As the NBA and its players weigh the risks of returning to play amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Sam Amick of The Athletic says all players that acquired the virus have quickly recovered.
While big names like Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, and Kevin Durant were among the first wave of players to test positive at the time of the NBA’s season suspension in early March, the league has since acknowledged that there were more positive tests than the initial reports. However, for privacy reasons, those names were not disclosed.
In Friday’s story, which reiterates that the league’s current plan is to resume without fans at one or two neutral sites, Amick writes:
From the logistics surrounding testing to possible treatment if and when there is a positive test to the local landscape in terms of hospitals, every aspect is being explored. A player testing positive is not expected to bring the playoffs to a halt, but that player would be quarantined and — barring an outbreak — the games would resume. Thus far, sources say every NBA player who has tested positive and experienced symptoms has recovered in short order while avoiding hospitalization.
More than a billion concerns: The risks, locations and finances the NBA is weighing, at @TheAthletic https://t.co/hDbJ9JxDWo
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) May 15, 2020
The results are similar to those from a recent COVID-19 antibody study involving athletes and staffers in Major League Baseball. Of 60 tests that came back positive, ESPN reports that ~70% were asymptomatic. Of the minority with symptoms, 2.7% had a fever; 14% had a headache; 8% had a cough; and 0.9% had lost a sense of taste and smell.
As Amick reports, that doesn’t eliminate risk. Even if COVID-19 is unlikely to cause severe illness in young, healthy athletes, there are coaches and staffers in higher-risk groups — such as 69-year-old Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni — who would want to be at any games.
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However, non-athletic participants could conceivably take certain precautions that players could not. For example, D’Antoni has indicated that he plans to coach with a mask. He might also be able to wear gloves and adhere to physical distancing guidance in the locker room.
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Players, on the other hand, can’t reasonably be expected to wear masks while playing. They also can’t avoid coming within six feet of each other at all times. Thus, the health risks for the specific demographic of players — while far from the only factor — are a relevant variable for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to consider as the league nears its decision.
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Ultimately, as Silver and National Basketball Players Association representatives have indicated, the decision will likely hinge on what levels of risk are deemed acceptable by the participants. Should the 2019-20 season be canceled altogether, Amick says the lost national television revenue from the playoffs alone would be roughly $900 million.
Numerous media reports in recent days have cited positive momentum for the season’s potential resumption, and a diverse panel of star players such as Houston’s Russell Westbrook is said to be unanimously in favor of returning to play at some point this summer.
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