The NBA is certainly taking the coronavirus outbreak seriously.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, the NBA has sent a memo to its franchises about the virus. The memo instructs the teams that they should be making preparations to play without fans in attendance at the games.
This is a massive step for the NBA but the "should it be necessary" at the end of Charania's tweet demonstrates that the league isn't there yet. Nonetheless, it's a possibility that teams and players are going to have to consider and prepare for.
Still, if it does happen, Celtics guard Kemba Walker isn't looking forward to playing in front of an empty gym.
"That would be terrible. They might as well cancel the whole game before that," Walker said to reporters after the Celtics' 99-94 loss to the Utah Jazz on Friday night. "That would suck. But at the end of the day, it is getting serious. I don't know, it'd be very weird though."
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Walker has a point, as it would definitely be uncomfortable for players to play without fans. Without the energy of the crowd to feed off, it would be eerily quiet. And for a team with the fan support of the Celtics, it would dampen their homecourt advantage.
Games have been played without fans before. Most notably, the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox squared off in 2015 in front of an empty Camden Yards amid unrest in Baltimore related to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. And Italy has banned fans at sporting events for the next month as they deal with an influx of coronavirus cases.
The NBA is just being cautious and they may not ultimately have to close games to the public. But it is something worth watching in the future because as Walker said, it would be "very weird" without fans in attendance.
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