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The NBA faces major health obstacles in its return to play at the Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports reported Friday. He goes over it in a lengthy column that was early today. While the NBA has set up guidelines and protocol for the return to play, starting with players reporting in a week or so, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
One of the bigger health and safety issues is keeping everyone in the bubble. The NBA needs to ensure that everyone is quarantined and isolated from the outside while getting tested for coronavirus regularly. That may seem easy on paper but for 22 teams and staff, plus everyone else involved in games inside the bubble, it adds up fast.
Haberstroh mentions that workers at Disney are a question mark. Will workers be allowed to leave on a day-to-day basis? If so, do they need to get tested daily? It seems the risk of an outbreak increases if you introduce people in and out day-to-day. Haberstroh quotes one NBA exec as saying, “This isn’t a bubble, it’s a mesh hat.” While plenty tight, the “bubble” would still have its holes.