NBA commissioner Adam Silver admitted on TNT’s Inside the NBA that older coaches that fall into higher health risk category because of their age may not be able to coach when the season resumes.
“It may be, for example, certain coaches may not be able to be the bench coach. They may have to retain social distancing protocols,” he said. Silver mentioned that such coaches may be coaching from a separate room to avoid close contact with other people.
It is generally believed that people over the age of 65 are at higher risk of getting severely ill if infected by coronavirus. Among the 22 teams that will resume the season, three of them have coaches who are 65-years-old or older, namely, Gregg Popovich (71), Mike D’Antoni (69) and Alvin Gentry (65).
New Orleans Pelicans head coach thinks it would be unfair to treat older coaches differently than the rest. “At the end of the day, they’re the league. They’re going to make the choice. I think it’s unfair if that’s what they’re doing. I understand the risk that I’m taking if I do get it. But hell, I want to be with my team and do my job. That’s what they hired me for,” he told Ramona Shelbourne of ESPN.
Mike D’Antoni had a similar reaction. “I am sure they want to keep everyone safe, but to start singling people out with more risk, well, I would hope they wouldn’t want to get into that,” he told Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
