‘Adam Silver saved thousands of lives’: Lakers’ Jeanie Buss on NBA Commissioner shutting down the NBA

Jeanie Buss acknowledged in her interview with Sam Amick of The Athletic that Adam Silver had saved thousands of lives by shutting down the NBA.

Till the time that Rudy Gobert and 3 other NBA players were found to have tested coronavirus positive, most American citizens took the threat of the virus with a pinch of salt.

It was the suddenness and finality of the NBA’s shutdown that caused most other sports leagues across the world to follow suit.

Jeanie Buss talks about NBA shutdown by Adam Silver on podcast

Among the innumerable topics they spoke about, Sam Amick and Jeanie Buss also talked about the league shutdown. The suddenness and unprecedented nature of the act caught the world’s sporting fraternity off guard.

“Adam Silver’s decision to shut down the league probably saved thousands of lives. It made everybody realize how serious this pandemic was.” Jeanie Buss said on the podcast.

Happy Birthday to our Laker Queen and the very best Governor in all of basketball! @JeanieBuss 💜💛

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— ShowtimeForum (@ShowtimeForum) September 26, 2020

But it was an absolutely necessary action to stem the transmission of the virus in major US cities.

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The rest of USA’s Big 4 sporting leagues followed suit within a week’s time. This led to people boycotting social events and staying indoors on their own before government directives for quarantine and social distancing came through.

Adam Silver’s proactiveness in shutting the NBA down with this finality had major consequences. It led to people taking the threat of the virus seriously.

Even though people started coming out of their homes around 2 months after the league shutdown, the nation was able to bear the worst of it.

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The Bubble was conceptualized and finalized by the NBA and the NBPA during the intervening time. It has proved to be a resounding success, with elevated levels of game play and no positive coronavirus cases reported in nearly 3 months.

A ton of credit will go to the board of governors as well as Adam Silver for taking the necessary but financially painful action of shutting the league down.