New Orleans Pelicans: NBA’s Return to Play is Problematic

New Orleans Pelicans: NBA’s Return to Play During coronavirus

Lost amidst all of the excitement of seeing live basketball is the fact that the United States is still engulfed in a pandemic.

States are all re-opening in different ways, so some places are still on lockdown while others have been open for business for weeks. As much as we want things to get back to normal, there’s strong evidence that isn’t happening.

State health officials in Florida say that the state has seen a record increase in cases for the last two days, which has to concern a league that plans to re-open in Orlando.

On top of the obvious health risks to players, you have team staff, Disney employees, families, health workers and hundreds of others who will be put at risk when the NBA restarts.

In addition to the risk, this restart is going to require ample resources, thousands of COVID-19 tests, personal protective equipment, as well as nurses and doctors to administer the tests.

There are still hospitals whose frontline workers lack the proper protective equipment and testing around the country is still not sufficient.

Should the NBA really be risking the health of the players as well as all of these resources, just to put on basketball games?

What happens if a player tests positive? When Rudy Gobert tested positive at the beginning of all this, the league had to immediately shutdown after he potentially exposed hundreds of other players, staff and arena workers.

What is going to happen if someone tests positive within a “bubble” where they are in even closer contact with each other? What happens if 5-6 guys on one team test positive? Do they forfeit? Is the season cancelled?

The NBA has answered none of these questions, which seem pretty important.

Of course, there is still time, but the NBA needs to make clear how they are going to handle all of this safely and do it without draining necessary resources.