NBA All-Star break could lead to testing pratfalls
MIAMI — The NBA should be worried about this weekend, and that has nothing to do with holding an All-Star Game during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
It's about when players won't be in Atlanta.
If everyone plays by the rules at the All-Star Game, the system the NBA has come up with there for health and safety during the pandemic — strict testing for players and their guests, only flying private, staying in closed-off hotels, holding no outside events — should and probably will work. That won't be the issue.
“We know how to operate a bubble,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said.
The bigger issue is what's going to happen outside of that All-Star bubble, and the 450 or so players who won't be going to Atlanta during their time off.
Brace for positive COVID-19 tests. Maybe a lot of them.
Players, for the first time since teams began revving up for training camps in November, are going to be free to do pretty much whatever they want, provided they have no plans to travel internationally. Dozens are expected to come to Miami for a few days of sun and fun; given the climate in the rest of the country, it' s doubtful they'll even notice that a cold front is forecast to come through South Florida and knock high temperatures all the way down to them id-70s this weekend. Others are planning to go to Las Vegas, or hop on yachts, or go back to their offseason homes.
All players and coaches except any who may already be vaccinated — Gregg Popovich is in a very exclusive club there — still must test daily during the break, and that will be a challenge. Players who stay at home or travel to another NBA city will have to go to that team' s facility or another site set up in those cities for testing each day. Players within a 45- minute drive of testing sites will have to make that commute each day as well. Otherwise, players and coaches will be given at-home selfcollection test kits by the teams and must find ways to overnight them to labs.
Somebody missing a test will lead to problems. Going out to clubs, or even dining indoors at a restaurant, will lead to problems. Inadvertently being exposed to someone who has COVID-19 could, obviously, lead to problems.
It could even mean that players might end up missing some games when the second half of t he season starts next week.
“There's nothing that's risk-free,” Silver said.
He' s right, though the rules that teams have operated under this season — while not necessarily fun — have seemed to minimize risk.