O’Neal, in an interview with USA Today, said players should start to prepare for a 2020-21 season and set aside a campaign halted in March by the coronavirus pandemic with five weeks of regular-season games and two months of playoffs remaining.
“I think we should scrap the season. Everybody go home, get healthy, come back next year. Just scrap the season. Just scrap it,” O’Neal told the newspaper.
“To try and come back now and do a rush playoffs as a player? Any team that wins this year, there’s an asterisk. They’re not going to get the respect.
“What if a team that’s not really in the mix of things all of a sudden wins with a new playoff format? Nobody is going to respect that. So, scrap it. Worry about the safety of the fans and the people. Come back next year.”
Dominating center O’Neal combined with the late Kobe Bryant and sparked the Los Angeles Lakers to NBA crowns from 2000 through 2002, being named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player each time, then powered the Miami Heat to the 2006 title.
O’Neal, 48, retired in 2011 after a 19-season NBA career and has been working as a television analyst.
Current Lakers star LeBron James, who had LA atop the Western Conference when the season went on hiatus, has said no one should be talking about cancelling the season.
The league has been working on plans to gather teams in a single city, test and house players in a secured area and stage games without fans in a controlled area, with Las Vegas and Orlando most often mentioned as possible sites for the “bubble” plan.
“I understand how players are feeling. I really do,” O’Neal told the newspaper. “But any team that gets it done this year, there’s going to be an asterisk on that championship.”
O’Neal doesn’t want to see any resumption unless all involved – players, coaches, referees and the broadcast personnel – are safe from the deadly virus.
“However long it takes for us to get 100% back to normal, I’m willing to wait,” O’Neal said.
“All it takes is one person. After the game, you’ve still got to go home. What if one person gets sick? Then we start from zero again.”
NBA, NBPA extend deadline to void CBA
NBA owners have four months to decide whether to terminate the league’s collective bargaining agreement in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
ESPN reported the players association and NBA agreed to move the deadline for possible termination to September. While good-faith negotiations on elements of the CBA, including future salary cap and ongoing financial implications, are ongoing, extending the deadline was the result of both sides hoping for a clearer picture of the league’s long-term outlook.
The NBA can terminate the CBA under the Force Majeure Event provision for the period starting March 11 when the 2019-20 season was suspended.
With an extension in place, ESPN reported, it is possible for the NBA season to resume this summer with a goal of recouping revenue lost from a hiatus that hit the two-month mark.
On a conference call with players Friday, commissioner Adam Silver outlined what could be harsh realities stemming from the lengthy break.
“This CBA was not built for an extended pandemic,” Silver said on audio of the call. “There’s not a mechanism in it that works to properly accept a cap when you’ve got so much uncertainty; when we’d be going in next season saying, “Well, our revenue could be $10bn or it could be $6bn. Or maybe it could be less.”
Revenue projections could be more finite than ever before if play resumes, as expected, in empty arenas without fans. Silver said on Friday’s call the league could finish this season and play next season without fans present.
The NBA and NBPA share revenue on a 51-49 split of basketball-related income.
