LOS ANGELES – Lakers assistant coach Lionel Hollins will not join the team when he flies to Orlando, Florida, next week to restart the NBA season, a league source confirmed to ESPN on Friday.
Hollins was considered a higher-risk person due to underlying medical conditions, the source told ESPN. He will not be present in Orlando, but will remain an essential member of the team and will remotely participate in the staff of coach Frank Vogel.
Without specifically mentioning Hollins by name, Vogel said it was a “pretty miserable experience” putting together the Lakers’ list of 36-person tour groups that had to report to the league this week.
“There are several members of our staff that we will not be able to incorporate into the bubble that, frankly, we need in the bubble,” Vogel told reporters on Thursday. “But the environment just doesn’t allow us to do that, and that’s just part of pandemic life and the situation we are in.” Yahoo Sports previously reported the exclusion of the Orlando Hollins.
This is not the first instance of bubble trouble for the Lakers, the No. 1 team in the Western Conference. They are already preparing for the absence of starting guard Avery Bradley in Orlando: He cited potential COVID-19 concerns for his 6-year-old son and an ongoing focus on community efforts, and are awaiting Dwight Howard’s finalized plans to join. the team as they work with Howard, his agent, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association to find a viable path for the center to report separately to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
Hollins, 66, joined the Lakers last summer after being hired, along with Jason Kidd, by Vogel as veteran NBA minds with previous experience as head coach.
Earlier this week, Lakers VP of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka was asked what considerations the team was making to determine its ride participants.
“I think our level of care for each individual, for each player, for each member of our staff, should be at the highest level possible,” Pelinka said Tuesday. “And I think our goal is for everyone to deserve the highest level of medical care and safety. That’s the way we see it as an organization: every person, regardless of circumstance, deserves 10 out of 10 attention to detail, care and safety measures as we venture into who we are with the Orlando reboot. “
According to a league memorandum distributed to the 30 teams last month and acquired by ESPN, a higher-risk staff member who doesn’t consider himself “protected” by his team, meaning the team makes the decision to exclude the individual. from your travel group for the sake of that individual’s health: You will be seen by a league-designated doctor and asked to sign a statement and an “agreement not to demand an agreement” to be allowed to enter the bubble, if the league doctor withdraws.
The league doctor may block the inclusion of the staff member, however, after gathering information, and the doctor’s decision will be “final, binding and final,” according to the memo.
Hollins, a one-time All-Star who won a player championship with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977, entered the league as assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns in 1988-89 and later became the head coach of the Grizzlies (as an interim at Vancouver and then the full-fledged head coach in Memphis) and also served as the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
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