The NBA will not agree to a “bubble concept” to restart the season unless players and coaches can bring their families with them, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on SportsCenter (video link).
The bubble concept, in which games would be played in one city such as Las Vegas or Orlando, has been floated around since the early weeks of the hiatus. Isolating players from their families is currently not on the table, according to Windhorst.
“The NBA is not interested right now in a bubble where they could not bring their families in,” Windhorst said.
Earlier this week, Windhorst’s ESPN colleague Adrian Wojnarowski suggested that 15,000 tests for the novel coronavirus would be needed for the season to be safely resumed and completed. Windhorst’s sources believe that figure could go much higher. And that would be problematic, since there are not enough tests to go around for the general public.
“It could be 100,000 because you have to keep an eye on the testing,” he said. “Right now, the NBA is not interested at all in taking any test that would go away from somebody who wants a test or needs a test.”
Windhorst estimates that to put together games in a bubble city, 1,500 people would be required, from “hotel maids to scoreboard operators to the players and coaches themselves.”
Testing would also have to be available for their families, which is why 100,000 of them might be needed.
“Without the testing, which you need to get everybody in the bubble, and without the expansive test you need to get the families in, the NBA is not willing to go there right now,” he said.
Just end the season …
That’s what jets stands for.
LOL!
I applaud the league for considering the families here.
I still think the safest and best measure though would be to just cancel this season and focus on what works best for next season.
Why are they trying to set up in Florida where the virus has a substantial hold? Why not go to Wyoming? They have basketball courts there too and the virus has very little impact. Or for that matter, why not travel to an African country that has no exposure to the virus? The NBA always wants to make a foreign footprint and it could replace Chinese money.
If there are no fans involved, then it doesn’t matter where the games are played as long they can be televised back here.
I’m not sure any country who hasn’t been exposed to the virus is going to be jumping at the chance to let people from a country whom has come in and set up shop. I certainly wouldn’t be in favor, if the shoe was on the other foot.
The “bubble” concept in theory rules out interactions outside of the site. DisneyWorld is capable of enforcing this while allowing desirable freedom of movement. Assuming, they would be on-board regarding security and cordoning off areas.
Um, why replace “Chinese money”?
I think it was meant that any money gotten from a “virgin” territory might help offset what the NBA lost from China this past season.
Silver is not the guy. He wants everything just right, but the only “nonstarter” issue will regard safety, not comfort.
It’s going to be different, it’s going to test adjustability. And why not test that?
Why is Silver afraid of getting gray hair?
Just stop it. Season is over. You are literally trying to do things in a plague. Dumb.
A plague lol. Yeah ok.
Hey, if I cannot get a test on demand as a taxpaying citizen, I do not see distributing thousands of tests (no matter what price they may pay) to the NBA as rational. Basketball, as much as we love it, is not as essential as taking care of our citizenry in a time of global crisis. This proposal is just another example of favoring the wealthy and privileged over the needy and suffering. Let’s keep some perspective.
The global crisis has been created by the governments deciding to fight a virus with poverty & starvation, not by any virus, let’s have that clear, right?
I see no reason why there can’t be more testing. Right now they say on the news that you have to have two symptoms, and the CDC keeps increasing what can be called a symptom. Testing is pretty simple. People line up and a machine whirs and it says stop or go. I don’t get the moral objection.
There was always a vocational priority. Now it’s turn for the entertainers. Actually it has been; the solo late night TV hosts were just setting an example. Fallon was walking through his neighbourhood on air, not a city, but I guess some people complained.
Many people have PTSD or other problems with the unconscious. There are victims with forced loneness or families tired of each other. Things need to straighten out. People are not to blame; we’re just breathing.
Stevep Glad you stumbled across this site and, not even being an NBA fan, stuck around and joined us!
Dude I am here all the time…but nice try
If the players want to play basketball again this year I think they’re going to have to make the sacrifice to be away from their families for a month or so. It’s just not practical for them to all bring their entire families in the “bubble” as well as all the players/coaches and staff. And then once they’re “in the bubble” what? are they going to have their families stay in it like a prison? That just doesn’t make sense — I wouldn’t even think that players families would want to be forced to live in a “bubble” for a month+ just to be able to stay with their husbands/fathers — it’s not like it’s a permanent thing… it’s only for a month or so.
Maybe they could even do a situation where there are no families for whatever portion of the “regular” season they will play and then allow families for the “playoffs” portion. That way at least it would be far less people who would have to be tested and quarantined…
This whole thing is beyond ridiculous at this point.
Really who’s cares. The season is over. A Champion would never be a true Champion in a lot of fans eyes. It is one last money grab. The entire “ family thing” give me a break. Go play a month if you most with limited personnel and get it over with. This is why pro sports are getting so ridiculous. We are out here fighting to pay our bills and survive and they are about worried their families getting to go to Disney for a month.
You don’t have to watch or follow, that is your choice! Now the choice that has been taken away or stolen from us is… the right to go out there & provide for our families, instead of forced to stay home racking thousands of $ in debt while paying bills meanwhile having 0 $ coming in, that is the tragedy, we must have the freedom to work!
El Don, that choice doesn’t impact you alone. Every place you go there is a risk you come in contact with an asymptomatic carrier, which increases the chance of spread. Shutting everything down, including sports, was the correct call. The error is/was not imposing a stricter lockdown, similiar to New Zealand.
It’d be nice to see the NBA step up and just cancel this season. The NHL should as well. Somebody should set the precedent so other leagues can see they don’t have to come up with some elaborate plan to crown a champion.
Why would a champion not be a champion if they played a legit playoff series ?
So much negativity from people in here, my goodness, everything has to be an asterisk or a GOAT these days just to perk peoples ears for 2 minutes-
Grow up with the comparative fallacies as well, sports would help in these times not detour