Adam Silver: The truth is up until a few days ago the experts were unclear

Commissioner Adam Silver, in an interview on TNT, confirmed that the NBA will take that 30-day hiatus and use the time to further discuss whether the league can resume play and how it can do so:

«Of course the issue becomes now, what we determined today, is that this hiatus will be most likely at least 30 days, and we don’t know enough to be more specific than that. But we wanted to give direction to our players and teams and fans that this is going to be roughly at least a month».

«But then the question becomes is there a protocol frankly with or without fans in which we can resume play. I think the goal [is] … what makes sense here without compromising anyone’s safety. It’s frankly too early to tell».

«In the meantime, we will continue to coordinate with infectious disease and public health experts along with government officials to determine safe protocols for resuming our games».

«The truth is up until a few days ago or even up until yesterday, the experts were unclear as to whether as a public health matter, NBA arenas should be emptied. I think there was a clear consensus that for people over 70 [years old] or people who have any underlying ailment or compromised immunity system that they should not be coming but again it was an open issue».

«We made that decision [to suspend the season], since I knew I had had the benefit of several hours of meetings that day with representatives of every team on the issue of hiatus. In that moment we made the decision that we should be taking a hiatus knowing again we would have a chance to meet and have further discussions today».