Insurance salesman Shaquille O’Neal says the NBA should ditch its season and concentrate on a fresh start for the next campaign: “Any team that wins this year, there’s an asterisk.”
What a dope.
Who says COVID-19 allows 2020-21 to go off without a hitch? Any league that’s in progress should finish what's started. That requires a smaller window. What if you abandon this season, then have to do the same next season?
Forget your asterisk. In the real world, crap happens.
The Houston Rockets won two NBA championships during Michael Jordan’s baseball phase. Those count. The New Jersey Devils (1995) and Chicago Blackhawks (2013) won Stanley Cups after seasons shortened by labor stoppages. Those count, too.
NBA and NHL teams have played 65-70 games. That should not be casually scrapped. For some teams, their best chance might be now.
Shaq cavalierly wanting to discard work already done before the situation is proven unmanageable is typical of a spoiled athlete that’s spent his life on a pedestal and in a bubble. If it can’t be perfect, or like it usually is, forget it.
But sports may never again be like they were. Things aren’t perfect. If the participants can’t accept that, sports are done for good.
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