The NBA tightening the coronavirus protocols on Tuesday was expected.
Especially in the wake of four games being cancelled this week, including the game between the Bulls and Celtics that was supposed to take place at the United Center.
Will it make life even more difficult on the players, coaches, and staffs as they try and keep this season afloat? Absolutely, but even Billy Donovan admittedly feels like they can all work in that direction considering everything else going on worldwide with this pandemic.
“Listen, I need to do a better job,’’ Donovan said, self-reflecting on how everyone needed to pitch in including him when it comes to being more consistent by keeping his mask on from the sidelines. “I’d be the first one to admit that. The hard part for me is when I am talking to the guys when I am on the court they can’t hear me. I feel bad for them. They are asking for instruction or direction. I’m sitting there and they can’t read my lips, they can’t hear what I am saying. Sometimes they can’t maybe get all the way over to me. So I’ve taken it off to do that and I maybe need to do a better job of just lowering it for a second and then pulling it back up.
“Behind my ears are getting a little chafed from yanking it on and off, so I have figure out some kind of solution.’’
The biggest change in the new protocols had to do with visitors the players were allowed to have in the hotel on road trips. That’s over with, as the league is now asking players to limit guests all together.
There are now limits to pregame meetings, new seating arrangements asked for on team flights, and now players must wear masks on the bench at all times after leaving a designated cooldown area when they’ve come out of a game.
“The biggest challenge in all this to me, people getting sick, hopefully, and it’s kind of been this way, people have fully recovered,’’ Donovan said, when asked if this is all worth it to try and get a season in. “But I don’t know if anyone knows what the long-term effects are of getting Covid and what that looks like nine, 10 years from now. So that’s a little bit of the scary part.
“Do I think it’s worthwhile? I think it’s worthwhile as long as the people still making those decisions feel very, very comfortable about the safety measures and protocols being in place to try to protect everybody as best as possible, and I think everybody is kind of putting their trust in the doctors, in the medical experts.’’
As tough as it was for guard Ryan Arcidiacono and forward Lauri Markkanen the last 12 days, they did just that. Put their trust in the experts.
Both were in the league’s health and safety protocols because of contact tracing, so despite not having one positive test, were pretty much quarantined while their teammates were on the West Coast trip.
While they were both glad to be back and involved in Tuesday’s full practice, it wasn’t exactly an easy time.
“Yeah, you want to be super cautious with it,’’ Arcidiacono said, when asked if he was frustrated. “I was fortunate to test negative and still continue to.
“Tried to stay in touch and keep that chemistry going. But from a physical standpoint, I couldn’t really do too much, which is also disappointing because if you’re not able to be with the team, you want to be able to stay in shape and work out.’’
Both Chandler Hutchison and Tomas Satoransky remain quarantined, after testing positive, and have no timetable for a return.
“Just following league protocol,’’ Arcidiacono said of the entire process. “Thank god I’m testing negative.’’
