Nuggets Coach Michael Malone Had COVID-19
Nuggets head coach Michael Malone revealed on Monday that he contracted the novel coronavirus in March.
Malone is the first NBA coach known to have tested positive for the virus. In March, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton was the first prominent head coach in a major U.S. sport who revealed he had COVID-19.
Malone made his revelation during an interview with CBS Denver 4 (hat tip to ESPN). Malone didn’t find out he had the virus until he received an antibody test approximately two months later.
“I’d say around March 20, I started not feeling well, and we began reaching out to team doctors to see if I could get a test,” Malone said. “Unfortunately, at that time, there was no testing available. So I only found out after the fact. I was able to get an antibody test probably right around Memorial Day weekend. And not surprisingly, our team doctor called up and said, ‘Listen, you tested positive.'”
Numerous players contracted the virus in March following Rudy Gobert‘s positive test that resulted in the suspension of play, including Gobert’s teammate Donovan Mitchell, Kevin Durant, Christian Wood and Marcus Smart. Interestingly, an unnamed member of the Nuggets organization also tested positive in March. That person was experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19 on March 16.
Malone’s team was 43-22 when play was halted and remains one of the top contenders for the title. Malone is hopeful that the Orlando bubble environment will limit the possibility of an outbreak among participants.
“I hope that going down to Orlando will be a safe environment and we can limit the amount of people that actually get [COVID-19],” he said.
Silver Remains Optimistic About Resuming Season
NBA commissioner Adam Silver remains confident the league will restart the season at the end of July despite growing concerns from a faction of players, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN relays. Silver made his comments during ESPN’s special “Return To Sports” broadcast on Monday evening.
Silver is sensitive and sympathetic to the feeling of some players that the resumption of play could take the focus off social justice reforms. A player coalition led by Nets star Kyrie Irving and Lakers guard Avery Bradley is pursuing a further examination of the league’s plan to restart the season in Orlando.
That group has also raised concerns regarding an increase in positive coronavirus cases in Florida; the restrictive environment in the Orlando Disney bubble, insurance for players regarding potential illnesses; and the risk of injuries during an accelerated finish.
“Listen, it’s not an ideal situation,” Silver said. “We are trying to find a way to our own normalcy in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of essentially a recession or worse with 40 million unemployed, and now with enormous social unrest in the country. And so as we work through these issues, I can understand how some players may feel, that it’s not for them … it may be for family reasons, it may be for health reasons they have, or it may be because they feel — as some players have said very recently — that their time is best spent elsewhere.”
Silver believes the league could heighten awareness and get the social justice message across effectively while getting back in action. It would also be a major financial boost for all parties involved.
“In terms of social justice issues, it’ll be an opportunity for NBA players in the greater community to draw attention to the issues because the world’s attention will be on the NBA in Orlando if we’re able to pull this off. … I think part of it’s going to require a fair amount of listening, something we’ve been doing already,” he said. “But then engaging in very deliberate behavior, together with the players, in terms of how can we use our larger platform, the NBA together with the players, really to effect change.”
Concerns regarding the coronavirus itself and those at greatest risk are also being addressed. The league has sent teams a medical history questionnaire for players, coaches and their traveling party to fill out, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. Medical professionals will use that information to determine if members can fully participate in the restart, be restricted from certain activities, or be excused due to pre-existing conditions.
Irving-Led Coalition Details Concerns
A player coalition led by Nets star Kyrie Irving and Lakers guard Avery Bradley is pursuing a further examination of the league’s plan to restart the season in Orlando, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Malika Andrews report.
At the top of the coalition’s wish list is a commitment of resources and methods to move forward an agenda of social justice reforms.
The group also has issues with the resumption of play in Orlando’s Disney complex, including an uptick in positive coronavirus cases in Florida; the restrictive environment in the bubble, insurance for players regarding potential illnesses; and the risk of injuries during an accelerated finish.
After a conference call that included nearly 100 players voicing concerns over the restart plan on Friday, a call engineered by Irving, another conference call that included about 40 individuals was held on Monday.
