NBA ‘very comfortable’ with restart venue despite coronavirus surge

A team attendant uses protective gloves to wipe down seats in the players’ bench area during an NBA basketball game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks in San Antonio, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Friday the league remains “very comfortable” with its decision to restart the season in Florida as the state battled a dramatic surge in coronavirus cases.

In a conference call with reporters held after the league confirmed details of its July 30 restart, Silver said the league would be ready to halt play if there was a signficant outbreak amongst NBA players and personnel inside the league’s “bubble” at Disney World in Orlando.

But Silver added the league was confident that protocols put in place at the Disney World campus would be sufficient to shield NBA players and staff from the worst of the escalating COVID-19 crisis in surrounding areas.

Health officials in Florida on Friday announced 8,942 new cases of the disease, smashing the previous single-day record of 5,511 set earlier this week.

Cases in Orange County, where Orlando is located, have skyrocketed to more than 6,500 from 1,800 cases a month ago.

“My ultimate conclusion is that we can’t outrun the virus and this is what we’re going to be living with for the forseeable future, which is why we designed the campus the way we did,” Silver said.

“It’s a closed network and while it’s not impermeable we are in essence protected from cases around us. For those reasons we’re still very comfortable being in Orlando.

“We’re never going to say there’s nothing that would cause us to change our plans, but one thing we’re learning about this virus is there’s so much that’s unpredictable.

“We’re not saying full steam ahead no matter what happens. We talk daily and we’re going to see how this continues to play out. But we feel very comfortable right now with where we are.”

Silver meanwhile said isolated coronavirus cases that emerged during the restarted season would see players placed in quarantine.

Ready to halt play

“If we had a single player test positive, frankly whether that player was an All-Star or a journeyman, that player would then go into quarantine and we would be tracking any player or personnel that player had been in contact with,” Silver said.

“We would then supplement the testing just to make sure that others haven’t been contaminated but we would continue. And that team would be down a man. We would treat that positive test as if it was an injury and we would not delay the continuation of the playoffs.”

However Silver acknowledged a larger outbreak could lead to the season being halted.

“If we were to have a significant spread of coronavirus through our community, that might ultimately lead us to stop it,” he said.

“But we’re working closely with the players association, Disney and public health officials in Florida as to what that line should be and as yet it hasn’t been precisely defined.

“We want to get down on the ground and see how the testing and protocols are working and we’ll make decisions as we go.”

The coronavirus pandemic forced the NBA to shut down the campaign March 11 after Rudy Gobert tested positive for the deadly virus.

Silver said the decision to resume the season on a “closed campus” had not been the NBA’s preferred option.

“We looked at several different models all based on the data around society,” Silver said.

“It was not our first choice to play on a closed campus. The data led us to conclude we did need to play on a closed campus under the protocols we’re talking about — mandatory masking, no fans, contact tracing, aggressive testing etc.

“We are left with no choice but to learn to live with this virus. No options are risk-free right now.”

Earlier Friday, the NBA revealed that 16 players had tested positive for COVID-19 out of 302 tests conducted on Tuesday.

None of the players or teams involved were revealed by the NBA in a brief statement.

The tests were required as part of the agreement for players who have committed to participating in the season restart in Florida.

Each player who tested positive will remain in self-isolation until he meets public health protocol for leaving isolation and is cleared by a physician.