We relayed a number of details on the NBA’s return-to-play plan in a series of posts on Tuesday, but those details continued to trickle in late on Tuesday night. The NBA sent a 113-page document to teams outlining the health and safety protocols that will govern the league’s return in Orlando, and Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic and Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps of ESPN were among those rounding up the highlights.
Here are some of the key points from that handbook that we haven’t full covered yet:
- The NBA will establish an anonymous hotline that will allow individuals on the Orlando campus to report those who are violating social-distancing and safety guidelines, per Charania and Amick. If a player is found to be violating those guidelines, he could be subject to a warning, fine, suspension, and/or even removal from the campus, according to The Athletic’s report.
- Teams will be permitted to bring a 37-person traveling party to Orlando, according to Windhorst and Bontemps. In addition to up to 17 players, teams will be bringing coaches, trainers, equipment managers, and potentially security and front-office personnel, and will be encouraged to bring a mental health professional, per ESPN. If a club advances beyond the first round of the postseason, it will be allowed to add two members to its party — the team could bring two more members to Orlando if it advances past the second round.
- While no fans will be permitted to attend games, there will be people in the stands, including a limited number of media members, team executives, league and union personnel, sponsors, and even rival players, according to ESPN.
- Individuals who leave the Orlando campus and want to re-enter would face a self-quarantine period of 10 days. However, in the event of an emergency, an excused absence is possible, according to Windhorst and Bontemps. Re-entering the campus after an excused absence would only require a four-day quarantine as long as the person repeatedly tested negative for the coronavirus.
- Although players won’t be tested for recreational drugs in Orlando, they’ve been advised that marijuana is illegal in Florida and is banned at Disney World, as Windhorst and Bontemps note.
- If a team staff member (ie. not a player) opts not to travel to Orlando, it will be up to the person’s team whether or not to continue paying them for games and team activities, tweets ESPN’s Zach Lowe.
- Housekeeping staff at Disney is expected to service hotel rooms just once a week (wearing PPE) in order to minimize potential interactions with players, tweets ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
- As both The Athletic and ESPN reports outline, a number of leisure activities will be available to players and others within the bubble, but strict protocols will be in place for those activities. For instance, decks of cards will have to be disposed after use, doubles games of ping-pong won’t be permitted, and no caddies or sharing of balls and clubs will be allowed during golfing.
If doubles ping pong is banned I don’t see how players will even consider this arrangement
Rival players will be at games? So who will be there drawing as much attention as possible during broadcasts cheering or trash talking as much as he can? Given there isn’t to be much of an audience and broadcasts need to fill time, it seems guys who want a spotlight will have plenty of opportunities if they can entertain.
I wonder also how long before the first fight given all the tensions that will be brewing in the bubble.
I hope the players use their post game interview times to reflect on blacklivesmatter movement. It will be decades before we come closer as a unified nation and those in the older generation that are racists and teaching racism to their offspring start to die out. The younger generation always tends to be more progressive.
Question: does HoopsRumors have a forum we can post questions on and if not, is there any forum website you can recommend other than Realgm? They are too sensitive there and lock posts for stupid reasons
Luke reads this area and sometimes will answer, on technicalities at least… that’s the closest thing.
Do you mean lock or block on Realgm? There’s no locks here, but IDK why that would be done. To prevent criticism? A couple of articles have been closed for commenting. They do delete insults here and things that may be wrong or off I think… They don’t give reasons. It’s not my site so, whatever. I have had long “loud” arguments alternate between disappearing and reappearing.
Halftime segments or postgame interviews will be the time. Pregame protesting will just get TVs turned off. I feel lucky when espn even provides starting lineups before games. But, new rules this time.
You mean the same NBA ,NFL, and entertainment people that back Louis Farrakhan who has called for the elimination of all Jews and even called Hitler a great man . That’s one of your progressive hero’s that Black Lives Matter also supports. Yall nothing but hypocrites.
Just shorten the quarters to 6-minutes.
Everyone is in a Tychem hooded suit, 8-mil nitrile gloves, and full-face respirator with P100s. And remember, duct tape the seams.
There are guys out there getting paid $13/hr that do this for 8-hrs a day in the summer time. These guys getting paid $467,000 per game can handle it for 24 minutes.
Survival of the fittest will be tested for sure. A Cheeseburger Gut like Embiid will look like in no time Manute Bol.
*look like Manute Bol in no time.
Man, just write it off and start the new season later in the year. It’s obvious the situation isn’t in hand, regardless of what politicians are saying.
There will be a major asterisk next to whoever wins it this year. I’m not so bothered by that, but I’d say the players are.
All teams are in same position. They should all be prepared for this. It’s just ball. Why would there be any issues. There is a pandemic. It’s been here. If you are not following some kind of protocol. Then you are a freakin idiot. This is a controlled setting. If they all follow protocol. There really shouldn’t be a problem. We are talking about 20 teams. That in a wk. will become 16 teams. That in 10 days will become 8 teams. Then in two wks will become 4 teams. Then in two wks will become the Finals and 2 teams. So for 7 wks tops. That’s how long it will take to get down to two teams. Then the Finals should last 2 wks, 7 gm series. I don’t see any issues. Unless the participants don’t follow protocol. Like half the population is doing now. No fans makes this a lot easier to pull off. As long they all follow protocol. I would like to watch gms. They should televise ALL games. Be Safe the virus has not gone away.
Man, this sure does sound like a lot of fun! Can’t wait!