Raptors forced to quarantine three
Positives results returned despite the league’s extensive testing, rules
It is a harsh reality of the times in which we live, with the COVID-19 pandemic still raging worldwide, that the Raptors and the NBA would be hit by the coronavirus in some manner.
That day has arrived. Three members of the organization have tested positive for the virus and have been isolated away from the team’s training camp in Central Florida. The positive tests were returned despite extensive and exhaustive testing, and NBA protocols governing everything from maskwearing to physical distancing to food preparation and near constant sanitization.
It speaks to the insidious nature of the virus and the dangers inherent in trying to start an NBA season with the world still gripped by a once-a-century pandemic.
“It’s a logistical challenge, it’s a health challenge, it’s a human challenge that we’re all going through,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said Monday. “It’s constantly on our mind. At the same time we’re trying to prepare for an NBA season …
“This was bound to happen so we just wanted to make sure we had everything kind of tied up and (we are) continuing to review, continuing to educate, continuing to have awareness with our players, coaches and staff, almost on a daily basis.”
Citing privacy concerns, the Raptors would not say specifically who tested positive, nor when those tests were taken or the results provided.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse said Sunday that all 20 players on the training camp roster took part in the first full-team workout and Webster said the team held a practice “at a high level of intensity” on Monday without disclosing how many team members took part.
The Raptors are scheduled to have their first of three exhibition games Sunday in Charlotte and Webster sees no reason that won’t go on as planned.
“I don’t think that will be affected,” he said.
Under league medical protocols, a copy of which was obtained by the Star, the infected people must isolate for at least 10 days and return “at least two consecutive negative PCR test results, each from samples collected at least 24 hours after the prior sample” before they are allowed to rejoin the top two “tiers” of term personnel that include all on-court staff.
When the positive tests were returned, the affected people were immediately isolated, contact tracing was conducted and the league notified.
Precautions were taken soon enough to allow practice to go ahead Monday and activities should continue as scheduled Tuesday.
“In that long150-page (league) document, as soon as you have a positive you have the contact tracing, you obviously want to confirm the positive, you isolate the individual,” Webster said.
“So all of those are laid out and the NBA has obviously done a great job to guide us there. So, from that sense, it’s pretty straightforward but it does take time. It does take a little while to contact trace and continue all the followup testing.”
All team personnel were subjected to league-mandated testing when they arrived “in market” and daily testing has occurred since. The Raptors held a series of small group workouts last week before the first official day of camp on Sunday.
The concern, of course, is that these positive tests, the 48 positives from almost 600 the league conducted before camps began, and the fact the Portland Trail Blazers closed their practice facility on Sunday, are just the tip of the iceberg.
Maybe it’s not logical to think the league can pull off a 72game season for each of its 30 teams, starting in about two weeks, without major disruption and incalculable health risk to the more than 500 players and coaches.
These are uncharted waters but, even with his team hit for the first time, Webster thinks the safeguards the league has in place are sufficient, and the game’s place is important enough that the risks are worth it.
“We’ve always said sports are an outlet, sports are a distraction, and I like to believe we’re providing entertainment, we’re providing things for the greater good of the public,” the general manager said. “But … I think the nature of our positive tests (means) we feel comfortable there’s not further (positives), but it’s not to say a week from now or two weeks from now or in the middle of the season when we’re on the road in Brooklyn that we’re not going to have this again.
“And so we’ll continue to confront those challenges. But I do think from a professional manner, basketball is our livelihood, it’s the livelihood of these players, coaches, and a number of staff, so we think following the protocols we can get through this.”