Los Angeles (AFP)
Former Los Angeles Lakers star player Shaquille O'Neal, a converted TV consultant, pleaded Monday for the final withdrawal of the 2019-20 NBA Championship season, interrupted in mid-March by the coronavirus pandemic.
"I think we should give up the season. Everyone should go home, get fit and come back for the next season. Let's just cancel the season, it's that easy," said "Shaq" in an interview USA Today.
The quadruple NBA champion, notably through Orlando and Miami, believes that if the 2019-20 season were to resume, the sacred team in 2020 could not be considered a champion in their own right.
"Trying to resume the season and hurry to make play-offs? Whatever team wins the title, there will be an asterisk next to its name, it will not have the respect that we usually give to a champion, "said the former imposing Lakers pivot.
"What would happen if a team that was not really among the contenders for the title (in March) starts to win everything with this new play-off formula? Nobody will respect it. Again, you have to cancel the season and be concerned about the health of spectators and players, before coming back next season, "said O'Neal, who won three NBA champion titles with the Lakers in 2000, 2001 and 2002, and a fourth title with Miami in 2006.
The NBA, which suspended its season on March 11 after the positive test of the French Rudy Gobert (Utah) at Covid-19, has been studying for weeks the possibility of closing the 2019-20 fiscal year, behind closed doors, by regrouping all the teams in the same confined area, which could be Las Vegas and / or Disney World in Orlando.
"It would be safer to be in the same place, or two places, to start," NBA boss Adam Silver told the players on a conference call on Friday.
© 2020 AFP