At 69 years old, Houston Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni is in the age demographic that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warns could face increased complications from COVID-19.
But D’Antoni says he has “no apprehension” about returning to his usual coaching capacity once the NBA resumes its 2019-20 season in Florida, in part due to the precautions he’s going to take and also because he trusts the league’s comprehensive safety protocols.
In a Tuesday Zoom call with media members, D’Antoni said he still hadn’t heard from the NBA about any additional restrictions. With the Rockets set to depart Houston for Orlando on Thursday, the league is quickly running out of time if it plans to prevent D’Antoni from attending.
“Now everybody knows I’m 69,” D’Antoni joked, referencing the storyline of his medical reviews. “I was trying to keep that quiet.”
Assuming he is allowed to attend, D’Antoni explained Tuesday why he’s not apprehensive about the risks. He said:
I have no apprehension, because I know what I’ll do to prevent it. I know the NBA will do everything they can to avoid it.
D’Antoni said he anticipates coaching from the sideline in Florida while wearing a mask as a precautionary measure. His comments:
The big thing is, you wear a mask for other people. I do it for my players, I do it for my coaches, I do it for the people that I care about, so I wear a mask. And that’s what I do walking down the street here, going into a grocery store.
D’Antoni said he was confident that players would still be able to hear him while communicating with a mask on. Later in the interview, he joked that it might even help by shielding his criticism of referees.
The Rockets (40-24) will enter the NBA restart tied for the No. 5 spot in the Western Conference. With eight regular-season games remaining, they can finish anywhere from No. 2 to No. 7 for playoff seeding purposes.
Houston’s regular season will resume on July 31 versus Dallas.
