LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – While the NBA is preparing for the arrival of team guests in the bubble for the start of the conference semifinals this month, the league requires players to provide evidence of “long-term relationships” with non-family members, according to a memo received by ESPN.
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Players Association are negotiating terms that exclude players from hosting guests who are considered highly casual in nature, including “known by the player only through social media as an intermediary,” according to the memo .
Those without “a solid, personal and well-known relationship” will not be allowed into the bubble, where each playoff team of the second round has 17 hotel rooms for guests. The first guests were able to cancel the quarantine process and players participate is August 31, per memo.
As one team general manager told ESPN, the issue of casual knowledge could “create problems within your team – and maybe there’s someone else”, and has been a major topic of conversation among organizations hoping to internalize drama minimize as the playoffs explode.
So far, the NBA has been excited about how it has managed to maintain a campus that is free of the coronavirus and for the most part functional and collegial in nature. The league and union are united in wanting to find ways to best preserve the elements that have made the environment workable, and yet recognizing the length of stay for progressive teams makes family inclusion an important factor in the mental and emotional well-being of players.
The NBA and NBPA are negotiating the wider inclusion of family and friends after the first round of the playoffs, essentially agreeing to replace the population of outgoing team traveling parties with as many as four guests per player, plus additional exceptions for children.
There was important discussion and planning about how some guests might influence the league’s environment, and this is reflected in the language of rules that also prohibit those with business relationships, including agents, chefs, coaches and tattoo artists, according to the memo.
Families and guests will spend seven days off-site quarantine of the ESPN Wide World of Sports or three days in the team market before taking a franchise charter flight to Orlando, and then another four days on the Disney campus , the memo said.
Players are allowed one ticket per guest per playoff game, with an additional seat available for a child 32 inches or shorter, per memo. When trying to infect in the bubble environment, family members may not be able to move outside the campus and go to Disney’s theme parks.
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