NBA lays out its vision for Disney restart to teams, players

Here’s some of what awaits NBA players going to Disney next month: game rooms, golf course access, cabanas with misters to combat heat, fishing areas, bowling, backst tours and salon services.

It only sounds like vacation.

NBA described very specific plans to players and teams for restart on Tuesday, doing so in a memo and handbook both obtained by Associated Press. With safety being of foremost importance during coronavirus pandemic, players were told y will be tested regularly — but t with deep nasal swabs — and must adhere to strict physical distancing and mask-wearing policies.

league and National Basketball Players Association have been working on terms of how restart will work for weeks, all while constantly seeking advice from medical experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci, perhaps best-kwn physician in country when it comes to battle against COVID-19.

“My confidence, it didn’t exist at beginning of this virus because I was so frightened by it,” union executive director Michele Roberts told AP. “w having lived, and bread, and suffered through hours and hours of understanding virus, and listening to our experts, and comparing different alternative protocols, I can’t even think of anything else we could do short of hermetically seal players that would keep m safe.”

Most teams will arrive in Florida on July 7, 8 or 9. A person with kwledge of situation said reigning champion Toronto Raptors, lone NBA team based outside of U.S., will be permitted to gar for some pre-camp workouts — under strict guidelines that or teams will follow in ir own cities — before that arrival date. Raptors are likely to train somewhere in Florida, said person who spoke to AP on condition of anymity because deal has yet been signed.

For Raptors, it's been an area of concern largely because of current Canadian government regulations that call for a 14-day quarantine for people returning to Canada. Some Raptors players are in Toronto right w; some are in U.S.

body on NBA's Disney campus, which has been loosely described as a bubble, will be allowed in anyone else’s sleeping room. NBA also told players and teams that it will work with one or more outside health care companies to provide a medical clinic with X-ray and MRI capability on campus — critical, since in ory league would t want players and team staff leaving and potentially facing coronavirus exposure by going outside of Disney property for such exams.

league’s plan also spells out how training rooms and meeting rooms will be utilized, procedures for practice-court us — three-hour blocks per team, all scheduled, with one open hour in between sessions for cleaning and sanitizing — and even how team and player laundry will be handled.

It also addresses polarizing issue of how league and its players will be able to address social injustice and racial inequality -- two issues of constant importance, particularly w across country.

NBA said it would be “a central goal of our season restart” to bring attention and what it called “sustained action to issues of social injustice, including combatting systemic racism, expanding educational and ecomic opportunities across Black community, enacting meaningful police and criminal justice reform and promoting greater civic engment.”

league said it remains in talks with NBPA how best to make that happen. Some NBA players, such as NBPA executive board member Kyrie Irving of Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard, have suggested that playing could take away from movement to spur immediate and dramatic change on racial issues in country.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said that if a player does t feel comfortable playing at Disney — wher for health reasons or because of social-justice issues — n he does t have to report with his team and will t be disciplined, or than losing salary for games missed.

“ very fact that our players have option of t playing, I think says a lot about commissioner’s ability to appreciate how big an issue this is, t just for African-American players but for all of our members,” Roberts said. “re’s t been one ounce of skepticism about sincerity of players’ feelings about this.”

NBA is planning on games in three arenas during seeding-game portion of restart, ones where each of 22 teams going to ESPN Wide World of Sports complex will play eight games before playoffs begin. Teams will be housed in three hotels, with between six and eight teams in each.

Or plans NBA has for restart include mental health professionals being available for players and coaches; pregame chapel services, done virtually; yoga and meditation; three meals a day and four meals on game days; and restaurant availability.

Teams can bring up to 35 people as part of basketball operations group, which includes players, a senior executive, an athletic trainer, a strength and conditioning coach, an equipment manr and security.