Less than a week into the Major League Baseball season, more than a dozen players and staffers on the Miami Marlins tested positive for the coronavirus, resulting in multiple postponed games and serious questions about the viability of MLB’s plan to complete its season. However, because the NBA has gathered its teams in a single location, the league remains confident in its plan despite observing the MLB outbreak from afar, writes Mark Medina of USA Today.
“I don’t even compare the two,” Clippers head coach Doc Rivers said. “What they’re doing and what we’re doing is so different. I like what we’re doing.”
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to feel safe here, and I feel super safe,” Pelicans guard J.J. Redick said of the NBA’s campus. “This is an environment here I feel has been really good. The protocols are in place. It’s hard to compare what baseball or the NFL is doing because it’s not what we’re doing. We’re doing something completely different. But obviously we’re all watching to see how baseball and football work given the uncertainty of next season as well.”
As Medina points out, the NBA isn’t ready to run a victory lap just yet, considering its season won’t be over for another two-plus months, and plenty could go wrong between now and then. However, the last coronavirus testing update issued by the league indicated that there had been zero new positive tests on the Walt Disney World campus, which bodes well for the NBA’s plan.
Here’s more on the restart:
- While MLB’s coronavirus outbreak may not be of immediate concern to the NBA, it will give the league more to think about in relation to its 2020/21 season, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. The ’20/21 campaign is tentatively scheduled to begin as early as December and the hope is that teams will be able to play in their home arenas.
- NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who is scheduled to make his first appearance at the Florida campus this week, said he thinks the league’s plan is going “very well” so far, as Marc Stein of The New York Times writes. “I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re on the right track,” Silver said.
- The NBA sent a reminder today to teams that random drug testing for steroids, PEDs, masking agents, and diuretics will resume on Thursday when seeding games get underway, a source tells Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter link). The NBA and NBPA previously reached an agreement to resume PED and steroid testing this summer, while marijuana testing remains paused.
- As Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press details, the NBA’s efforts to keep its Orlando campus safe even extend to new protocols for the handling of referee whistles.
Am applauding the leagues plan. Watching baseball and now football, should start rethinking their plans.
Agreed. Rob Manfred could really take a leaf out of Adam Silvers’ book
The NBA plan reduced the amount of players involved even more than the sport requires, and still scarfs up testing kits. Silver’s not really to blame for the latter though.
Larger teams in football and baseball will require megabubbles to accommodate. The extra testing is a PR issue that hasn’t really been a problem…yet. The lack of a federal pandemic response and the inconsistent response at lower gov’t levels has taken away a lot of the interest I have in the NBA and I am a Bucks fan!
It’s hard to compare the two. Baseball has twice as many people on the roster to deal with. Plus, it is an outdoor sport, so the ability to lock down is much more difficult, if not impossible.
The only real comparable sport to basketball is hockey. I’m not sure how they are doing because I’m not a hockey fan at all. But the logistics of the two sports seem to be closest.