Adam Silver contends the NBA's financial situation isn't quite as favorable in completing the 19-20 season compared to canceling it as one might assume. The NBA is paying upwards of $170 million to host the restart at the Disney campus in Orlando while not getting the lucrative gate receipts that come from the playoffs.

"I’m hesitating only because it’s better to play than not to play, but in terms of a net basis, it’s not as dramatically different as people might think, because it is so costly to do what we’re doing in Orlando," said Silver when asked what the fallout would have been financially if the season was canceled.

"It’s not a sustainable model, but we also recognize that this virus will end and that at some point we will return to more of a normal business operation with fans in seats. But I recognize that there’s a chance that still this season could come to a halt. The league certainly would have survived had we been forced to shut down, and it will survive if we’re forced to shut down sometime before October."

One point that has been made frequently by insiders is that canceling the season would have had long-term ramifications as the NBA would have lost top-of-mind status for many of its fans given the amount of time between the suspension of the season in March and whenever it would be deemed safe return.