AS THE NBA the season is moving and the vortex revolves around what will need to be completed, a league official pointed to a key variable of the season ended 74 days ago in the Orlando bubble in Florida.
For three-and-a-half months at the Walt Disney World resort, security guards guarded the entrances and law enforcement officers monitored the perimeter, helping maintain the enclosed space to protect 22 teams.
But these efforts meant that all who were isolated from within were limited in terms of the social interaction of normalcy.
“It was probably a complaint for every employee there, not just for the players.” said a league official who, while on campus in Orlando, heard that a lack of social interaction – especially a lack of sex – was one of the main problems for balloon residents. “Certainly, it was something I heard from the players, I heard from both the staff and the team staff.”
Due to the intensive daily adherence to the demands of everyone who was in the balloon, the harsh measures implemented there helped alleviate the uncertainty in which the most concerned team, league and health officials, were involved: social interaction. This does not mean that the protocols were not violated, but there were few violations. Eventually the bubble restraints eased the initial worries, and the NBA eventually crowned the champion, ending the season without positive player tests.
“It was the safest place in America,” the NBA head athletics coach remarked in a balloon. “We’re going to be in a regular environment now, so, yeah, there’s a concern …”
Team and league officials said the 2020-21 season will require a much higher level of alignment as it includes all 30 teams and more games over a longer period of time. But without balloons, the limits will not be the same. Thus, the same accounting factors again cite social interaction as a factor this season.
For example, reports surfaced on Wednesday that Houston Rockets star James Harden was reportedly partying at a Houston club without disguise. The NBA and the Rockets are reviewing the matter, but such an allegation would violate league health and safety protocols and could lead to disciplinary action, including suspension.
In interviews with those tasked with helping the league implement detailed protocols, the season has been described in almost fragile terms. The seriousness of this concern is underscored by the overall length of the pandemic and the fact that many people have become accustomed to old habits, such as organizing large holiday gatherings against the recommendations of government and health officials. This concern is heightened by watching other leagues hold seasons and when they watch teams suffer from attacks and games are postponed or canceled.
NBA Senior Vice President David Weiss, who worked with NBPA officials and medical professionals during the pandemic, summed it up:
“This is as strong as the weakest link.”
NBA LEARNED an abundance of balloons he hopes to bring into the season. Daily testing helped strengthen the work of other protocols (reminders to wear masks, heal, and maintain social distancing). Frequent testing has also helped identify positive cases among some out-of-league – bus drivers and others living off-campus in Orlando – before the infection spreads inside the balloon, league sources told ESPN.
But now there are plans to test players and members of the 45-person traveling party on each team twice a day, ESPN sources Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowski said on December 8th. One test would be a standard PCR nasal test that returns results within 24 hours; and the other would be a fast-return PCR test that can give results in 30 minutes.
I hope, team officials said, that players and staff who take a quick return test daily before joining the team will be a key step toward avoiding any epidemics, especially since team members will be able to communicate much more socially with others in the bubble.
“Social interactions will be the things that will bring the virus to our facilities,” said the veteran’s chief athlete.
But as much as these concerns exist in an individual’s domestic market, travel during a pandemic poses even greater problems.
Constraints for cities and states are evolving, and in a recent memorandum on the league, the NBA outlined the constraints that are most noticeable in major markets. In San Francisco, the note notes, “traveling teams are not allowed to travel anywhere except to their hotel and Chase Center.” In New York, “team and league staff must be quarantined while in single rooms at their hotels, except for activities related to team meetings, exercises, and games.” And in Los Angeles, currently the focus of the coronavirus, the limitations are endless:
“Staff can only travel from the point of arrival to and from the hotel, the arena and any suitable practice facility.”
“Food in hotels must be limited to rooms only, and meals in the arena must be in accordance with existing county orders.”
“Staff should stay at the hotel, arena or training ground only during their stay in Los Angeles and must not leave those locations for any reason except in emergencies.”
Despite all the limitations, travel is still a wild card.
