Thunder forward Gallinari favors games without fans if coronavirus worsens
Italian player has endorsed the idea of playing NBA games behind closed doors if necessary.
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Danilo Gallinari has weighed in on the idea of playing NBA games behind closed doors to manage the ongoing worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
“I am in favor, because I see everything that’s been going on in Europe, not just in Italy,” Gallnari said. “In all of Europe, they stopped every game, they stopped every competition, in between countries too, so it’s not just Italy. The steps they did were playing normal games, then games without fans and now they’re not playing. So until like April 6 or April 15, every competition is stopped. Hopefully we don’t get to that point where we don’t play games anymore, but maybe as a step forward to play some games with no fans,” he said. “Hopefully that doesn’t happen, of course, because playing without fans is a huge change for a player too, when you play the game. But it’s something the league has to do in order to prevent what’s going on in Italy and not have it go on in the States too.”