The conversations are getting more serious among the country’s major sports leagues.
The NBA is taking precautions against the coronavirus outbreak, and media has been temporarily barred from locker room access.
Playing without fans in the arena is a very plausible outcome for the final stretch of the regular season. And while Boston Celtics players are wondering about how the atmosphere without a crowd could affect their performances, their coach raised another interesting point.
Brad Stevens, among other health concerns, is worried about being next to a “hot mic.”
“My hope that would be, whatever hot mic they have isn’t right next to me,” Stevens said Tuesday, via MassLive’s John Karalis. “If we have no fans in the building, they pick up everything I’m saying.”
Stevens comments came as a bit of comedic relief while answering a coronavirus question in Indiana before the Celtics take on the Pacers Tuesday night. Obviously, he wouldn’t want the opposing team to pick up his play calls in an empty venue, but it also inspires an inquiry about how a television network would handle sound while broadcasting a game with no fans cheering in the crowd.
It’s already difficult enough to drone out Marcus Smarts’ trash talk for live television. Imagine if his outburst at the officials last week was surrounded by silence?
If networks rolled out the broadcast allowing viewers to hear all the on-court dialogue, for better or for worse, it would be a silver lining to the possibility of playing games behind closed doors. Otherwise, there’s money to be made in an R-rated streaming service doing just that.