A statement issued to ESPN from the group read in part:
“Native indigenous African Caribbean men and women entertaining the world, we will continue to use our voices and platforms for positive change and truth. … We are combating the issues that matter most: We will not accept the racial injustices that continue to be ignored in our communities. We will not be kept in the dark when it comes to our health and well-being. And we will not ignore the financial motivations/expectations that have prevented us historically from making sound decisions.”
Irving, a VP in the Players’ Association, was a part of the union’s ratification vote on June 5 for the resumption of play. He’s out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery.
The NBA and NBPA are working on solutions in order to get as many players as possible to rejoin the 22 teams involved the restart plan this month, the ESPN duo adds.
NBA’s Return Not Believed To Be In Jeopardy
Despite the fact that players have expressed a handful of concerns about the NBA’s restart plan over the last week or two, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski have found no indications that the NBA’s return is in jeopardy.
According to Shelburne and Wojnarowski, there will probably be some players who opt not to suit up when the season resumes in Orlando, but ESPN’s sources don’t believe that a “significant” amount of players are prepared to sit out.
Although some players have concerns related to COVID-19 and/or the restrictive nature of the Orlando plan, much of the discussion recently has focused on how resuming the season may or may not divert attention away from the Black Lives Matter movement and other social justice causes. NBPA executive director Michele Roberts tells ESPN that players spent much of the weekend discussing how they can use their “obvious influence” to best highlight those causes.
“It’s not a question of play or not play,” Roberts said. “It’s a question of, does playing again harm a movement that we absolutely, unequivocally embrace? And then whether our play can, in fact, highlight, encourage and enhance this movement? That’s what they’re talking about. They’re not fighting about it; they’re talking about it.”
As Shelburne and Woj detail, Roberts – in her conversations with players – has pointed to John Carlos’ and Tommie Smith’s raised fists on the podium at the 1968 Summer Olympics as one memorable example of how athletes used their platform at a sporting event to make a powerful statement.
With the NBA’s plan to resume and complete the 2019/20 season expected to move forward, the league is preparing this week to release a pair of key documents to teams, according to Shelburne and Wojnarowski.
One of those documents will outline the changes to the Collective Bargaining Agreement made necessary by the changes to the NBA calendar, while the other will be a 125-page manual detailing the many health and safety protocols for the return-to-play plan this summer.
Those two documents will represent major steps forward, though there will still be other issues to sort out in the coming weeks, including possible insurance protections for players in Orlando and an offseason plan for the eight clubs left out of the 22-team restart.
Restart Notes: Health Risks, LeBron, COVID-19, Bass
Significant risks await the NBA as it prepares to bring roughly 1,500 people into a bubble environment in Orlando, writes Zach Lowe of ESPN. He talks to several health experts who assess the possibility of keeping players and staff members safe from the coronavirus long enough to finish the season.
“They are going to see things on the ground they did not expect,” said Steven Pergam, an infectious disease specialist and an associate professor at the University of Washington. “The main potential weak point is how (Walt Disney World) employees interact with (NBA) staff,” adds Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. “But you can manage it in ways that do not create a whole lot of risk.”
The health professionals agree that frequent testing will be important to stave off a potential widespread outbreak. They also state that even if a player contracts COVID-19, there’s no guarantee it will be passed on through games or practices.
“The person has to be at just the right point in the infection where they are very contagious and the viral load is very high,” explains Abraar Karan, a physician at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Given the health risks, Lowe questions the decision to bring the Suns and Wizards into the bubble environment. Both teams face long odds to even reach a play-in game, and the additional personnel increases the chances of someone contracting the virus. Lowe claims the decision to include the two teams was financial, creating more games, which brings in more revenue.
There’s more surrounding the NBA’s restart:
- Many of the league’s top stars participated in a conference call Friday where objections were raised to the plan to resume the season. However, LeBron James was notably absent, and Sam Amick of The Athletic explains it’s because James believes he can play basketball and advocate for social change at the same time. “Because of everything that’s going on, people are finally starting to listen to us,” James told Jonathan Martin of The New York Times this week. “We feel like we’re finally getting a foot in the door. How long is up to us. We don’t know. But we feel like we’re getting some ears and some attention, and this is the time for us to finally make a difference.”
