LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – As NBA teams prepare to depart for Orlando, Florida, in the coming days, organizations have received directives on the process for transporting players who are unable to travel on team cards, according to a league memorandum acquired by ESPN.
If a player misses a scheduled coronavirus test in the two days preceding the team’s departure date, or has “extenuating circumstances” that have been revealed to the league, he must arrange his own journey to join his team when the league restarts. season. The player has the option of flying on a charter flight at the player’s expense, traveling by car, or flying in a commercial, according to the memo. If a player flies privately or drives, he will have to have two negative results before resuming basketball activities. If flying commercially, the player must have three consecutive negative results, according to the memo.
With the first teams scheduled to arrive in Orlando on Tuesday, players who tested positive in the past week are unlikely to be able to fly with their teams. In accordance with league health and safety guidelines, any player who has contracted COVID-19 must be quarantined and negative twice before receiving medical authorization to make the trip. Or, if you miss a test in the two days prior to the team flight, you will have to return three consecutive negative tests before traveling.
The Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets are among the teams that have seen several people in their travel group test positive in recent days.
The training camps at Walt Disney World Resort will be the first time that most players will play 5-on-5 basketball sanctioned with their peers since the league closed on March 11 amid the coronavirus pandemic. Players who have to stay in their home markets to recover from COVID-19 could miss out on part of their team’s scheduled training camp and that vital preparation time. Having less time to prepare could leave players more susceptible to injury.
The 22 teams participating in the restart are slated to arrive in Orlando in staggered phases. The first group of teams is slated to enter the “bubble” on Tuesday, the second on Wednesday and the third on Thursday. After completing a two-day quarantine, the first group is expected to begin training camps on Thursday.
Before the regular season games that are scheduled to start on July 30, each team is also playing three scrimmages against teams from the other conference or one who is in the same conference and an unlikely first-round opponent.
If a player has not been evaluated regularly in the past few weeks, meeting NBA requirements, he must have six consecutive negative results upon arrival before participating.
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