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The NBA's Response to COVID-19
- Project Medify
- Aug 17, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 19, 2020
By Aditya Daga
It’s March 11th, 2020. The basketball world is still shaken by the abrupt death of legendary sports icon, Kobe Bryant. Just as the NBA is starting to get back to normal, another hindrance begins to settle in: COVID-19. COVID-19 has no plans on sparing athletes, as proved by Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert, the first NBA player to test positive for the virus. His diagnosis was reported shortly prior to the tipoff of that night's game between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Confusion rattles the stadium, but no one is surprised when players, coaches, and staff of both the Thunder and Jazz left the court in Oklahoma City without playing the game. The state of the NBA? Suspended.
More and more reports of NBA stars testing positive for the virus began to flood in, showing everyone that COVID-19 could not be underestimated, and basketball could not go on. The league shut down all of its practice facilities and prevented players from attending gyms, fitness centers, and college facilities. The heads of every team in the league remained hesitant and confused on reopening, and a professional basketball drought took place until late May.
On May 23rd, the NBA made it official that they were undergoing negotiations with Disney to start the NBA back up in Disney’s Orlando resort. On June 4th, the brand new22-team format in Orlando was approved with a 28-1 vote. However, the restart had the potential to be disastrous if the setup wasn’t executed properly. Nevertheless, schedules were released and the NBA was set to start back up.
Fast forward to present-day, and the playoffs are about to begin. Each team has played eight games, and the 150 million dollar, heavily monitored isolation area at the Disney World Resort is the current talk of the sports world. The NBA’s “bubble” has worked. No players have tested positive since July 13, and viewership is through the roof. The players get to play, and the fans get intense basketball to watch. The bubble strategy has even inspired the WNBA, the NHL, and the National Women’s Soccer League, who are now using the same bubble format. The substantial results beg the question: how did the NBA pull off such an extraordinary plan of action?
Such a strategy started off with the easiest decision: fans would not be allowed inside the Orlando bubble to spectate games. Having tens of thousands of people packed inside a stadium risks outbreaks for fans and players, and the NBA made the smart and easy decision to avoid this. Additionally, players who registered for the bubble were required to quarantine for up to 48 hours until they registered two negative COVID-19 tests. Furthermore, any player who left the bubble would have to quarantine for 10 days after returning to Disney. They’d also need to register two negative tests and an antibody test before returning to play.
Every individual in the bubble is personally tested each night and the results would come out the following morning. They are only allowed interaction with their teammates and coaches, and cannot stay in anyone else’s room. The NBA is also giving players rings that track biometrics and predict COVID-19 symptoms up to 3 days in advance with 90% accuracy. A mask is required in all areas besides the player’s room and the basketball court. The Disney Staff is also tied to strict protocol. On top of it all, if a player tests positive for the virus, they first enter immediate isolation, retest, and exit isolation after consecutive negative tests and return to play.
Sources
Work with League Set to Resume Play in Orlando.” CBSSports.com, 30 July 2020,
Uggetti, Paolo. “A Timeline of the NBA's Path to Restarting.” The Ringer, The Ringer, 16 June 2020,
Zillgitt, Jeff. “Some NBA Players Skeptical of Wearable Devices to Be Used inside Disney World
Bubble.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 19 June 2020,
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