Destiny made a big “joke” with Gobert and the NBA.

Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “sprout NewSeed” (ID: pelink) , Author: Liu Bo.

After yesterday, NBA player Gobert became a netizen. The man who “protected” the entire league by himself.

The game between the NBA Jazz and the Thunder was originally scheduled to start at 8 am yesterday, Beijing time. However, the starting list of both sides has been announced. When preparing for the midfield jump ball, the game was suddenly stopped. Asked to return to the locker room. The live anchor announced that due to the physical discomfort of the Jazz players Gobert and Mudiay before the game, whether the game will start will wait for further approval from the league.

Later, the NBA official said that because Gobel and Mudiaere were already sick, the game would eventually be postponed when it was impossible to determine whether they were infected with the new crown pneumonia epidemic.

But even more surprising news came after Gobel had been diagnosed with new coronary pneumonia after being tested. To this end, the NBA official had to announce an immediate suspension of all games this season.

A rather dramatic scene is that when Gobel was leaving for a media interview 3 days ago, he unexpectedly patted all the microphones in front of him and expressed his attitude in a joke.

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But now, Destiny has made a big “joke” with Gobert and the NBA.

The NBA stopped for the first time due to epidemic factors

As of now, the cumulative number of newly diagnosed cases of new crown pneumonia in the United States has exceeded a thousand people, showing a trend of intensification, and strengthening prevention and control has become a top priority.

On Friday, U.S. time, the home game of Johns Hopkins University in the NCAA tertiary league chose an empty match in response to the new crown pneumonia epidemic. In addition, Chicago State University also cancelled last weekend’s away game against Seattle University, and the University of Missouri-Kansas has cancelled matches against Seattle University and Utah Valley University.

The NBA, which is one of the four major sports leagues in North America, has tens of thousands of stadiums. In this situation, there is a possibility of large-scale cross infection. Therefore, before yesterday’s game between the Jazz and the Thunder, NBA officials were already considering measures to deal with the currentThe epidemic situation just didn’t expect the situation would worsen so quickly.

As early as March 1, the NBA official said that he had consulted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on daily prevention of COVID-19, and said that he would monitor the changes in the epidemic. “The health and safety of our employees, teams, players, and fans are paramount. We will work with the team to consult the CDC and infectious disease experts to closely monitor changes.”

Subsequently, the NBA official issued two memoranda, suggesting that players use punches to interact with fans, and avoid accepting items such as pens, basketballs, jerseys, and shoes for signature. He also stated that emergency measures such as air games and game suspensions would not be ruled out.

On March 10th, restrictions were further upgraded. The four major sports leagues jointly announced that the locker rooms and related internal facilities of all teams will only be open to players and necessary staff. The media can be temporarily set up through the locker room. Area for interviews. In fact, such a measure can be used to cope with the epidemic situation of new coronary pneumonia. The effect it can play is very limited. There will still be crowds of people and there is a certain risk.

In the early hours of yesterday, the San Francisco city government announced that it would ban gatherings of more than 1,000 people. The Warriors and Nets games today would have been vacant, but now they have to be cancelled.

Looking back at the five lockouts in NBA history, mostly because the labor union agreement between the player union and the team did not reach an agreement, which led to the season being compressed. The most recent stoppage was the 2011-2012 season, when the season was 149 days off, and the regular season was reduced from 82 games to 66 games.

It is the first time that the season has been shut down due to force majeure.

It is worth noting that because the teams that the Jazz have played against each other within 5 days have played against each other, there is a possibility of cross infection in all 30 teams in the league. At this time, it has become a bit shaky to announce the season stoppage. Belatedly

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As of now, Mitchell, the star of the Jazz, has also been diagnosed with new crown pneumonia. Fortunately, he was the only confirmed case among 58 people tested by the Jazz yesterday.

Ticket revenue has lost at least $ 500 million

The most important reason why the NBA has slowed down its response to the epidemic situation is the “income”. Because whether it ’s an empty match or a season stop, Will face no small economic loss for the NBA.