“[Say] someone [on a team] decide, “Hey, we’re playing in a city where I have a family, and I’m going to visit my family because I haven’t seen them in months” – and then it turns into something harmful, ”the veteran’s head said athletic coach.
The NBA has warned teams in its health and safety protocols that any violation that leads to the spread of coronavirus affects opposing teams and causes them to fall out of the schedule could result in “fines, suspensions, adjustments or loss of draft and takeover of the game”.
The league also warned that players who violate protocols could be subject to seasonal quarantine and reduced incomes.
It is unclear how large fines or discipline can go, especially for offenders, although league officials say there is no established structure and that any violation of the protocol would be handled individually with respect to the penalty. In the Orlando bubble, Rockets striker Danuel House Jr. he was sent home for violating health and safety protocols after an investigation uncovered an unauthorized guest in his hotel room.
Despite this, the league has warned of “increased discipline” for those who repeatedly violate protocols, and some team officials say they expect the penalties to be tougher, just to help deter future violations.
“You’re starting to lose game checks,” said a league official who was in the Orlando bubble, “people tend to listen.”
ALL NBA he has to look at his professional teammates to see how hard it is for the league to keep the season out of the bubble.
The NFL has postponed games – some and more times. University football was constantly stopping and starting, and some high-profile matches were canceled altogether.
“In my opinion, the league has made it easier for us in Orlando,” San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told reporters Dec. 1. “There’s a lot more to the burden of individuals and teams here.”
Watching the stumble of other sports, he instilled in those around the NBA league how difficult the task will be, that it is feasible, but extremely difficult and that it will need flexibility. There is no set threshold for how many positive cases the NBA game should be canceled or postponed, sources said, but the NBA postponed the game between the Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday after the Rockets were left with seven active players, one short of what was needed.
“We are ready for isolated cases,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a conference call with reporters on Dec. 21. “Actually, based on what we’ve seen in the preseason, based on watching other leagues working out of the balloon, it unfortunately seems a bit inevitable, but we’re ready for any contingencies.
Silver later added: “The decision tree we will consider in terms of interrupting the season will be purely health-safety. If at any point we no longer believe she is responsible for the game, we will stop the season.”
Positive cases would cause players to miss at least 12 days of action, which would take them several games away.
“This isn’t football you can play once a week,” Utah Jazz star keeper Donovan Mitchell said last month. “We play twice, three, maybe four times a week and those are four games that at the end of the day, when it comes time to play, you miss those four games, you never know what might happen.”
If there is one problem that several health officials across the league point out, it is the concept of protocol fatigue. Simply put, there are concerns about whether everyone involved can follow all the rules every day during the five-month regular season.
The veteran, head athletics coach, said, “We’re going to get guidelines. I think we’re going to stick to them. But can we maintain them? That’s a big question in the whole thing. Willingness to follow protocol will be paramount.”
There is hope for the recently approved coronavirus vaccines, but it is not clear when they would come to the league en masse. “It goes without saying that we will not skip in any form or in any way,” Silver said at the conference call. “We will wait our turn to get the vaccine. When you consider the logistical feat now being undertaken by the federal and state governments, if every citizen ultimately requires two doses and with a population of over 300 million, it’s out of the question when you start thinking about logistical transport and distribution challenges these vaccines. “
In all efforts to prepare, the league’s ability to complete the season will not depend on protocol but on the ability of those in the league to follow them, health officials say.
“You definitely have to be smart,” Milwaukee Bucks striker Chris Middelton told reporters on Dec. 11. “We have to be careful. We have to be sure. Because it’s a real problem. It’s a real pandemic going on right now. Although it doesn’t seem like it when we’re on the field, once you get off the field you have to do the right things, not just for yourself, but and for the people around us. “
Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid has reduced the viability of the season to one issue.
“I know I’m going to do the right thing, just like I said before the balloon,” Embiid told reporters on Dec. 13, “so the question is, ‘Will everyone else do the right thing?’ “