NBL needs time to resume action – Gordon

July 10, 2020
File
In this file photo from August 16, 2013, an Urban Knights player (front) is challenged by two Spanish Town Spartans opponents during game two of the FLOW National Basketball League finals at the National Stadium Court.
File In this file photo from August 16, 2013, an Urban Knights player (front) is challenged by two Spanish Town Spartans opponents during game two of the FLOW National Basketball League finals at the National Stadium Court.
Gordon
Gordon
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Jamaica Basketball Association (JABA) president Paulton Gordon believes that should approval be given for basketball activities to resume, they would need at least a month for the National Basketball League (NBL) to return to action.

The local outbreak of the coronavirus in March caused the NBL to be suspended in the middle of the season, and postponed competitions scheduled for April and May as well as coaching clinics. Gordon says that per the guidance of the Ministry of Sport, they have developed and sent in plans on how they will be able to resume competitions with proposed health protocols, and is awaiting approval for such protocols to be enforced for basketball activities to resume

"We have submitted our documentation and we are actually waiting on feedback from the Ministry of Sport so that we can move ahead," Gordon told Star Sports.

With the NBL being the first competition targeted for a possible return, Gordon says that he want to give participating teams enough time to prepare.

"What we want to do is that if and when the ministry allows us to [go], we would want to alert the teams and give them a window of four to five weeks to get back on track in terms of training, to get them to the level that they were at prior to the break," he said. "I would say it would be four to six weeks after the ministry has allowed us to get back on track to resume any sort of competitive basketball."

Urban Knights team manager Gordon Porter is, however, wary of a return to competition without knowledge of the proposed protocols. Furthermore, he is suggesting that a legal waiver be apart of resumption plans in order to legally safeguard stakeholders.

"If a team takes part in a particular match and one player becomes infected and, God forbid, develops serious conditions and dies, what are the legal implications of that?" asked Porter.

He said should legal protections not be included, he would not be comfortable in letting the team compete. "If the league was to be restarted without a legal wavier form in place, I would indicate to the Urban Knights that we should not take part in the league, because we are opening ourselves to serious legal issues," he said.

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