Compared to the NBA ’s revenue last season, according to data released by Forbes, the NBA ’s total revenue in the 2018-19 season reached US $ 8.8 billion, and game ticket revenue accounted for 22% of US $ 1.94 billion. 30 teams The average ticket revenue was $ 64.67 million, and then averaged to 41 home games, with each ball being $ 1.58 million.

Because of each city, the size of the market, the strength of the team and the influence of the game are different, so the ticket income of each team will also be different. According to previous data, as one of the teams with the highest box office revenue in the league, the Warriors’ ticket revenue per game is between $ 2.5 million and $ 3 million, while the Grizzlies and Pelicans are about $ 1 million.

Before the epidemic situation continued to escalate, the ticket prices of various teams have fallen to varying degrees, and the ticket prices for some sessions were only $ 7 on the second-hand website. At present, each team has about 9 home games left. It is roughly estimated that the total ticket loss for the remaining games of 30 teams will exceed 500 million US dollars.

According to previous reports, in 2014 the NBA reached a 9-year broadcast agreement with ESPN and TNT for a total price of US $ 24 billion, which has been implemented since the 2016-17 season, with an average of US $ 2.67 billion per year, accounting for 30% of NBA’s annual revenue %. Therefore, even if the game is held in the air, the NBA will still have at least revenue from broadcasting rights. Once the game is cancelled, there will be a double loss of broadcasting and ticket income.

It’s no wonder that in such a severe situation, the NBA will hesitate between open games and shutdowns. NBA President Xiao Hua said in an interview with TNT Radio today that the league will interrupt the game for at least 30 days. “That may mean that the finals will start in July or later.” But he also said that when to discuss now The proposal to resume the game is too early.

In fact, this season’s NBA can be described as a bad year. Before the start of the season, it had lost the Chinese market because of the “Morey incident” and suffered heavy losses.

After the Rockets general manager Morey made inappropriate remarks about Hong Kong on October 6, last year, several Chinese companies and institutions, including Li Ning, Anta, CCTV, and the Chinese Basketball Association, announced the suspension or termination of their relationship with the Rockets and the NBA. Official cooperation.

In fact, the Rockets and the NBA have benefited from the Chinese market in recent years. After Yao Ming joined, the market value of the Rockets rose from $ 255 million in 2003 to $ 2.3 billion in 2019. As the NBA’s largest overseas market, China will contribute approximately 150 to 200 million US dollars of net profit to the NBA each year, accounting for about 10% of the total NBA revenue.

In mid-February this year, in an interview with the media, Xiao Hua also acknowledged for the first time that the “Morey incident” had caused economic impact on the alliance, and the specific figure was “less than 400 million US dollars.” He also said frankly that for CCTV no longer broadcasting the NBA,Meng also has no control and will not ask CCTV to rebroadcast, and believes that “everything will return to normal soon.”

Obviously, Xiao Hua didn’t expect that things will develop into what they are today.

Conclusion

WHO Director-General Tan Desai has previously announced that the new crown pneumonia epidemic has constituted a global pandemic, meaning that the “epidemic” has entered a stage of widespread global spread.

In this case, for professional sports leagues, open games are no longer the best choice. Pausing the remaining games can play a better role in preventing and controlling the epidemic.

As of now, the suspension of multinational sports leagues has been announced. Italian Prime Minister Conte announced on the 9th that the city will be closed nationwide from the 10th. At the same time, all sports events including Serie A will be suspended; the Spanish Football Association announced that all professional football leagues will be suspended for two weeks; the French Football Association also announced Suspend all domestic football matches …

The Tokyo Olympics has once again been overshadowed. Takahashi Takahashi, member of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, said that in view of the expansion of the new coronavirus epidemic, he will consider proposing an extension at the Olympic Organizing Committee’s board at the end of the month.

Obviously, the suspension of professional leagues and the postponement of the Olympic Games will inevitably result in huge economic losses, but these are not worth mentioning in the face of life and health.