The NBA has issued a 108-page rule book for players outlining the remainder of the 2019-2020 season at Disney World. Teams will be arriving in Florida on July 7 to July 9 to resume the season, and they will be treated to everything from game rooms and golf courses, to cabanas, salon services, and more.
See below for a list of player amenities:
- 24-hour concierge service - Game rooms - Bowling - Golf course access - Fishing areas - Private restaurants - Salon services - Backstage tours - Movie screenings - DJs - Chaplain services - Mental health services - Yoga sessions
According to The Associated Press, players will be tested for Covid-19 on a regular basis. They must also wear masks and practice physical distancing.
“My confidence, it didn’t exist at the beginning of this virus because I was so frightened by it,” union executive director Michele Roberts told AP. “Now having lived, and breathed, and suffered through the hours and hours of understanding the virus, and listening to our experts, and comparing different alternative protocols, I can’t even think of anything else we could do short of hermetically seal the players that would keep them safe.”
Teams will be staying at one of three hotels, as players must shower in their individual hotel rooms as opposed to game and/or practice arenas, and also participate in a contact tracing program. Coaches are being asked to where face masks during pre- and post-game activities and whenever feasible.
When players arrive to Disney in early July, teams will have access to training rooms and meeting rooms in three-hour blocks, with one-hour sessions in between for cleaning. The NBA has already stated that a small number of Covid-19 cases will not automatically result in the suspension or cancelation of the season.
The 100-plus page rule book also touches on how the league and players might address ongoing issues of racial inequality and social injustice. Per the NBA, it is an essential goal to the restart of the season to bring attention to “sustained action to issues of social injustice, including combatting systemic racism, expanding educational and economic opportunities across the Black community, enacting meaningful police and criminal justice reform and promoting greater civic engagement.”
Some players, including Kyrie Irving and Dwight Howard, have suggested that resuming the NBA season could take away from the current Black Lives Matter movement.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has already announced that players can choose not to play at Disney for health reasons and/or social injustice issues. They will lose salary for games missed, per usual, but will not face any disciplinary measures.
“The very fact that our players have the option of not playing, I think says a lot about the commissioner’s ability to appreciate how big an issue this is, not just for African-American players but for all of our members,” Roberts said. “There’s not been one ounce of skepticism about the sincerity of the players’ feelings about this.”
For more on what the restart of the 2019-2020 NBA season will look like, visit The Associated Press.
