NBA teams will wear contract tracing sensors amid pandemic
Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams remembers wearing “the same technology” in the bubble.
“Some of it didn’t always function properly, but we had the same thing,” he said. “Anytime you had an issue, they fixed it. You just kept it moving.”
Suns guard Cameron Payne recalls it being voluntary in Orlando.
“Not everybody used them because we didn’t have to,” Payne said. “It was a
“This is one more thing that we have to do to keep our livelihood, business and what we love to do in place. ... We go through secret passageways to get to the rooms. Like the service ways to get to the rooms. We don’t really use the main elevators. That’s probably the only thing that’s kind of different.” personal decision.”
Starting Thursday, the NBA will require players, coaches and staff members to wear Kinexon SafeZone contact tracing sensors amid the COVID-19 pandemic, league sources confirmed to The Arizona Republic.
ESPN first reported the news last week after obtaining memos from the league.
“There’s certain things you have to do to stay in the league,” Williams said. “You got to work hard. Study. Game film. This is one more thing that we have to do to keep our livelihood, business and what we love to do in place.”
Players, coaches and staff members will have to wear the devices during practice, on the team plane, team bus, to and from the arena as well at their home practice facility, ESPN reported.
“If this is for us (a way to) keep us safe from COVID, I feel like it should be good and we should be all for it,” Payne said. “Everyone wants to stay safe, stay COVID free.”
Suns coach
‘We all know the bigger picture’
The hope is the devices will help in its contact tracing evaluations regarding positive coronavirus cases.
“I feel like it’ll be alright because we all know the bigger picture,” Payne continued. “Whatever we got to get done to keep playing and staying healthy, I feel like it should be all good.”
The tracing sensors are one of latest league actions as the NBA tries to have a 72-game season outside of a bubble environment, which was so effective in combating the virus to finish the 2019-20 season.
“Everything that is in place is there for a reason,” Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “Our general approach to whether it’d be masks during games, fans, no fans, rapid testing, testing. All those things require adjustments and I think this is another one. We really try to make the best efforts to follow the protocols. In my mind, if anything, this is just more incentive to make you aware of the things you need to be doing in order to protect you.”
‘You’ve got to appreciate that’
The NBA also informed teams Monday players on the active roster must wear face coverings in the bench area until they enter games, the Associated Press reported. Players and coaches are also required to wear face masks outside the team environment if they are around other players and coaches.
The players must report the names of any private trainer, therapist, chiropractor or other specialist who they work with outside of the team facility, AP reported.
“It’s all about trying to keep us safe
and healthy,” Suns forward Cam Johnson said. “And we appreciate it. We want to be safe. We want to be healthy.”
ESPN is reporting the tracing sensors don’t record GPS location and is activated when coming within six feet to another person wearing one.
This is important to erase the idea that the devices are tracking their whereabouts. The proximity alarm is expected to be disabled from the sensor devices that were in place in Orlando, ESPN reported.
“I really think everything we’re doing is to keep us healthy and on the one hand, you’ve got to appreciate that,” Johnson added.
‘Secret passageways’
Extra precautions have been taken to stay safe on the road as Johnson said the hotels have blocked off an area for the team.
“We’re living in bubbles on the road,” Williams said.
“Guys just go to their hotels and we try to stay as safe as we can. Everybody is trying to do the best that they can to keep
themselves and families safe so we can continue to play.”
Payne said having the players grouped in the same area is nothing new.
That’s how it was on road trips before the pandemic, but he noted adjustments they’re making in today’s unsettled climate.
“We go through secret passageways to get to the rooms,” he said. “Like the service ways to get to the rooms. We don’t really use the main elevators. That’s probably the only thing that’s kind of different.”
While in Utah for the first of a back-toback road trip, Williams said staff members who had family members in the area couldn’t visit their relatives.
“It’s too risky,” he said. “It’s not so much the family members. It’s trying to get from Point A to Point B. You can’t have anybody come to the hotels. It’s a sacrifice, but everything we’ve done in basketball is a sacrifice. You’re going to miss stuff. You’re going to miss stuff with your family. You’re going to miss stuff that’s personal. Just part of what we’ve done. So I don’t see it as a drastic change for us in that way.”
‘Bigger than basketball’
The circumstance of living in a pandemic is the change that’s changed everything.
“It’s different because we’re dealing with a world, global problem, but for us, I think, and most people, once you get to a certain level, you’ve gotten there because you’ve sacrificed, Williams added. “So this is no different.”
The NBA has had players quarantine due to contact tracing/exposure to COVID-19 with Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant being one of the latest. Durant reportedly doesn’t have the virus.
‘COVID is real’
Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. has missed Denver’s last three games because of the NBA’s health and safety protocols related to COVID-19.
“These are real protocols, they’re in place for a reason,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said before Denver played Phoenix, which was the first game Porter missed, on New Year’s Day.
Denver lost, 106-103, Sunday to Phoenix at home.
“This is real, COVID is real,” Malone later said. “And the NBA has consulted with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the best doctors in the country to make sure we are following these protocols and we’re disciplined with those protocols.”
ESPN reported “the sensors should significantly help in better determining which players or staff might need to be quarantined should the situation arise” in the future. The Los Angeles Clippers have seven members of their support staff in quarantine after one positive COVID-19 test.
“Whatever protocol they put in place, we’re going to follow those guidelines and do it the best we can,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.