With Pelicans-Mavericks, Celtics-Bulls games postponed, NBA must confront major COVID-19 issues

On Monday afternoon, the NBA introduced the sport between the Pelicans and Mavericks scheduled for that night in addition to Tuesday evening’s sport between the Celtics and Bulls have been postponed due to COVID-19-related points. 

Dallas star Luka Doncic stated all of it together with his one-emoji response to the information.

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With two extra contests off the upcoming schedule, the NBA could have postponed at the least one sport for 3 consecutive days (4 complete this season) after the Warmth-Celtics matchup was faraway from Sunday’s slate. As of Sunday, greater than two dozen gamers remained in quarantine or isolation in accordance with the NBA’s well being and security protocols, in line with The Athletic’s Shams Charania. The league has seen a number of groups full video games with rosters that informal followers would barely acknowledge. The testing, contact tracing and quarantine processes have been messy, to say the least.

So yeah, to echo Doncic’s sentiment, the 2020-21 NBA season is not going all that nice. The league managed to complete out the earlier marketing campaign by creating an intensive well being and security coverage and locking down the Florida “bubble” to the most effective of its skill. Now that groups have returned to the true world, the NBA is struggling to deal with the issues introduced by the pandemic.

That is why the NBA and Nationwide Basketball Gamers Affiliation will meet Monday relating to the way to modify the present protocols. Common managers are additionally set to have a name with the league Monday, in line with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. They are going to reportedly focus on the next matters:

• Shootaround and observe lengths
• Socializing on the court docket earlier than and after video games
• Restrictions on restaurant eating
• Tighter guidelines on mask-wearing

As well as tweaking its in depth well being and security doc, the NBA ought to take into account increasing rosters in an effort to keep away from the nightly query of “Will they’ve sufficient to play this sport?”

Finally, although, the NBA and NBPA might have to speak about the opportunity of quickly shutting down, particularly if groups won’t be receiving the coronavirus vaccine anytime soon. Some workforce executives have raised considerations in latest days, per Wojnarowski, however the league has been proof against hitting the pause button.

“We anticipated that there can be sport postponements this season and deliberate the schedule accordingly,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass instructed ESPN. “There aren’t any plans to pause the season, and we are going to proceed to be guided by our medical consultants and well being and security protocols.”

However what occurs when best-laid plans are derailed? What occurs when the protocols aren’t working?

We’re about to search out out.