SAN ANTONIO — While there have been reports that some NBA executives are calling on the league to cancel the rest of the 2019-20 season, Spurs CEO R.C. Buford said Thursday the Spurs remain "on board" to resume the campaign.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver suspended the season March 11 after Utah Jazz All-Star center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the deadly virus that has killed more than 60,000 Americans.
"Our position all along is we want to do what's right for the league and for the fans," Buford said. "In every indication we've had – I just got off a team presidents' call – every intention is to return to play and try to create the best environment we can for the league, the fans, and we're all on board for that."
Buford made his comments in a 35-minute Zoom video conference with the San Antonio media early Thursday afternoon.
"I think our message for the fans is the same message we have for our community and our nation," Buford said. " We miss everybody. I think we're all probably in that space. This is uncharted territory. We would love to be able to interact with our community in a safe environment.
"I think the league's mission is to do that once we have all the information that we need to be able to accomplish that in a way that protects our fans, our players, our staffs, the whole operations, our media, that go into how we present our game, how we compete."
Buford said there are "multiple scenarios" about what the NBA would do with the rest of the regular season if it resumes playing.
"Though we aren't clear on the timing for a safe environment, it's impossible to designate the individual scenarios that might happen," he said. "But we're modeling multiples of scenarios that have not only our teams, our league, our players, our media partners . . . There are multiples of people at those tables handling those discussions, and we hope we'll do what's best for our fans.
"I think we all know, not only in our community and our region, but around the country and around the world, people are missing sports. And we're missing playing them. That's the problem we're trying to solve."
The NBA announced Monday that it won't reopen its practice facilities in "areas with relaxed social distancing guidelines" until at least May 8.
The league set the following guidelines for workouts at its facilities:
- No more than four players would be permitted at a facility at any one time.
- No head or assistant coaches could participate.
- Group activity remains prohibited, including practices or scrimmages.
- Players remain prohibited from using non-team facilities such as public health clubs, fitness centers or gyms.
Players must wear facemasks in team facilities at all times, except during physical activity, and team staffers must stand at least 12 feet away from players.
The NBA has prohibited players from having physical contact with coaches and staff since the season was suspended. Players also have not been allowed to use their team's workout or training facilities.
The Spurs have kept in touch with their players through technology, helping them stay in condition with virtual workouts they can follow on their iPads or laptops.
"Our coaching staff and our performance team were really creative and really proactive early on in this process," Buford said. "The front office, the performance team, the coaches got together and really systematically set up opportunities that we can get with our guys and help them during this time.
"We had no idea what we were going into. There are still a lot of questions that need to answered around that before there's a safe environment for our players to return to get back together. But there have been virtual workouts."
Anthony Falsone, the Spurs' athletic performance coordinator, has stayed busy supervising those virtual workouts.
"Anthony Falsone has been in 15 different garages over the iPads, helping guys work out together," Buford said. "We've had players in different locations working out together. We've had team virtual calls."
Buford chuckled when he said that getting coach Gregg Popovich, who is not big on "devices," to participate in a virtual call "was the biggest challenge we've faced so far during the hiatus."
Buford praised Falsone and his staff for its work under trying circumstances.
"I think our group has been real creative in keeping the team as connected as we can be," he said. "At the same time, maintaining safe environments and sheltering from home."
Before the country was turned on its head and live sports events still saturated our TV programming, the Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks 119-109 on March 10 at the AT&T Center.
One day later, Silver stunned the sports world when he announced that the league was suspending the season.
Silver acted swiftly after Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, postponing the Jazz-Thunder game in the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City just before tipoff. As it turned out, Jazz star guard Donovan Mitchell also tested positive.
The Spurs (27-36) trailed the Grizzlies by four games for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference when play was halted. San Antonio was 12th in the West standings with 19 games left on the schedule.
The Silver and Black have made the playoffs an NBA record-tying 22 consecutive seasons, all under Popovich, who has led the franchise to all five of its NBA titles.
San Antonio hasn't had a losing season since 1996-97, when Hall of Famer Tim Duncan was getting ready to graduate from Wake Forest.