League lays out its vision for restart to teams, players
Here’s some of what awaits NBA players going to Disney next month: game rooms, golf course access, cabanas with misters to combat the heat, fishing areas, bowling, backstage tours and salon services.
It only sounds like vacation.
The NBA described very specific plans to players and teams for the restart on Tuesday, doing so in a memo and handbook both obtained by The Associated Press. With safety being of the foremost importance during the coronavirus pandemic, players were told they will be tested regularly — but not with the deep nasal swabs — and must adhere to strict physical distancing and maskwearing policies.
The league and the Players Association have been working on the terms of how the restart will work for weeks, all while constantly seeking advice from medical experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci, perhaps the best-known physician in the country when it comes to COVID-19.
“My confidence, it didn’t exist at the beginning of this virus because I was so frightened by it,” union executive director Michele Roberts told AP. “Now having lived, and breathed, and suffered through the hours and hours of understanding the virus, and listening to our experts, and comparing different alternative protocols, I can’t even think of anything else we could do short of hermetically seal the players that would keep them safe.”
Later Tuesday, the NBA released its medical protocols to teams, a 108-page file. Among the highlights: players must shower in their individual hotel rooms instead of the game or practice arenas, be part of a contact tracing program, and that it is “recommended that coaches wear face coverings pre- or post-game where feasible.”
“The occurrence of a small or otherwise expected number of COVID-19 cases will not require a decision to suspend or cancel the resumption of the 2019-20 season,” the NBA wrote.
Most teams will arrive in Florida on July 7, 8 or 9. A person with knowledge of the situation said the reigning champion Toronto Raptors, the lone NBA team based outside of the U.S., will be permitted to gather for some pre-camp workouts — under strict guidelines other teams will follow in their own cities — before that arrival date. The Raptors are likely to train somewhere in Florida, said the person who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Nobody on the NBA’s Disney campus, which has been loosely described as a bubble, will be allowed in anyone else’s sleeping room. The NBA also told players and teams that it will work with one or more outside health care companies to provide a medical clinic with X-ray and MRI capability on the campus — critical, since in theory the league would not want players and team staff leaving and potentially facing coronavirus exposure by going outside of the Disney property for such exams.
The league’s plan also spells out how training rooms and meeting rooms will be utilized.