- NBA commissioner Adam Silver has a lot to resolve as he balances strong player sentiment for resuming the season and ending it, states Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. Adding to the concern over racial issues is an increase in the coronavirus in Florida, which reported a state-record 2,500 new cases Saturday.
- NBA spokesman Mike Bass told Marc Stein of The New York Times that the league will address the objections raised by players (Twitter link). “We understand the players’ concerns and are working with the Players Association on finding the right balance to address them,” Bass said.
Players, Staff To Have COVID-19 Tests Every Other Day
Players and staff members involved in the restart of the the NBA season will undergo coronavirus testing every other day before heading to Orlando, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
The league sent a memo Saturday night to the 22 teams involved in the restart, informing them that testing will begin June 23 for players and “essential team staff,” which includes coaches, trainers and medical personnel who work directly with players. They will be given both a COVID-19 test and an antibody test. After being tested for the coronavirus every other day, those individuals will be tested daily during the two days directly before they leave for Orlando.
Although the memo doesn’t specify which form of testing will be employed, ESPN’s Zach Lowe tweets that it will be a nasal swab that is less invasive than the one that has been in common use. The memo also doesn’t outline a protocol for anyone who tests positive for the virus or explain the testing procedure once teams arrive at the Walt Disney World complex, according to Bontemps.
Quest Diagnostics, which is partnering with the league to provide testing, has assured the NBA that these tests won’t affect the ability of health care workers, first responders and symptomatic patients in each team’s city to get the tests they need. The NBA plans to provide free testing for the public in each of the 21 cities with teams participating in the restart.
The league hopes to fund a study at the Yale School of Public Health that will support validation of a saliva-based coronavirus test and could aid the development of a test for the public that would be fast, cost effective and noninvasive, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Michele Roberts: “A Player Is Going To Test Positive”
Michele Roberts, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, admits there’s no way to fully protect players from COVID-19 while they’re in Orlando, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Roberts understands that players are entering a risky situation, but said the only alternative to resuming the season under these conditions was to wait for a vaccine and possibly sit out two years.
“That’s the only realistic mind-set you can have going into this. A player is going to test positive,” she said. “It’s not any more of this ‘if’, it’s ‘when’ and what can I do to mitigate against the ‘when.’ When it happens, if I’m not successful, what treatment is available to me, what are my chances of being really, really sick, and how are you detecting the presence of an infection? Honestly, I don’t think this is any different than what any American has to come to grips with.”
Roberts emphasized that no player is being forced to participate in Orlando and there will be no repercussions other than loss of salary. An increasing number of players are objecting to the restart plan and the restrictive nature of the bubble environment.
“I don’t believe any player would say this was forced upon them, it’s not,” Roberts said. “Not a single player has to play. This is not involuntary servitude. I don’t have to work. They don’t have to work. But it’s of course a mitigation of risk with the players. On this health and safety protocol, I’m satisfied that it can’t be any better than this. But I’m candid that it’s not bulletproof.”
Roberts addresses several other topics in the interview:
Players have become more knowledgeable about the virus:
“At the very beginning when we were being told that this was a disease that people like me [middle-aged] had to worry about, it was more of an annoyance for the players, except for those who had family members my age. But it was not something they thought was going to have this kind of an impact on their lives or their livelihood. As time went on and the seriousness was revealed there were times when players were very concerned about it, especially when it became clear it was not confined to folks over 60. I got really serious questions. ‘Is this something I need to be worried about? Can it kill me? Can it impact my ability to continue to play basketball?'”
She believes most players support resuming the season:
“I think the players are where they want to be. They want to give it a shot and if it doesn’t work, well, we tried. Hopefully nothing catastrophic will happen and we can just figure out Plan B. If the worst would happen and it would spread, we shut it down. This is the virus. I’m going to be disheartened, but I’m not going to be surprised because there’s no scientific or medical ability to protect against it. The players know it. The teams know it. We’re doing absolutely everything we can to mitigate it. If I didn’t think we were, that the league was half-stepping, then I would recommend with every ounce of my being that our players not even think about playing again. But that’s thankfully not the case.”
