NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has long indicated that widespread COVID-19 testing is a prerequisite before the league could conceivably resume play this season. Professional sports leagues have understandably been reluctant to take tests for athletes if there are those at greater risk within their communities who are unable to access them.
According to Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, who also owns many other businesses such as the Landry’s Inc. restaurant empire and the Golden Nugget casino chain, that’s no longer a stumbling block.
In a new interview with Houston’s ABC 13, Fertitta was asked what he would say to those who might be critical of the NBA for acquiring tests for its players, if other people might not be able to access them.
Here’s how he responded:
I think this whole thing about ‘You can’t get tested’ is a bunch of malarkey now, okay? I have employees every day go get a test in the City of Houston with no line whatsoever where they go get their test. And they’re going to different locations.
Anybody that wants to get tested can get tested. And so if the NBA wants to test all their players, they have that right. Because anybody out there can get tested right now. You can go anywhere and get tested. So I don’t even know why that’s a story anymore, that you can’t get tested.
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Fertitta continues to serve on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Strike Force to Reopen Texas, which is charged with advising the governor on safely and strategically reopening the state through a phased program.
To Fertitta’s point, Texas reported a record daily testing volume (49,259) on Wednesday. According to The Covid Tracking Project, the overall U.S. average has exceeded 300,000 tests per day over the past week, which represents a significant improvement from prior weeks.
Some good news: The Texas Department of Health and Human services reported over 49,000 Covid-19 tests over the last 24 hours and the 7-day positivity rate is down to 5.37%, the lowest on record https://t.co/xDpgGv0aWh
— Adam Spolane (@AdamSpolane) May 13, 2020
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That’s still short of the minimum 500,000 tests per day that a group of Harvard researchers previously estimated would be necessary to begin reopening the U.S. economy (and keep it open).
But trends are still moving upward, and Dr. Anthony Fauci — director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — has said he expects the nation to have its needed testing capacity by late May or early June. That would be prior to any resumption of the 2019-20 season.
While the NBA has yet to offer a specific timeline for the season to resume, numerous sources have cited positive momentum in recent days.
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