Adam Silver Says NBA Has 'No Plans Right Now' to Pause Season amid COVID-19 Outbreaks

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NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN's Malika Andrews on Tuesday that the league has no plans at the moment to pause the season amid a number of COVID-19 outbreaks on various teams and the omicron variant. 

"No plans right now to pause the season," he said. "We've of course looked at all the options, but frankly we're having trouble coming up with what the logic would be behind pausing right now."

Silver said the majority of the cases the NBA has seen have been the Omicron variant. 

Silver added that 65 percent of the league's players have received a COVID-19 booster shot and that 97 percent of the players are vaccinated, and that the league hasn't considered mandatory vaccination.

He also said the league was reviewing its health and safety protocols. 

"We are actively looking at shortening the number of days that a vaccinated, but asymptomatic player, has to be out," he said. "... Everything we are doing is in coordination with the players association."

And Silver said there aren't plans to reduce fan capacity in arenas, and that the league would continue to follow local mandates.

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The NBA has seen a number of outbreaks in December, with new cases popping up at a high rate:

The league and NBPA did agree to new protocols through Jan. 19, however, which will allow teams to sign a replacement player for each member on the roster put in the health and safety protocols and will require that at least one replacement player is signed per two players in the protocols, two players signed per three players in the protocols and three players signed per four players in the protocols, etc.

Two-way players also won't have a cap on the number of NBA appearances they can make this season.