As the COVID-19 pandemic continues into its third year, the NBA and other sports leagues are still being affected by it. And one team is now being forced to postpone some games.
The Chicago Bulls are currently dealing with an extensive COVID outbreak in their locker room. 10 of their players are currently in protocols and some will be unavailable to play. And now the league is stepping in.
According to ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA has postponed two games this week. Tuesday’s Bulls-Pistons game and Thursday’s Bulls-Raptors game are now being pushed off to later.
This is the third straight NBA season that has seen games postponed or canceled due to COVID-19. And with a surge in cases be reported across the country, this week’s postponements are unlikely to be the last.
In 2020, the NBA put all of its teams into a bubble in Florida to finish off the season. The following season, the NBA managed to pull off a 72-game season with less than three months of an offseason.
The 2021-22 season was supposed to mark a greater return to normalcy. Unfortunately, the pandemic is making it clear that we haven’t reached “normal” just yet.
With the way the pandemic is being managed in some places, it could be multiple years before the virus is gone for good. Then again, the longer it stays around, the more likely it is that it’ll pop up again in the near-future.
Will we see any NBA games canceled outright due to the pandemic?