NBA to teams: plan for possible games sans fans. LeBron: I ain’t playing without crowd

The coronavirus emergency hit the USA too.

Per ESPN, The NBA asked teams on Friday to begin developing processes and identifying actions required if they have to play games without fans in attendance, limiting attendees to only what is deemed “essential staff,” according to a memo obtained by ESPN.

The memo said that members of the media and other typical attendees, in addition to fans, also could be absent from the arenas during games.

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James scoffed at the idea of playing games without fans in attendance.

“Nah, that’s impossible,” James said after the Lakers’ 113-103 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. “I ain’t playing. If I ain’t got the fans in the crowd, that’s what I play for. I play for my teammates, I play for the fans. That’s what it’s all about. If I show up to an arena, and there ain’t no fans there? I ain’t playing. So, they could do what they want to do.”

Boston Celtics guard Kemba Walker said he hoped it didn’t come to that point.

“That would be terrible,” he said. “That would be boring. They might as well cancel the whole game before that. That would suck. But at the end of the day, it is getting serious. I don’t know. It would be very weird though for sure.”

The coronavirus emergency hit the USA too.

The memo said teams should also prepare for the possibility of implementing temperature checks on players, team staff, referees and anyone else essential to conducting a game.