The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been postponed to 2021

What impact, if any, does this have on the Spurs?

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have have officially postponed until the summer of 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. After a conference call this morning, President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, and the Prime Minister of Japan, Abe Shinzo, decided that while the 2020 Olympics will take place, it will not be this year.

Per an official statement from the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee:

In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.

The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present. Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan. It was also agreed that the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.

It is definitely good to know that the Olympics will go on and help bring the world together as it always does, even if it will come a year late. This also works out well in the sense that it will not interfere with any other big sporting events, since “the year after the Olympics” is that “odd year out” with no other major sporting events (Winter Olympics, Men’s and Women’s FIFA World Cups, etc), so there will be little interference associated with the move.

From a Spurs standpoint, this may or may not impact anything, depending on how one wishes to look at it. Many have often pointed to the Olympics as a determining factor for when Gregg Popovich will retire from coaching in the NBA, although he has adamantly repeated for years that the two are not related in any way.

Regardless, those who thought he would retire after coaching the Olympics will have to alter their expectations by a year, although it still aligns with my most common prediction, which has been the summer of 2021 (the year after the Olympics). Pop signed a three-year contract extension with the Spurs in 2019.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been postponed to 2021
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been postponed to 2021