What’s next for the NBA? A plan for testing is the big key

For the NBA, it is not officially time to play. It’s getting closer, but the league isn’t there yet.

The move to agree on a 22-team format for the resumption of the pandemic-interrupted season is a major step forward, but it was just the first of many major decisions that has to be completed before the league moves into the ESPN Wide World Of Sports complex at the Disney campus near Orlando next month.

Another step was completed Friday as expected when the representatives from the National Basketball Players Association voted to unanimously approve the proposal that the NBA’s Board of Governors approved a day earlier.

More talks and negotiations are scheduled for the coming days to work out everything else, and it is a sizable list. A look at some of the other issues facing the league, both in the quest to finish this season and then what awaits in the coming year:

TESTING

The format was significant, but not the biggest hurdle for the NBA to clear in this process. That one, by far, is testing. The medical protocols are the most critical part of the return-to-play plan.

The league and the players know they must go above and beyond in the interest of safety. The protocols are the key — players will have to practice social distancing when they aren’t playing, plus submit to a quarantine at the beginning of the time at Disney and likely daily testing for the entirety of their stay there.

Players and coaches likely won’t even be able to have their families at Disney until September, at the earliest.

A person with direct knowledge of the talks said the NBA and NBPA have been working on what will be lengthy protocols — which, among other things, will explain what happens when a player or coach tests positive while at the Disney complex.

THE GAMES

The season is set to resume July 31, with playoffs starting in mid-August and leading up to an NBA Finals that could stretch until Oct. 12.

Other than Milwaukee and the Los Angeles Lakers, who are all-but certain of going into the playoffs with No. 1 seeds, everyone at Disney will be playing for something — a playoff seed or a playoff spot.

The dynamic at the bottom of the East is fascinating with Brooklyn and Orlando separated by a half-game — and Wash

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