Concern across the NBA grows as coronavirus cases increase in Florida

The growing number of coronavirus cases in Florida, which hit a record on Saturday for the third consecutive day, raised concerns in many corners of the NBA, from players to team leaders to the league office as it prepares to resume play in Orlando next month.

Florida added 4,049 new cases on Saturday, which broke its previous 3,822 day record set on Friday. In all, the state has set records for one-day cases in seven of the past 10 days and is approaching 94,000 infections – becoming a national hot spot alongside Texas and Arizona, says they are also seeing an increasing number of cases.

In at least one recent call with senior executives, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has recognized Florida’s top numbers. Team sources described the general tone of that call, including questions asked by Silver about it, as tense. Another called Silver’s tone “resolute but somber”. He expressed his willingness to continue – a confidence in the NBA bubble concept – by acknowledging the severity of the coronavirus peak, sources said.

The National Basketball Players Association held a virtual town hall with players this week and addressed concerns related to Florida cases, sources informed on the matter reported to ESPN. The players stressed that Walt Disney World staff who will not reside on the NBA campus – including hotel housekeepers – will not be subject to any coronavirus tests, sources said. A mitigating factor that has been mentioned, a source added: many of the new cases are located in areas other than Orlando.

South Florida remains the region most affected by the state, accounting for nearly half of the total cases in the state, and Miami-Dade County alone has nearly 25,000 cases.

Walt Disney World, which will host 22 teams, is located largely in Orange County and partly in Osceola County – both located in central Florida, a region that has not been hit nearly as hard. Orange County has about 4,500 cases and Osceola County has reported about 1,000 cases.

NBA spokesman Mike Bass told ESPN that the championship “is closely monitoring the data in Florida and Orange County and will continue to work in partnership with the National Basketball Players Association, public health officials and medical experts to regarding our plans. “

Of the rising numbers, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts told ESPN: “I can’t say I’m surprised, given the state’s approach to reopening. We are obviously clearly monitoring the situation. As we take comfort in knowing that our players they will not travel commercially to get to Orlando, that access to campus is severely limited and of course all other health and safety protocols in place, the numbers will keep our attention. If necessary, add more restrictions than third parties who have access to campus, we will try to implement them. “

Roberts added that “third party” meant the Disney staff who will provide assistance to the hotels where the teams are staying or provide other services in the resort.

He said it remains to be seen what restrictions – if any – could be possible given that many Disney employees are unionized.

That sentiment was passed on in interviews with several team officials across the league, including several general managers.

An athletic head coach said, “All we know about Disney – and we’ve read over the years – is that you don’t realize how many thousands of people work there, right? That’s the magic behind it all – the amount of staff and the amount. of services they provide. And they’re in and out of the bubble. “

The championship, in its 113-page health guidelines sent to teams this week, outlined several precautions aimed at minimizing and even eliminating contact between Disney and NBA staff. Disney will assign staff to specific hotels instead of rotating them between hotels, the document says. They will serve the rooms only once a week and only when players and staff are not present in those rooms. Disney staff will wear personal protective equipment, including masks, and maintain social distances if they are always in the same space with NBA staff, the guidelines say.

Line bus drivers are expected to be detained by a non-Disney supplier and subject to some coronavirus tests, a source familiar with the matter, reported to ESPN.

Several major epidemiologists have praised the NBA’s master plan in interviews with ESPN over the past two weeks, although they have acknowledged that the league could not maintain a real “bubble”. They said that, in the absence of the authority to govern the working conditions and medical monitoring of Disney staff, the NBA had taken appropriate measures to reduce the threat of any of them transmitting the coronavirus to the staff of the league. Eliminating the threat completely is not possible, experts told ESPN.

Most teams are not scheduled to arrive in Orlando until July 7, 8 or 9 – except for Toronto, which is the only team scheduled to arrive during the first phase of the plan (June 12-22). Games are not expected until July 30th. Given the week-long gap between the most recent reports in Florida and the resumption of the season, several team leaders and other team officials have said they hope that the number of coronavirus cases will begin to decline.

According to the NBA’s health and safety protocol, players are expected to start testing on June 23 and team leaders and other staff have told ESPN that they expect some positive cases when the results come. Some managers and staff members have speculated that it may be better to ward off positive cases now, because players can quarantine before going to Orlando. Others have warned that positive cases will reduce their readiness to play.

ESPN is owned by The Walt Disney Company.