Virus safety restrictions tightened
With COVID cases spiking and the NBA increasingly postponing games with teams falling short of the minimum players needed to compete, the league and players association Tuesday announced a variety of increased health and safety measures for players and staff members at games, at home and on road trips.
Restrictions will require increased mask use at games, greater social distancing and much less contact away from games.
“We’re trying to get an NBA season in,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “Whatever we need to do to get that done in the safest way possible, we’re all on board with doing it. Whatever they feel is necessary, we’ll do.”
Players and staff members will be required to remain at home when not on the road except for team-related activities, exercise or “essential activities” and “extraordinary circumstances” for at least the next two weeks.
Interactions away from work will be limited to family members or household members, including personal staff regularly working in the home. Staff members entering homes must be tested twice per week.
On the road, players and staff may not leave the hotel other than for team activities or emergencies and may have no interactions with non-team guests at the hotel.
Team meetings in locker
rooms must be no longer than 10 minutes and all participants must wear face masks. Other meetings with players and team staff must be conducted on the court or a room large enough to have aminimum of 6 feet of distance between participants who must wear face masks.
Vogel said preparations, even dealing with the abbreviated meeting time, can be more difficult, but understandable.
“Just having restrictions, trying to do your daily work is a challenge but this is a pandemic,” Vogel said. “There’s worse hardships in the world than us having to wear masks and have shorter meetings. It’s just the fact of the matter. I’m not stressed about it at all.
“We’re going to have a shorter pregame meeting. I’m going to be talking in there like an auctioneer. It’s not something we’re going to worry about. We’re going to follow the rules to a ‘T’ and do what’s best for the league to go forward and not have to cancel games and have guys being out.”
On flights, seating must be assigned so that players who sit closest to one another on benches sit closest to one another on the charters. Treatment must take place in rooms large enough for 12 feet between stations with facemasks and shields required at all times.
“I guess when you’re on the road, it’s not very much different from the bubble,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “But when you’re home, you’re driving in your car. You’re sleeping in your own bed. You’re still allowed I guess to go to the grocery store. (In) the bubble you’re very dependent on what your team and the league has set forth as far as what you’re eating and what your schedule is.
“As we approach our road trip … that’ll be closer to the bubble as opposed to being at home and … in the comforts of your normal life.”
Players are not permitted to arrive in the arena prior to three hours before tipoff and interactions are limited to elbow or fist bumps with other interaction to be limited and with 6 feet of distance.
Players must wear face masks at all times in the arena, other than when leaving the game and going to a designated “cool down” area stationed at least12 feet from the bench. Coaches and staff must wear face masks at all times.
The NBA may also require players and staff members on teams with a positive case to undergo five consecutive days of twice-daily, lab-based testing in addition to the daily point-of-care testing already required.
The more stringent guidelines are in addition to the health and safety protocols put in place by the NBA and NBPA before the season.
Still, as strict as the additional rules are, they are not as restrictive as teams faced in the bubble.
The NBA has had to postpone six games, including the Rockets’ season opener. There are 34 players, including the Rockets’ Danuel House Jr., who are not either self-isolating after positive COVID-19 tests or in quarantine because of contact tracing.
“It is part of it,” Silas said. “We’re understanding of all of the things the players association and the NBA are trying to do in order for us to play these games. We’re also cognizant of the fact this pandemic is still ahuge deal. I mean, 3,000 people a day over this past week have died as a result of this pandemic. Talking about whether you’re able to leave your hotel room seems small in comparison to all the death and the hospitalizations we had to deal with over the past nine months.”
The Rockets have had seven players who have been either in self-isolation or listed as out because of health and safety protocols.
Postponed games have not bee scheduled, but the NBA only scheduled the first half of the season to allow flexibility for rescheduled games in the latter portion of the season.
“The guys are just understanding of the rules andwe just abide by them,” Silas said. “It’s up to us as an organization andmyself to make sure the guys are understanding the rules and abide by the rules.”