The NBA has decided to allow teams to access their own practice facilities in cities and states where local governments have eased quarantine stay-at-home measures, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
The move comes after more than six weeks of a suspension of all league activities on March 11, extended to use of team facilities on March 19.
Wojnaroski relates teams will be permitted to open facilities for individual player workouts, but group workouts will remain off the table for the present. The NBA also reportedly has yet-to-be-elaborated-on plans to assist franchises located in jurisdictions which are not opening their economies.
The move doesn’t suggest a return to play is necessarily imminent, but any such eventuality will require players in better shape than they are at present with no access to facilities and in many cases even a basketball hoop for many weeks.
The move by Georgia to begin allowing access to gyms and other businesses this week may have been a factor, as Wojnarowski reports some players were asking if they should travel to the area in order to be able to train — the teams preferring players use relatively safer franchise facilities.
It remains to be seen whether this move will reflect NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s position that public health officials need to give the go-ahead to return to action — or whether that refers to a full resumption of NBA activities.
But with the risk involved not just to the viability of the remainder of the 2019-20 NBA season and playoffs, but human life itself, it seems probable the league will continue to take a very cautious route.
