Houston Rockets head coach Stephen Silas appears understanding of the NBA’s tightened health and safety protocols for the COVID-19 pandemic, which were announced earlier Tuesday. The stricter policies will be in place for at least the next two weeks, according to media reports.
“It’s up to us as an organization to make sure the players understand and abide by the rules,” said Silas, who spoke at Toyota Center prior to Tuesday’s home game between the Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers. “It’s not really that hard. The guys are understanding of the rules, and we just abide by them. It’s ultimately each individual’s choice.”
The tightened rules, issued in response to rising coronavirus cases in and around the league, largely call for players and staff to quarantine at their home or hotel in between practices and games.
But relative to the rising figures of deaths and hospitalizations attributed to COVID-19 in the United States, Silas suggests that the quarantine request is a relatively small one, in the grand scheme.
“We’re understanding of all of the things that the [National Basketball] Players Association and the NBA are trying to do, in order for us to play these games,” Silas said on Tuesday. He continued:
We also are cognisant of the fact that this pandemic is still a huge deal. I mean, 3,000 people a day, over the last week, have died from this pandemic [in the United States]. So talking about whether you’re able to leave your hotel room, and things like that, seems small in comparison to all of the deaths and hospitalizations that we’ve had to deal with over the last nine months.
Silas believes that the stricter protocols will be significantly easier to deal with for coaches and players than life at the “NBA bubble” in 2020, since this route allows them to take advantage of the comforts of home during each team’s home portions of its schedule.
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Rockets forward Danuel House Jr. is currently away from the team for an indefinite period due to the league’s health and safety protocols, and Silas said Tuesday that there was no update on his potential timetable to return. Last month, James Harden, John Wall, Eric Gordon, DeMarcus Cousins, Ben McLemore, Mason Jones, and KJ Martin Jr. all missed time due to the protocol, though most were for contact tracing reasons and not due to a positive COVID-19 test of their own.
Additional details on the NBA’s revised health and safety protocols can be read in Mark Medina’s updated story at usatoday.com.
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NBA players, coaches & staff to quarantine outside of games & practices for at least next two weeks https://t.co/zHxWISCaId
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) January 12, 2021
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