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Tim BontempsESPN
One day after the end of the 2020-21 regular season, the NBA postponed its first game. Late Wednesday afternoon, the NBA announced that the game between the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder scheduled for 8pm ET was postponed because the Rockets did not have eight players available.
This news highlights only the countless challenges the league faces in trying to end its season outside the bounds of a bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, in which the NBA finished the 2020 playoffs.
As the NFL, MLB and MLS have already shown, trying to end a season outside of a balloon comes with all sorts of complications. Here’s what we know and don’t know about the postponed game, most recently with James Harden and what’s next for both the Rockets and the rest of the NBA.
What’s going on in Houston?
Rockets, according to ESPN reports Tim MacMahon and Adrian Wojnarowski, are dealing with two separate coronavirus problems.
After a video of Harden without a mask and at a club appeared on social media, the NBA began investigating whether Harden violated the league’s security protocols by going to an unsanctioned indoor event sometime in the past week. The Rockets also had three player return tests, which were either positive or inconclusive and had to introduce four other players to the league’s contact tracking program, including former All-Stars DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall. , as well as debutant Kenyon Martin Jr., who was one of the players with conflicting results in the COVID-19 test. Wall, Cousins and Martin were among the Rockets players gathered on Tuesday night at a player’s apartment, away from the ease of the team, who cut their hair.
The combination of the two events left Houston with less than eight players available, forcing the postponement of the opening of the Rockets season against the Thunder.
When will the game against the Thunder be invented?
The league has not announced a date for the game to resume, but has incorporated flexibility into its schedule to address this scenario. Launching only the games that will be played until March 4, the NBA has three rescheduling options: before the March 5-10 mid-season break; during that break; or in the second half of the season, for which the program will not be announced until February.
According to ESPN’s Royce Young, Thunder will fly back to Oklahoma City on Wednesday. They plan to leave Oklahoma City on Friday afternoon to fly to Charlotte for what will be their season opener on Saturday.
What is the league investigating about Harden?
The league has sanctioned specific restaurants in each NBA city that players, coaches and staff who are part of each team’s travel party are allowed to attend. The protocol forbids those people to go to bars, lounges or clubs and to attend social gatherings of more than 15 people. There are also evolving and stricter league mandates in certain markets, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, that prohibit teams from traveling beyond the hotel or arena.
In Harden’s images circulating on social media, he was not wearing a mask at the club. The NBA has considered Harden unavailable due to health and safety violations, although it is not yet known how long Harden will be unavailable and whether he will be punished with the league.
How does the contact tracking protocol work?
The league has deliberately given a small space in connection with tracking contacts to be flexible in how it handles each individual situation.
The backbone of the NBA plan is its rigorous testing procedures. Players are now tested twice a day, every day, in the hope that it will allow the league to catch any case of the virus as soon as possible, reducing the need to isolate players or waste their time.
However, situations such as the one reported are more complicated, in which players gather in a setting away from a practice or a game and there is a positive test case. Earlier this month, for example, Utah Jazz goalkeeper Mike Conley had to quarantine a week after coming into contact with someone close to his family who fell outside the league’s testing program.
What are the playback protocols?
For players who have tested positive for COVID-19, there are two potential ways to return: a time-based resolution and a test-based resolution.
According to the time-based resolution, the infected person must have passed at least 10 days from the date of the first positive test or the onset of any symptoms, if any; have disappeared for at least 24 hours since their fever disappeared without the use of medication; and had other improved symptoms. The protocols specifically state that loss of taste or smell alone should not prevent someone from leaving the isolation.
According to the test-based resolution, the person must return at least two consecutive negative PCR tests from samples taken at least 24 hours apart.
In any case, any player who is determined to have a new positive case after testing will not be allowed to participate in any exercise training for at least 10 days from the date of the positive test or resolution of symptoms, if he has any. .
Once a player has waited that minimum of 10 days, he must spend two days working alone, without interacting with anyone or participating in team activities, and must have cardiac screening.
Any player who has had a severe case of COVID-19, or who has been hospitalized at any time, will need to be observed for at least three full days before they can be released to return to play.
What are the possible penalties for violating security protocols?
The NBA has a section on health and safety protocols that outlines discipline and sanctions for players and team personnel.
Although no specific sanctions are mentioned, penalties for players who do not comply with these league rules include potential warnings, fines or suspensions. Teams that do not comply may also face the adjustment or loss of draft selections, as well as the confiscation of the game.
Players who violated balloon protocols – such as Lou Williams of the LA Clippers – were forced to miss games as a result of losing their salary for each missed game. In this case, Harden would lose 284,517 USD (1/145 of his salary) because he did not provide services in violation of the protocols.
The gray area of this interpretation is that the Rockets-Thunder game has been postponed and not canceled, so from a technical point of view, Harden has not missed a game yet.
Will this affect Harden’s commercial value?
When asked if Harden’s behavior would be a red flag in the former MVP’s trading, the team’s directors told ESPN that they considered him selfish and reckless, but would not prevent a deal.
The teams have already done their homework when it comes to Harden both on and off the field. An executive told ESPN that the team hired a private investigator to do a thorough background check, treating the process of gathering information about him as if it were a prospective project.
If a team feels comfortable buying Harden, the biggest challenge would be to raise enough exit salary (at least $ 33 million) to make a legal transaction without removing the existing list.
Teams are in the early stages of evaluating their lists and are not willing to make an unforeseen judgment at this time. This could change if the Rockets lower their asking price at Harden, currently reported as a mix of young players with star potential and significant project assets.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks contributed to this report.