The NBA, in conjunction with the NBPA, announced that of the 344 players screened in the Walt Disney World bubble, zero players tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19) since July 20.
This is the second time that the league and players association has announced that no new cases were found on the NBA campus, with the first coming after testing on July 13.
Prior to that, two players tested positive for coronavirus after teams began to arrive to the bubble environment in Orlando on July 7. Those players left campus to quarantine in isolation, but have presumably made their way back.
The NBA has established thorough rules and guidelines for players and staff to follow during their stay and so far it seems to be working. If a positive case were to surface, however, that individual will be forced to quarantine until they are cleared by the NBA and health officials.
In the event someone breaks a rule, they will be forced to quarantine for 10 days. Alex Caruso believes that it should never have to come down to that given what is at stake but admitted that it would be a challenging endeavor to isolate himself for that period of time.
“Hopefully we’re at the point to where we’re adults and don’t need consequences to motivate our actions. We’re all here for a reason,” Caruso said. “If you didn’t want to come, you didn’t have to. They put rules in place to keep everybody safe and make sure we can all do what we want to do: play basketball.”
The 10 days is obviously an intimidating number. That might be the motivation behind it, is to put a little fear into you to follow the rules. My hope is we’re all professionals for a reason and we can continue to hold ourselves to that standard.”
Frank Vogel emphasizes Lakers are doing their part to keep bubble safe
For a while it looked as though the Los Angeles Lakers would not get their chance to compete for a title, but the bubble experiment has proved to be successful so far.
With strict rules and guidelines in place, the league has been able to keep the players and staffs free of the coronavirus, a welcomed development for basketball and sports at large.
Even with news that no new cases were found last week, head coach Frank Vogel preached for everyone, especially the Lakers organization, to continue doing their part to keep the bubble environment as safe as possible.
“All of these habits factor in. We want as clean of a bubble as possible. We’re all making great sacrifices to be here for the longevity that we’re going to be here,” Vogel said. “To have a chance to finish our season, for the Lakers to have a chance to compete for a championship and for really the whole league to have an opportunity to sustain its health.
“If we’re not going to follow the little sacrifices day to day, it really negates the big sacrifices that we are making. The social distancing, wearing a mask every situation you should be, all these things contribute to as clean of a bubble as we can create. They’re all every bit as important as the major sacrifices we’re making.”
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