The Golden State Warriors were not invited to the restart of the 2019-20 NBA season at the Disney Resort. Having only 15 wins and 50 losses when the season was suspended will.
But surely they are still pending what happens in the NBA. Whether you think the league should have been back months ago, or you think the season should be canceled, the reboot is a fascinating experiment and will tell us a lot about how well sports can work in this new reality.
Some of the first big news came out Monday, when the league revealed information from the first batch of coronavirus tests. The NBA released a statement saying they had evaluated 322 players within the bubble, and two of those players, who are currently anonymous, tested positive.
There are a few different views to have here. The optimistic view is that that’s a low rate, and players were quarantined in their rooms while they waited for results.
The pessimistic view is that players were tested before traveling, meaning that those two positive tests presumably occurred on the road or in the bubble, and it’s fair to wonder if it might have extended a bit in the time since the tests. Only time will tell.
It was also revealed that another prominent player has tested positive: Russell Westbrook. The Houston Rockets guard became the fourth 2020 All-Star to test positive (joining Nikola Jokic, Rudy Gobert, and Donovan Mitchell), and will not travel to Florida until he has fully recovered.
We hope that all players who have tested positive will recover safely. And I hope that the next round of results will bring good news.
