Life on the road not quite as ‘free’
Players adjusting to new realities in the time of COVID
Rollicking road trips are on pause for the Spurs.
In normal times, the team’s recently completed three-day preseason stay in Houston would have been a great opportunity for coaches, players and support staffers to contribute to the Harris County economy through dining, shopping and other fun activities.
But they quickly learned in their first trip under the NBA’s meticulous pandemic protocols that life on the road during at least the first half of the season will be about being “fairly sequestered in hotels,” as coach Gregg Popovich put it.
“You are not going to run around shopping for Christmas toys or anything like that probably,” Popovich said.
According to the annual NBA.com survey released Friday, the league’s general managers picked “travel protocols and safety” on the road as their top pandemicrelated concern this season.
Those concerns are reflected in the 158-page health and safety
guide put together by the NBA. With an emphasis on testing, social distancing, sanitary conditions, mask wearing and other infection control measures, the protocols offer a clear cut map for navigating road trips long and short in the age of COVID-19.
“There are just more steps to getting through the day,” Popovich said.
And it all begins with limiting traveling parties to no more than 45 people, all of whom are subject to daily coronavirus testing.
“You got to do it,” Spurs guard DeMar DeRozan said. “It's for an important reason — safety.”
A road trip begins with the boarding of the team's private jet. The safety guide calls for a prohibition against traveling party members using public transportation — subways, rideshares, taxis, etc. — to journey from their homes to the airport. The preferred mode of travel is by individual vehicle or team bus.
Once on the plane, social distancing is strictly enforced, with the protocols calling for teams to “configure their flight seating plan to provide as many empty seats or rows, and free space between passengers, as possible.” Catering is “provided only on flights over three hours long or immediately after a game” and only if a postgame meal wasn't provided at the arena.
Once at the hotel, the traveling party has a “privatized check-in area” in low-traffic areas of the building designed to reduce interaction with other guests and hotel staff. The players' individual rooms must be as “distant as possible from any other hotel guests.”
When busing from the hotel to the arena, “each bus may have no more than 12 passengers on board at a
time.”
“There are four buses instead of two,” Popovich said, “and you have to get on this bus or that bus going, and then a different bus coming back. (There are) assignments because you can't sit next to anybody. You have to know where you are going.”
The protocols make dining, something that's always been a priority for the wine-and-pasta loving Popovich, a challenge. According to the safety guide, at least three restaurants in each market are eligible to host members of each team's traveling part for “sit down dining.”
But the protocols also note that, “While approved restaurants vetted by the NBA and NBA Players Association are strongly recommended, a traveling party member is also permitted to go to any restaurant on the road, so long as the restaurant complies with all state and local laws or regulations.”
While traveling party members may dine with people outside of the team, they are “discouraged from doing so.”
“Everything you do, you got to move with caution, understand what you are doing,” DeRozan said. “If you want to go out and eat, you got to make sure it's a private room and not in a big setting with a lot of people.”
Traveling party members are also “strongly discouraged from congregating, visiting or socializing with friends, players or team staff on other NBA teams, or anyone else not associated with their team.”
“It's just not as free as it used to be,” Popovich said. “You just have to be very careful.”
Said DeRozan: “You are more conscious of what you do, where you go, who you are around.”
While DeRozan understands the need for safety, he was quick to say the protocols have resulted in his
“whole rhythm” being “thrown off.” In the bubble for the seeding games this past summer in Orlando, Fla., the adjustment was easier because choices were limited and movement restricted, he said.
“The bubble was you test, you understand your routine,” DeRozan said. “Right now, we haven't really fully understood and gotten comfortable with a routine yet.”
For instance, budgeting time for testing was a challenge in Houston, said DeRozan, who had to get up an hour earlier than usual Thursday morning to be tested.
“Then (you) wait another hour to get on the bus and go to shootaround,” he said. “Everything is relatively new, and it's going to be that way for a while until we find some type of sense and comfort with it.”
Of course, the vaccine might provide relief. According to the protocols, the NBA and the Players Association plan to discuss whether it will be mandatory or voluntary for participants to take it.
“I put my full faith in (NBA commissioner) Adam Silver and his group,” Popovich said. “They are progressive. They are wise. They care. They do the absolute best job they can to take care of the league, and, at the same time, understand that the players come first.”
In the meantime, the Spurs will continue to adjust. Their next road trip is to Memphis for the season opener Wednesday night. Their first multi-game trip is set for Jan. 4 through Jan. 12 in three Western Conference cities against four opponents.
“You just have to be cautious,” DeRozan said. “You are not necessarily cooped up in a room. You can move around as you want, but be safe as possible.”