The Milwaukee Bucks are the latest NBA team to close their practice facility after an unnamed player tested positive for COVID-19, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Bucks plan to keep their facility closed for workouts until the team leaves for the Orlando “bubble” on Thursday. The Miami Heat, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, and Brooklyn Nets have also all closed facilities due to positive tests.
Star Nuggets center Nikola Jokic contracted the disease in his native Serbia, while at least one member of the Clippers traveling party and three other members of Denver’s traveling party to Orlando have also tested positive. As a response, the Nuggets closed things down last Saturday, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, and the Clippers followed suit on Thursday.
The Nuggets are currently scheduled to make the trip to Orlando on July 7, the first day that teams will travel. The Clippers and Heat are each slated to fly on July 8. As of now, teams are in the individual workout stage of getting back up to speed for the restart of the season. Group workouts are set to begin once teams have arrived in Orlando.
The Nets reopened their facility last Tuesday after it had previously been closed for a number of days. The Nets, like the Nuggets, are experiencing an outbreak. DeAndre Jordan and Spencer Dinwiddie both tested positive last week, with Jordan ruling himself out for Disney. Dinwiddie, meanwhile, has not yet made up his mind.
The NBA knew that positive tests were going to come out of this restart, though it likely hoped that they could be delayed at least until players arrived in the Orlando bubble. Now the NBA must figure out how to prevent traveling parties from contaminating that bubble. The league has its work cut out for it in protecting players from COVID-19 now.
