Dr. Anthony Fauci likes what he sees from NBA’s return plan

“It’s something that I think is a sound plan,” Fauci said. “I was very pleased to see that the intent was not reckless at all.”

Though final details are still being negotiated between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), Dr. Anthony Fauci likes what he’s seen so far from the league’s restart plans.

Fauci, who is director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a White House health advisor, told Stadium why he endorses the 22-team restart plan at a “bubble” site near Orlando.

“I think they might very well be quite successful with it,” Fauci said. “They really wanted to make sure that the safety of the players was paramount.”

Fauci continued:

I actually have looked at that plan. … What they are really trying to do is to create a situation where it is as safe as it possibly could be for the players by creating this bubble. Essentially testing everybody, make sure that you start with a baseline of everybody being negative and trying to make sure that there is no influx into that cohort of individuals and do a tournament-type play.

The plan calls for games to be played at a neutral complex near Orlando and without fans, aimed at reducing exposure risks to COVID-19. Eight regular-season games will be played starting July 30, and the subsequent 2020 NBA playoffs will run as late as Oct. 13.

Team training camps in home markets are expected to begin around June 30, while July 7 appears to be the target date for teams to begin reporting to the neutral Disney complex in Florida.

While final health and safety details are still being negotiated with the NBPA union, Fauci says it looks like a “sound plan” so far. He explains:

It’s not the classic basketball season, but certainly for the people who are thirsting for basketball (and) who love basketball the way I do, it’s something that I think is a sound plan. I was very pleased to see that the intent was not reckless at all. They really wanted to make sure that the safety of the players and the people associated with the players was paramount. So I think that you might be able to do something like that with basketball.

Could you extrapolate that to some of the other sports, possibly? I think they should look at that model, see how it works, and then take it from there. Maybe modifications of that for some of the other sports.

According to ESPN, COVID-19 testing for players and staff taking part in the restart will begin June 23 and take place every other day. Anyone who tests positive will have to isolate for at least 10 days and test negative twice before being allowed to rejoin their team, per The Ringer.

The same requirement of a 10-day quarantine and two negative tests would apply to anyone who leaves the NBA’s Disney campus after arrival, since that would effectively be breaking the “bubble” concept.

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