The union hasn’t endorsed Dec. 1 as the start date for the 2020/21 season:
“Dec. 1 is not an attractive option. Those are tough questions that have to be resolved. How do we address the revenue challenges this virus has created and will create next season? I don’t know when they’re going to have fans back in the arena. I don’t think we’re going to have them in October. There are a number of factors that will impact when the season will begin. I don’t know if we’re going to have a second spike. What’s the virus going to look like? And if you’re going to talk about a compressed season, we were able to reduce the amount of back-to-back games, the notion of returning to that and the obvious injury risk that come along with that, is not attractive. But nothing will happen without the players signing off. That’s for sure.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci Supportive Of NBA’s Restart Plan
With tentative dates, protocols and logistics in place, the NBA is further along than a number of other professional sports organizations as it looks to resume its season. The plan also has the support of the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Speaking to Stadium, Fauci said he has reviewed the league’s blueprint to resume play and commended the plan.
“It is really quite creative,” Fauci said. “I think they might very well be quite successful with it. It is to create a situation where it is as safe as possibly can be for the players by creating this bubble.
“Essentially testing everybody, make sure you start with a baseline of everybody being negative and make sure there is no influx into that cohort of individuals.”
Given a spike in coronavirus cases in the state of Florida, along with certain unclear safety measures and the fallout from the civil unrest, the NBA’s potential return has hit a snag this week. However, if everything progresses toward the playing stage, Fauci is in full support.
“It’s something that I think is a sound plan,” he added. “I was pleased to see that the intent was not reckless at all. They really wanted to make sure the safety of the players and those associated with the players was paramount.”
George Hill On Resuming Season: “Last Thought On My Mind”
Amid civil unrest in the United States, the resumption of the 2019/20 NBA season has taken a backseat. After a Kyrie Irving-led conference call on Friday, the possibility of not reporting to Orlando and canceling the season was discussed as a means of not overshadowing the current social issues.
One player, in particular, who has been focusing on social justice issues rather than basketball is Bucks veteran guard George Hill, ESPN’s Eric Woodyard writes. While the 34-year-old maintains he is in good physical shape, the fallout of the George Floyd murder and the ensuing unrest around the world has shifted his perspective.
“I’ve been working every day since this all started with my body, my game and things like that, but as a whole, I can care less about basketball right now. … that’s my last thought on my mind is basketball,” Hill said. “I can care less what’s going on. I think there’s bigger issues and bigger things to tackle in life right now than a basketball game.”
In addition to the social impact, some doubt has been cast on the NBA’s plan to resume in Orlando given a recent spike of coronavirus cases in Florida and unclear safety protocols.
Hill stressed his role as a prominent athlete is to advocate for change that goes beyond the basketball court. While he feels physically up for the challenge, Hill noted his mental state still needs time to catch up.
“I don’t know how it’s going to affect me on the basketball court,” he said. “I know that I, physically, have been working my ass off this entire time I’ve been off. I haven’t taken one day off since this whole hiatus has came into effect. … I’m in great physical shape, but mentally, I’ve still got a little more work to do.”
Safety Protocols In Place For Support Staff In Orlando
As the NBA works toward resuming the 2019/20 season in Orlando, some of the safety protocols to reduce the risk of coronavirus spread have surfaced.
Per Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press (Twitter links), all Disney personnel on-site will be required to wear masks and gloves while undergoing daily temperature screenings. Additionally, hotel workers will be assigned to designated areas and will not rotate through different properties as the NBA season and postseason continues. Reynolds noted that restaurant staff will be stationed at the same eateries without rotation as well.
Shams Charania of The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that staff will adhere to social distancing guidelines, meaning they won’t be allowed within six feet of an NBA participant.
As discussed on a Kyrie Irving-led conference call on Friday, a number of players have concerns about the NBA’s restart plan that go beyond health and safety. As we relayed earlier this week, there are concerns than an NBA restart would divert attention from systemic racism to just basketball. Players are also wary of being away from their families and the restrictive nature of the proposed Orlando “bubble.”
However, safety is also an important concern and represents one of the key areas to address before the restart plan can be fully finalized.