Pick-and-roll ... out

So I'm reading this piece by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, and she's quoting the executive director of the NBA players' union, Michele Roberts, saying it's time to get the NBA season started again, and now I'm looking at the calendar and thinking heretical thoughts.

Mostly these involve one word: "Why?"

Because, see, in the same story, I read that the likely re-start date is sometime in late July at the Disney/ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, and that they'll have to have some sort of training camp first. And now I'm looking at the calendar again, and I'm thinking more heretical thoughts.

Mostly these involve some version of "What's the point?"

I mean, if you're not going to re-start the season until late July, and you're going to either finish the regular season or jump right into playoff basketball even though the players have been idle since March, and those playoffs are going to be some sort of hurry-up deal because you don't want to rear-end the start of next season ...

Well. It's like the Blob said the other day about the NHL: Half-assery is full assery. And if you're going to have to engage in half-assery just to finish a season every reasonable person understands is lost, it's not worth it. It's time to scrub the mission and move on.

Or, hey. How about this?

Send everyone to Orlando as planned, and go ahead and conduct your training camps as planned. But reset the clock. Instead of re-starting a season that's already dead for all practical purposes, begin the 2020-21 season in, say, early to mid-August. Given that the NBA season lasts longer than the Punic Wars, this would mean it wraps in April instead of the middle of June.

Which is when every self-respecting basketball season should wrap up. And when the NBA season itself used to back when things made sense.

And the plague-ruined 2019-2020 season?

If awarding the championship trophy means that much, haul it out in Orlando and let Adam Silver parade it around for the troops. And let the players all touch it.

But only if they sanitize, of course.