NBA lays out vision for Disney restart to franchises, players

Here’s some of what awaits NBA players going to Disney next month: game rooms, golf course access, cabanas with misters to combat the heat, fishing areas, bowling, backstage tours and salon services.

It only sounds like vacation. The NBA described very specific plans to players and teams for the restart on Tuesday, doing so in a memo and handbook both obtained by The Associated Press. With safety being of the foremost importance during the coronavirus pandemic, players were told they will be tested regularly — but not with the deep nasal swabs — and must adhere to strict physical distancing and mask-wearing policies.

The league and the National Basketball Players Association have been working on the terms of how the restart will work for weeks, all while constantly seeking advice from medical experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci, perhaps the best-known physician in the country when it comes to the battle against COVID-19.

“My confidence, it didn’t exist at the beginning of this virus because I was so frightened by it,” union executive director Michele Roberts told AP. “Now having lived, and breathed, and suffered through the hours and hours of understanding the virus, and listening to our experts, and comparing different alternative protocols, I can’t even think of anything else we could do short of hermetically seal the players that would keep them safe.”

Players must tell their teams by June 24 if they intend to play or not, according to a memo sent to NBPA members.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said that if a player does not feel comfortable playing at Disney — whether for health reasons or because of social causes facing the country right now — then he does not have to report with his team and will not be disciplined, other than losing salary for games missed.

Most teams will arrive in Florida on July 7, 8 or 9.

A person with knowledge of the situation said the reigning champion Toronto Raptors, the lone NBA team based outside of the U.S., will be permitted to gather for some pre-camp workouts — under strict guidelines that other teams will follow in their own cities — before that arrival date. The Raptors are likely to train somewhere in Florida, said the person who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

For the Raptors, it’s been an area of concern largely because of current Canadian regulations that call for a 14-day quarantine for people returning to Canada. Some Raptors are in Toronto right now; some are in the U.S.

Nobody on the NBA’s Disney campus will be allowed in anyone else’s sleeping room. The NBA also told players and teams that it will work with one or more outside health care companies to provide a medical clinic with X-ray and MRI capability on the campus.