Unfortunately, I’m not interested in subscribing to the NYTimes. Could you share some more key points?
Some quotes/comments from the Megdal article in the NY Times.
Englebert Comments:
On the draft:
- “We want to make sure that the players who are the draftees get their moment in the limelight,” the W.N.B.A.’s commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, said in a phone interview on Wednesday from her New Jersey home, where she has worked remotely for nearly two weeks because of the
coronavirus outbreak that has brought the sports world to a standstill.
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The draft is scheduled to be televised on ESPN at 7 p.m. Eastern time on April 17, with streams from players wherever they are and Engelbert “somewhere in New Jersey, announcing the draft picks live.”
“And that’s an honor for them,” she said. “So that while it’ll be virtual, and I won’t be with them, maybe they’ll be with their families and could be streamed in at home.”
And this comment about playing the actual games:
- Playing games this year is paramount, Engelbert said. Even if the league must play in empty arenas for safety’s sake, she said, she and her team are reimagining what experiencing live sports might look and feel like. It could mean playing games in one, centralized location that has been cleared for fans or playing in front of no fans in person but emphasizing other live forms of engagement, like social media.
“Getting live sports back on television, I think we have almost a public service responsibility to do everything we can,” Engelbert said. “Because it’s clear that everybody’s missing live sports.”
Nicki Collen, Atlanta
- For the league’s coaches and general managers, the April 17 draft date will still allow them to finish scouting and arranging deals. Nicki Collen, the head coach of the Atlanta Dream, said that with the team staff living all over the country, much of the work was done by teleconference, anyhow.
Cheryl Reeve, Minnesota
- “Draft preparation has not changed too drastically, as video has always been an extensive part of the evaluation process,” said Cheryl Reeve, the head coach and general manager of the Minnesota Lynx.
Reeve, whose team has the sixth overall pick, said the cancellation of the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament did affect how teams could prepare for the draft.
“What we miss is watching the next class of W.N.B.A. talent rising up, making big plays to help her team win on a big stage,” Reeve said. “But most of the evaluation work had already been completed prior to the N.C.A.A. tournament.”
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