Andrew Bogut's reality nearly was the NBA's.
Australia's NBL conducted its Finals in empty gyms due to the coronavirus pandemic before the former Warriors big man's Sydney Kings backed out. The NBA, before suspending its season in the immediate aftermath of Rudy Gobert's positive COVID-19 test, was planning to play out its season sans fans.
Bogut told The Athletic's Ethan Strauss that fond memories of playing basketball as a 12-year-old it evoked quickly gave way to strangeness.
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SIGN UP HERE "It was kind of cool in its own right for about five minutes and after that it was just weird; it was a weird situation," Bogut told Strauss in an interview published Tuesday. "No atmosphere and it was flat. But at the same time for me, it was pure basketball in a way because there wasn’t a crowd that could get involved. The referees weren’t intimidated by crowd noises. It was kind of as pure as it gets from a purist’s point of view. But it just looked strange with a bunch of empty seats."
NBA commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN's Rachel Nichols that the league was considering, among other options, finishing its season in empty arenas in an effort to limit the coronavirus' spread and ensure the safety of its players.
Just after the league suspended its season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended postponing or canceling all mass gatherings of 50-plus people for the next two months. Bogut argued that an NBA game would easily exceed that number, even if fans aren't allowed to attend.
"There’s still people you’re interacting with," Bogut told Strauss. "From a player’s perspective, you’re not going to interact with a crowd, anyway. You’re interacting with the ball boys and the game-ops people. My personal opinion is that once it goes back to game-time, it should be full-fledged, because you’re still going to have a group of people congregating, whether there’s no crowd or a crowd."
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Bogut credited the NBA for shutting down the season when it did, unlike the NBL. He told Strauss that Australia's top basketball league wasn't proactive, with the season only ending after Bogut's team removed themselves from the Finals.
The NBA reportedly still intends on finishing its season, no matter when that might be. What they ultimately take away from Bogut's experience in Australia remains to be seen.