Every-Thing Sports

Sports and social distancing: what to expect moving forward

Sports and social distancing: what to expect moving forward
Jermain Every

HEB's social distancing floor signs

We're living in very strange and scary times right now. The coronavirus pandemic has the world at a standstill. Lives have been greatly interrupted, and too many of them have been lost. The economy is screwed. People are hoarding unnecessarily. The country feels like it was woefully underprepared. And the one person uniting us equally is a gay, tattooed, gun-loving, multi-pierced, faux politician, private zookeeper who's doing time for a botched murder for hire scheme! What a time to be alive!

Usually in times like these, we have sports to distract us. After 9/11, we had sports to help us get through the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil. When the housing market crashed in 2008, sports were there for us. This time, we don't have that shoulder to lean on because of what the virus has done to society. Social distancing is very real. People are wearing masks, gloves, and quarantining. Restaurants are carry out or take out only. HEB has the best social distancing process for their checkout line (pictured above). However, how will this affect sports moving forward? What will our sports look like in the future?

The immediate return: fans or no fans

Jermaine Every

Whenever we get back to having sports on a somewhat regular basis, will there be fans or not? Empty arenas have been done in soccer recently during the beginning of the pandemic, and several times over the years because of fan craziness. The notion of no fans in arenas was floated around until things got shut down. I knew it was real when the NCAA basketball tournament was canceled. Initially, I think there should be no fans. When there's a med that can treat the virus or a vaccine, there shouldn't be any fans. If leagues are that desperate for fans in arenas/stadiums, they should only allow a certain number in, only have a set number of seats equally spaced apart, and have a scheduled bathroom and concession time.

Handshakes, huddles, and celebrations

Spec's social distancing sign

Jermaine Every

Handshakes, huddles, and celebrations are as apart of sports as the athletes themselves. I've read things that lead me to believe some won't be shaking hands and stuff when play resumes. Most sports involve at least some physical contact. Will athletes be scared to return? Will leagues require all athletes get tested before returning? What happens if a player tests positive soon after play resumes? Will things get shut down again? What about fan interactions with the athletes? Will that be done away with as well? So many questions and not enough answers. One thing I think we'll see is an easing into these things. Athletes who come back will more than likely have some assurances that they won't get sick by playing. I also think the celebrations will be spontaneous and come back slowly but surely. Combat sports such as MMA and boxing will likely have a hard time keeping things clean. I could see testing being an issue when it comes to setting up fights, especially with athletes from hard hit areas.

A new normal

EA Sports' message about social distancing

Jermaine Every

Eventually, things will get back to normal. What that new normal will look like is hard to tell. I can see someone inventing some sort of virus scanner just like there were new body scanners and such after 9/11. People at gates checking tickets may be equipped with those temperature gauges and check people before they come in. How would you feel if there were sanitizing misters like those water misters? Let's say they mist sanitizing spray on you as you enter a building, arena or stadium and they're also placed in various places around said buildings. I wonder how contracts will be written in the future? Insurance companies (Lloyd's of London specifically) will be in the business writing policies to protect athletes, and maybe even teams and leagues in case something like this happens again. Could we see masks invented specifically for athletes to wear until there's a vaccine?

While I like many others can't wait until sports come back, we must take all precautions we can to prevent the spread of this virus. Use this time wisely. Spend it with those closest to you. Learn something you've always wanted to learn. Watch those shows and/or movies you've always wanted to watch. Gvie some new hobbies a try. Start exercising. Some of you could use this time to learn how to cook finally! Sports play a major part in our lives, but this is showing us how much bigger our lives are than sports. We'll make it through this, but we have to stay vigilent in our efforts. Are you looking for some things to do while waiting on sports to come back? Tune in next week when I give you some things to watch or do to while practicing good social distancing.

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The Rockets host the Warriors for Game 1 this Sunday. Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images.

They’ll be watching in Canada, not just because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, though the NBA’s scoring champion and MVP favorite who plays for Oklahoma City surely helps lure in fans who are north of the border.

They’ll be watching from Serbia and Greece, the homelands of Denver star Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Alperen Sengun will have them watching Houston games in the middle of the night in Turkey, too. Slovenian fans will be watching Luka Doncic and the Lakers play their playoff opener at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Los Angeles. Fans in Cameroon will be tuned in to see Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers. Defending champion Boston features, among others, Kristaps Porzingis of Latvia and Al Horford of the Dominican Republic.

Once again, the NBA playoffs are setting up to be a showcase for international stars.

In a season where the five statistical champions were from five different countries, an NBA first — Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, rebounding champion Domantas Sabonis of Sacramento is from Lithuania, blocked shots champion Victor Wembanyama of San Antonio is from France, steals champion Dyson Daniels of Atlanta is from Australia, and assists champion Trae Young of the Hawks is from the U.S. — the postseason will have plenty of international feel as well. Gilgeous-Alexander is in, while Sabonis and Daniels (along with Young, obviously) could join him if their teams get through the play-in tournament.

“We have a tremendous number of international players in this league,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this season. “It’s roughly 30% of our players representing, at least on opening day, 43 different countries, so there’s much more of a global sense around our teams.”

By the end of the season, it wound up being 44 different countries — at least in terms of countries where players who scored in the NBA this season were born. For the first time in NBA history, players from one country other than the U.S. combined to score more than 15,000 points; Canadian players scored 15,588 this season, led by Gilgeous-Alexander, the first scoring champion from that country.

Gilgeous-Alexander is favored to be MVP this season. It'll be either him or Jokic, which means it'll be a seventh consecutive year with an international MVP for the NBA. Antetokounmpo won twice, then Jokic won three of the next four, with Cameroon-born Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers winning two seasons ago.

“Shai is in the category of you do not stop him,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said after a game between the Raptors and Thunder this season.

In other words, he's like a lot of other international guys now. Nobody truly stops Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Doncic either.

And this season brought another international first: Doncic finished atop the NBA's most popular jersey list, meaning NBAStore.com sold more of his jerseys than they did anyone else's. Sure, that was bolstered by Doncic changing jerseys midseason when he was traded by Dallas to the Los Angeles Lakers, but it still is significant.

The Slovenian star is the first international player to finish atop the most popular jerseys list — and the first player other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James to hold that spot in more than a decade, since soon-to-be-enshrined Basketball Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony did it when he was with New York in 2012-13.

“We’re so small, we have 2 million people. But really, our sport is amazing,” fellow Slovene Ajsa Sivka said when she was drafted by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night and asked about Doncic and other top Slovenian athletes. “No matter what sport, we have at least someone that’s great in it. I’m just really proud to be Slovenian.”

All this comes at a time where the NBA is more serious than perhaps ever before about growing its international footprint. Last month, FIBA — the sport's international governing body — and the NBA announced a plan to partner on a new European basketball league that has been taking shape for many years. The initial target calls for a 16-team league and it potentially could involve many of the biggest franchise names in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.

It was a season where four players topped 2,000 points in the NBA and three of them were international with Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo. Globally, time spent watching NBA League Pass was up 6% over last season. More people watched NBA games in France this season than ever before, even with Wembanyama missing the final two months. NBA-related social media views in Canada this season set records, and league metrics show more fans than ever were watching in the Asia-Pacific region — already a basketball hotbed — as well.

FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers — which are clearly being fueled by the continued international growth — suggest the game is very strong right now.

“Looking around the world, and of course here in North America," Zagklis said, "the NBA is most popular and more commercially successful than ever.”

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