Pelicans' Brandon Ingram 'Not Very Confident' NBA Will Finish 2019-20 Season

The NBA is set to resume the 2019-20 season at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, on July 30, but New Orleans Pelicans star Brandon Ingram told reporters Monday he's "not very confident" the league will actually be able to finish the season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This is something that's never been done before, and there's still a lot of question marks," his teammate Lonzo Ball added, per Doug Mouton of WWL-TV. 

There are major question marks heading into the NBA restart, given the recent spike in coronavirus cases around the United States and the complexities of gathering 22 teams to conclude the season, even with those teams quarantined in Orlando and subject to rigorous testing and safety protocols. 

“I didn’t look at it like I had a choice of going or not,” Ingram said, per Christian Clark of NOLA.com. “My teammates knew I didn’t question it or anything. I just wanted to play basketball at the end of the day. I always go back to me being hurt. It made me want to come out and play basketball all the time. When I got the chance to do it, I was going to go do it and be full force in it. I know my teammates know I’m there 100%, 110%. I’ve got to be there. It wasn’t a question.”

While some leagues around the world have had great success minimizing the threat of COVID-19—the English Premier League didn't have a single positive test in its most recent round of testing—other leagues have already hit major complications.

Most notably, FC Dallas announced Monday it had been withdrawn from the MLS is Back Tournament after 10 players and one coach tested positive for the coronavirus.  

The NBA has had some players withdraw from the return to play, most notably Los Angeles Lakers guard Avery Bradley and Brooklyn Nets center DeAndre Jordan, but no major stars have chosen to sit out at this point. 

If major stars do test positive for the coronavirus in Orlando and are forced to miss time, however—especially once the playoffs begin—it will be fascinating to see how the NBA reacts. Namely, will they want to proceed with a postseason devoid of some of the game's biggest stars?

That's a hypothetical for now. And for now, players like Ingram are planning to compete for a title in Orlando. But as players like Ingram and Ball demonstrated Monday, there are very real doubts within NBA circles about how—or if—the league's restart will actually work.