Can NBA conduct season without Florida bubble?
The NBA resumed a season on a quarantined campus this summer during the coronavirus pandemic without any outbreaks. But can the NBA ensure the same thing in a 72game season without the same controlled environment?
“The freedom is a concern,” Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers said recently.
The NBA still experienced challenges in the bubble with players, coaches and staff members spending the majority of that time away from their families. Will the well-being of players improve with more family time between practices and games?
“I think it will be easier for a lot of people to navigate,” New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson said. “You have to factor in people’s families, kids and what they have going on in their life and not being restricted in one spot.”
Just like with the NBA’S quarantined campus near Orlando, the league outlined extensive safety protocols that entail daily COVID-19 testing, sanitary working conditions and rules regarding social distancing and mask wearing. The league will host games in home markets starting Dec. 22 initially without fans. But with the NFL and college sports postponing or suspending games daily because of COVID outbreaks, can the NBA avoid contributing to the country’s rising number of cases?
“The NBA has even admitted this – we understand that NBA players, coaches and referees are going to have COVID this year at some point,” Denver Nuggets coach Mike Malone said. “Hopefully we can contain it where it doesn’t become a team-wide situation, and we can somehow find a way to get through it.”
During conference calls over the past week with various teams, executives, coaches and players admitted uncertainty on if they can get through a season. As Warriors general manager Bob Myers conceded, “The truth is nobody has answers to these questions.”
The NBA’S 72-game season and playoffs will last from December through July, giving officials eight months to navigate a virus that has already killed more than 286,000 people, according to John Hopkins University data. Though most teams will play in empty venues and travel on chartered planes, officials cannot control peoples’ behavior in between practices and games.
“I’m sure everybody on here would feel a lot better if we knew the answer,” said Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul, the president of the National Basketball Players Association. “But what I do know is everybody involved – the league, the union and the players, everybody with the teams – is working daily to try to figure things out.”
Considering the NBA’S success story on an enclosed campus, why not just produce a sequel? Not only did the league worry about costs for an extended season on a quarantined site, but the NBA and its players union worried the participants’ mental health would suffer significantly.
“This is more difficult in the sense of COVID. But I think no player was signing off going back to that bubble,” Lakers forward Jared Dudley said. “There was no way you would have a 72-game season away from family. The NBA had stricter rules in there than I had ever seen. Give them credit. They had no positive tests. I understand that. But because of the strict rules, no player was going to sign off on that.”
Instead, the NBA and the players union signed off on beginning this season with other protocols to mitigate the risk. Before mandatory workouts began this week, all participants had to return at least three consecutive PCR tests. Players aren’t allowed to congregate in the team’s lounge areas even when group practices start next week. Both at home and on the road, participants can’t visit bars, lounges, clubs, public gyms or any indoor gatherings of 15 people. They also have limited eating options, including restaurants with either outdoor dining or fully privatized space indoors.