NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (left) and Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James

The world of sport has already been affected by tragic tragedies such as a plane crash, and the NBA may be affected one day. If no one wants it, the leaders of such a machine must plan for everything. So there is a very specific process in the rules if 5 players from the same franchise die.

It’s something we don’t necessarily think about (and fortunately), but athletes, like all of us, can be subject to serious accidents. The example of Kelly Oubre Jr. could have reminded us of this in a rather dramatic way, he who was hit quite violently by a driver. As crazy as it sounds, he almost escaped with his broken ribs and superficial leg injuries…

As you can imagine, if fans do not necessarily plan for such crazy scenarios, the NBA has no other choice but to anticipate, the economic stakes behind the smooth running of a season being far too important. So in the long list of rules that apply in the league, there is a passage dedicated to tragedies which details how to proceed if death were to strike a franchise.

The “Disaster Draft”, the NBA’s last resort in the face of death

To trigger this exceptional device, never before seen in history, a very specific condition must be respected: at least 5 players in a squad must lose a limb, or worse, their life. Because they would obviously no longer be able to be on the field, the league would then trigger a process that is aptly named: the “Disaster Draft”. The principle is simple, and it should remind old fans of things.

Because concrete examples are the most understandable, let’s imagine that part of the Lakers squad disappears tomorrow in a terrible plane crash. So, the 29 other teams in the league would have to provide Adam Silver with a list of the 5 players they consider untouchable in their roster, and all the others would find themselves available in this fairly unique Draft.

Then, it would be up to the leaders of the Lakers to select the best talents at their disposal, with a maximum limit of one choice per team. Thus, a group as deep as the Celtics for example would not find itself stripped of several strong elements. For their part, the Lakers would clearly not be in the title race, but the squad would not be the worst in the league either.

For those who already followed the NBA assiduously in 2004, it is a process which must strongly remind one of the “Expansion Drafts”, and this is quite normal since it is the same principle. Following the creation of the Charlotte Bobcats, the leaders of this new franchise were able to move left and right with relative success. Among the rare good finds, they notably came across Gerald Wallace and Zaza Pachulia.

The NBA is a league worth several tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, it must necessarily anticipate everything, including the tragic death of its players. So even if a team was affected by a plane crash or an attack, there would be a solution to resume the show…