The NBA announced today that in the past week 19 NBA players tested positive for the Covid-19 virus. Two of those players were already locked inside the “bubble” at Disney when they tested positive.
Of the 322 players tested for COVID-19 since arriving on the NBA Campus July 7, two have returned confirmed positive tests while in quarantine. Those players never cleared quarantine and have since left the Campus to isolate at home or in isolation housing.
Since July 1, during in-market testing, 19 NBA players newly tested positive. These players are staying in their home markets and recovering until they are cleared under CDC guidelines and NBA rules for leaving home isolation and joining the Campus.
The two players were in the same hotel as the rest of the NBA and participating in practices with other players on a regular basis. More testing will now be done on the other players living inside the bubble at Disney.
This is bad news for the NBA. The opening game is set for July 20th at Disney. But if more players end up testing positive for the virus that could be put on hold. The players have already been complaining about the bubble – some posting pictures of half-cooked chicken and cockroaches on various social media platforms.
Not that two players on site have tested positive and interacted with other players the odds are that more players will test positive for COVID between now and July 20th. If that happens it could put many games at risk of simply not being played.
We predicted this event earlier this week as soon as we heard of the conditions inside the bubble. All it would take would be for a couple of players to escape the bubble and bring COVID 19 back with them. Now that it seems the people with COVID have been living inside the bubble who knows what will happen.
We aren’t betting on there being any games happening this season.
