA TEAMS SAGOT ANG BILLS NG PLAYERS NA TATAMAAN NG COVID
KAI SOTTO OPISYAL NANG KAPAMILYA NG NBA G-LEAGUE
NBL, WNBL MAGIGING PRO NA
DAGDAG NA AYUDA KAY OLYMPIC-BOUND YULO
282621 751159A thoughtful insight and ideas I will use on my blog. Youve clearly spent a lot of time on this. Thank you! 231255