Darkest days of COVID cast shadow on NBA
As the Lakers prepared for this season, LeBron James and his teammates were fully aware that it would be only 71 days between their championship celebration and their opener, a compressed offseason that disrupted rhythms and recoveries.
Departing the NBA‘s bubble environment wasn’t that far in the past for the Lakers. And for the psyche of most in the NBA, it wasn’t that long ago when the league could stage important games with no fear of interference.
When the league scooted through the preseason and two weeks of its schedule, it seemed like some of the magic dust sprinkled over the league in the bubble was still working. Only one game had been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic — Houston’s opener — and that was more about violated protocols than it was the virus itself.
But in the last three days, the NBA has found itself back in the real world, where things are getting rough. The darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic have, unsurprisingly, cast a shadow on a league trying to operate in the middle of it.
Three different teams are dealing with widespread instances of either COVID infections or contact tracing, so much so that Miami and Boston have had multiple games postponed. This last weekend, Philadelphia played a game with only seven healthy players, forced to dress an injured one in order to avoid a forfeit.
The NBA postponed a game Monday between Miami and New Orleans. They also pushed back today’s game between Chicago and Boston. Sunday’s game between Boston and
Miami also got postponed. The NBA will try to reschedule postponed games during the second half of the season.
The realities of playing sports during a pandemic have reached the NBA, just as it impacted the NFL and college football, and now people around the league have to figure out if they want to face what that really means.
The league’s general managers discussed a variety of solutions Monday. The NBA’s Board of Governors will convene today to discuss
options.
There are further restrictions the league can put in place to avoid transmission, from limiting shootaround and practice frequency to limiting the number of guests allowed in players’ rooms — currently two family members or close friends.
There are also league executives who believe the NBA would be best served pausing for four to six weeks, committing to return once a sizable number of players and staff have received the COVID-19 vaccine. One executive who floated the idea said he believed the NBA wasn’t at the point where that would have widespread support.
League executives have discussed the possibility of expanding rosters to help
teams meet the eight-player minimum available for a game. Team rosters could handle more robust contact tracing if teams were allowed to add two players via exception (their salaries wouldn’t count against any the salary cap), bringing the maximum roster size from 17 to 19.
The pushback, though, has been from those who believe adding players to the league’s pool is in direct opposition to the league’s strategy of mitigating risk. More players mean more potential exposures, cases and spreaders.
More players probably also means larger traveling parties and more support staff, which again, means more risk.
“There are no good solutions,” one NBA executive said.
The league and the NBPA, the union that represents the league’s players,
were also scheduled to meet Monday to discuss alterations to the NBA’s health and safety policy. Changes to visitations on the road would need to be approved by the league’s players.
Contact with the wrong person at the wrong time can land a player in the league’s health and safety protocols, like it did with Lakers guard Alex Caruso, who missed four games after having a close contact test positive.
“It was really an unfortunate timing, kind of unlucky in a way,” Caruso said after returning this week. “Moving forward, I think the league has done a good job of getting it right so far. That’s kind of the whole point of the contact tracing. … So, I understand the policy. It’s a little frustrating that I got caught up in this early in the season. I’m trying to get my rhythm and get back into things. But I’m going to
learn from it and move on and be better.”
That seems to be the NBA’s strategy to this point, to learn and improve its approach, nimbly adapting as challenges arise. The bubble has burst. It remains a worst-case option because players do not want to isolate themselves again for months at a time.
Playing in a pandemic is going to mean batches of postponements and teams that have to deal with outbreaks and contact tracing. It happened in Major League Baseball as well as pro and college football.
Those leagues put their heads down and forged ahead, reshuff ling schedules and playing with fifth-string quarterbacks.
With things as bad as they’ve been, does the NBA have the stomach to do the same?