Milwaukee Bucks: Has Kyle Korver possibly played his last NBA game?

There’s plenty of uncertainty over whether the 2019-20 NBA season will continue and one can only wonder whether veteran Milwaukee Bucks sharpshooter Kyle Korver may have played his last NBA game.

In the face of the coronavirus outbreak, there’s more at stake than the Milwaukee Bucks’ sensational season being put on pause.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver continues holding out hope for resuming the 2019-20 NBA season, even as the situation continues to disrupt the life and daily schedule of players around the league and all over the globe. Like all 29 other teams, Bucks players are now prohibited from practicing in their own practice facility as of Thursday.

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But the longer this hiatus goes on, the more this 2019-20 season grows in jeopardy of being unfinished. And from that standpoint, it raises questions over whether we may have seen the last of long-standing players in action such as veteran Bucks sharpshooter, Kyle Korver.

Normally, these questions would be reserved for the end of the season and following a long playoff run as the Bucks were shaping up for before this break occurred.

Of course, circumstances have changed and while the Bucks may still make a long playoff run if the NBA can resume later this year, Korver will still be expected to deliver exactly what he’s given the Bucks throughout the year as he’s averaging 6.7 points on 41.5 percent shooting from three, 2.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists through his 50 appearances on the year.

The Bucks’ coaching staff have also been on top of not overextending Korver and his body at this stage of his career, whether it’s having him rarely play in back-to-backs or the month-long absence he had before just coming back into action on the Bucks’ winless road trip out West before the break.

But one shouldn’t forget that Korver did briefly contemplate retirement before joining the Bucks last July and he talked about where he felt physically and his pain tolerance over an 82-game season at this point of his career as he talked about with Scott Cacciola of the New York Times earlier this season:

"“I think you measure a lot of it based on pain: Do you hurt as much as you hurt last year? When you get out of bed in the morning, or when you first step onto the court for practice and take a couple of shots: How much do I hurt right now? You have this pain tracker in your head. But, yeah, I think I’m about the same as I was last year, and maybe even better because I was a little beat up toward the end of last year. But the challenge, as you get older, is that there’s more responsibility in life. You’ve got kids and you’ve got to be a dad and you’ve got to wrestle and tickle and play games and all that stuff. You don’t get to sleep until 10 o’clock anymore.”"

With this hiatus, all NBA players are essentially going into a sudden offseason period and all players, not just older ones like Korver, will have a tough time recuperating and then being thrust back into action if this season is able to resume and life as we know it returns.

For a team that had been standing atop of the league like the Bucks have all season long, Korver recently talked about being in the unique position of suddenly going to a standstill with K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago earlier this week:

"“It’s not what any of us would want obviously. We had really good momentum as a team. In our head, after All-Star break, we talked about really ramping up and getting more focused. We have championship aspirations. And now you go to a 0. We’re not even allowed into the facility as a group. It adds to the uncertainty for us. Obviously, everyone’s health — not just ours but the world’s — is most important. It’s kind of an interesting headspace to be in.”"

Instead, as drastic times call for drastic measures, players like Korver and his stature and experience may be forced to determine what’s best for their future in the event this season doesn’t go on as planned.

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If the last time we saw Korver in action during the Bucks’ loss to the Denver Nuggets ends up proving to be his last game, he went out the very way he played throughout his 16 NBA seasons: shooting the lights out.

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