Players allowed back to facility
Toyota Center set to open for limited workouts
The Rockets will begin making the Toyota Center practice gym open to players for individual voluntary workouts Monday as Texas moves to the second phase of its reopening plan.
Rockets CEO Tad Brown said May 6 the team would join others around the NBA in opening its facilities under strict guidelines Monday, when Gov. Greg Abbott would ease restrictions on fitness centers in Texas.
Roughly nine Rockets players have expressed interest in returning to Toyota Center sometime this week. Many are scattered around the country but have established workout routines since the NBA barred players from team facilities March 19 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Players remain prohibited from using public fitness centers, with workouts at team facilities permitted only with strict protocols.
Only four players are permitted in the building at a time, with just one player and one staff member allowed on any basket. No head coaches, top assistants or front office personnel are permitted onsite.
Players, wearing a mask, must arrive alone and in their own car. Players must check their temperature and text the reading before leaving their homes and will have additional temperature checks and face a series of questions when they arrive at facilities.
Players also went through a “pre-participation screening” consisting of a limited physical examination.
Trainers, strength coaches and developmental coaches must wear gloves and masks whenever in the facility, including during workouts. Locker rooms and showers remain closed.
All areas and pieces of equipment, including basketballs, are to be cleaned after use. Anyone entering facilities must wear masks and gloves, with players permitted to remove masks only during workouts.
The NBA permitted teams to make practice facilities open to players May 8 where local jurisdictions had relaxed stay-at-home orders.
“We’re confident that we’re going to provide a very safe, structured environment for them, but it’s going to be at the time dictated by our political leaders and, most important, our health experts,” Brown said May 6 when designating Monday to open the Rockets’ practice gym.
The move to open facilities was not viewed as a step toward restarting the season as much as a response to the easing of stay-athome restrictions in many locations where public fitness centers were opening.
In the weeks since, however, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has in conference calls with the players’ association and the board of governors discussed ways in which the league could salvage some of the 2019-20 season by playing with no fans in a “campus environment” at one or two locations.
On Friday, All-Star guard Chris Paul, the president of the players association, said in an ESPN interview that the consensus among players is to find a way to return if it can be done safely.
“A lot of hard conversations that have to be made, a lot of hard decisions,” Paul said. “But with the team around us, I think ultimately we’ll get to where we want to. Obviously, we want to play. Oh, man, we want to play. We want to play bad. And I think that’s a consensus for the guys around the league.”
Portland, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Denver, Atlanta, Indiana, Sacramento, Toronto, Utah, Orlando and the Los Angeles Lakers have opened their facilities to players, with roughly two-thirds of the league expected to be open at least on a part-time basis this week.