Road to Florida bubble shows signs of anxiety
Grizzlies apprehensive but optimistic about NBA restart
When the NBA season was suspended on March 11, Anthony Tolliver didn’t think about how his 10-day contract was set to expire the next day.
The Grizzlies forward worried about his wife and four children being safe. He wondered how the world would change with the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down business as usual.
“At that time, there was a lot less certainty of things. It was like, is the world about to end? I didn’t know,” said Tolliver, who re-signed with the Grizzlies last month. “At that moment, forget the NBA, let me make sure my family is good.”
Four months later, there’s still uncertainty as the Grizzlies head to Florida and the NBA’S restart at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. While players around the league were concerned, the Grizzlies mostly tried to be as optimistic as they could before leaving this week.
“The NBA is doing all they can,” Jaren Jackson Jr. said. “They’ll never put us in a situation where we feel like it’s going to be totally hectic. The plan they created is the best course of action, and we’re just going to follow it.”
Coach Taylor Jenkins said Sunday he expects all 17 players and his coaching staff to leave together. Yet as teams began arriving Tuesday, the pandemic continued to affect the league.
At least six teams closed their practice facilities before departing this week because of positive tests. Twenty-five total players tested positive in two rounds of testing that began last month.
Florida reported 7,347 new cases Tuesday with a 16.3% positivity rate and has a total of 213,794 positive cases, which is nearly 1 out of 100 people. Orange County, where ESPN’S complex is located, reported 359 new cases with a positivity rate of 16.2%.
“It’s definitely not the timing that I don’t think anyone would’ve hoped for, with the cases to be rising in Florida,” Tyus Jones said. “But at the same time, I think the NBA has done a great job putting a plan together. I think they’ve got the best plan that they could come up with for us. I don’t think they would have us going down there if they weren’t fully confident in the bubble.”
Both Jones and Ja Morant were sad about leaving their newborn children behind as teams will be allowed to bring in guests only if they advance to the second round. Jones’ first son was born in May, and Morant’s daughter will celebrate her first birthday in August.
Jenkins, who will leave his wife and four children, said the team is working to help players create new routines in Orlando while allowing them time to use Facetime or video chats to stay in contact with family. But it’s also a new situation everyone is still adjusting to.
“It’s very unpredictable. There’s not a script for that,” Jenkins said. “I think as I’ve had a lot of conversations with a lot of the guys, I think they’re spending
a lot of time with their families and devising the best course of action.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday in an interview with Fortune Brainstorm Health that he won’t be surprised if there are positive tests once teams land in Florida and are tested. However, if there were any positive tests after teams quarantined for two days, he said it would show “in essence a hole in our bubble.”
“What would be most concerning is once players enter this campus and then go through our quarantine period, then if they were to test positive of if we were to have any positive tests, we would know we would have an issue,” Silver said.
Silver said in June that players will be tested daily and that a single positive test would not stop the NBA’S restart. But if there was a significant spread,it could lead to a stoppage.
It’s another challenge that awaits the Grizzlies as they look to hold on to the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. Tolliver said he was optimistic with teams taking precautions before leaving for Florida but it was tough not imagining the scenarios if more tested positive inside the NBA’S campus.
“It’s hard not to notice what some of the things are going on, some of the positive tests, which is never a good thing,” Tolliver said. “But I think, for the most part, guys are committed to playing the game as long as we’re in a position of control. Controlling the spread of the virus and everything else, that’s the biggest thing.”