How is the NBA Going to Go to Florida in Two Weeks?
By Stephen Douglas | Jun 26, 2020, 12:29 PM EDT
On Friday morning, with coronavirus cases surging, Florida (and Texas) shut down it's bars. Florida set another one-day record with 8,942 new confirmed COVID-19 cases. Florida is not alone -- the United States also posted a new record high on Thursday -- but it is where the NBA is supposed to go in a few weeks. How in the hell is the NBA going to pull this off?
The league announced that 16 of the 302 players who will enter the Disney Bubble tested positive this week. They will all be in quarantine and if there are no complications, they will be safe for the rest of the season. So the NBA now only has to worry about 286 other players.
The NBA and NBPA have announced the following: pic.twitter.com/W3ItTJP5du
— NBA (@NBA) June 26, 2020
Players will begin arriving in Orlando in less than two weeks. There is a little more than a month until actual games are scheduled to begin. I know the league has a very thorough plan, but how is this possibly going to work? The PGA has seen six golfers withdraw from the Travelers Championship over the last two days because of COVID-19 exposure or positive tests. How is any of this supposed to work?
Florida’s COVID-19 positivity rate was 13.1% for Thursday.
— Andy Slater (@AndySlater) June 26, 2020
New cases: 8,942
State shows 71,433 test results pic.twitter.com/F9OAGzAV34
What is the contingency plan? Is there no other option? No other location with hotels and multiple NBA-ready courts? Disney World -- where workers are petitioning not to reopen -- does not seem like a serious possibility at this point.