Getty Former Laker Magic Johnson.
It’s been a long time since a basketball was last played, and while the NBA hasn’t offered much insight on when the season might start back up, a couple of players have indicated that it will continue at some point and not get canceled. Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is among the players who have suggested that a cancellation of the season is not currently on the table. He recently had a fiery response to a rumor that was going around that the season would be canceled.
Though he’s no longer working for the team, Magic Johnson still has a connection to the Lakers. He had a strong response to the idea that players would want to continue to play the season.
“LeBron and the Lakers are going for something special,” Johnson said, via Arash Markazi of the Los Angeles Times. “The (Los Angeles) Clippers are going for something special. Milwaukee is going for something special. You know those guys are going to come to play. Their egos are on the line. The championship is on the line.”
The Lakers were one of the top teams in the NBA before the season was suspended, so it’s easy to see why they wouldn’t want their work to go to waste.
Johnson Talks Potential Games Without Fans
If the NBA does return soon, it’s highly unlikely that fans will be able to attend games. The idea of playing without fans was thrown around before the league was put on suspension, and they might have to put the idea into practice. Johnson believes that it shouldn’t affect players too much.
“When you’re going for something and you get past those first few minutes, you don’t know the difference because your competitive juices kick in,” Johnson said. “They’re going to play the game that they love and they’re going to play it 150% like they do with the fans in the stands.
“The only thing they won’t get is that juice when they make a good play or they go on a 12-0 run. There’s nobody there to take them to another level. The crowd takes you to another level. If you’re down, the Lakers fans are some of the best fans in the NBA when they start screaming and hollering. They’ll miss that, but if you think they’re not going to perform just because fans aren’t there, no.”
Playing without fans would certainly be unprecedented. It’s hard to know how games might go without them. The NFL changed up their format for the draft this year and it was successful. Perhaps the NBA will also see success by not having fans at games.
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Johnson Believes Bench Players Have Added Importance
Regardless of the impact of not having fans at games, there’s no denying that bench players will need to have a lot of energy.
“The guys sitting on the bench have to be jumping up, hollering and screaming and giving them some juice, and they’ll do that,” Johnson said. “Those guys sitting on that bench are going to be more important than they have ever been before if there are no fans.”
Watching games without crowd noise will certainly be awkward at first, but the players should be fine. Every player has played plenty of basketball when it wasn’t in front of a crowd. Yes, it will probably damper the excitement of a big play, but that doesn’t mean big plays won’t happen.
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