The New Orleans Pelicans are headed to Orlando to finish the 2019-20 NBA season along with 21 other teams at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at the Walt Disney World Resort.
The team will play at least eight games, without fans, as they vie for a spot in the playoffs.
New Orleans head coach Alvin Gentry said Monday it will be a unique experience for the players to compete in an empty arena. But one member of Gentry's roster has an idea of what that might be like.
“Well, it happened to me already a couple times in Europe because fans in Europe are a little more crazy than in the states," Pelicans forward Nicolo Melli.
Melli explained that a few times during his career with different clubs overseas, fans were sometimes punished for actions like throwing objects on to the court and were not allowed in the arenas for games.
He even recalled one incident that lead to fans being removed at halftime of a matchup, which lead to his team finishing the game to an empty gym.
"It will be strange," he said abkut playing without fans. "It will be weird and I think it's going to be even weirder in the playoffs because everybody loves the playoffs for the atmosphere."
Despite the unique situation facing Melli and his teammates, the Italian sharp-shooter is just happy to be able to play basketball again.
"It is what it is," Melli said. "We are dealing with something bigger than everybody and right now, if we want to play, this is the only possibility, only solution.
"It's not what we dream about...sports is about emotion. It’s about fans. It’s about relationships. It's about being there and sharing moments bad or good.
"And we are not going to have that. But, at least, we are going to have some basketball and, I think, that’s not a bad thing."