NBA teams will be allowed to open facilities Friday with restrictions, report says
A general view of an NBA basketball at Capital One Arena on March 10, 2020 in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty Images/Patrick Smith
While there remains no plan to resume the season, the NBA is allowing teams to begin reopening practice facilities to players in areas that have announced a loosening of the stay-at-home restrictions.
The league suspended the season on March 12 and briefly allowed players to use the practice facilities to continue working out. But the NBA ordered teams to close the facilities on March 19 as the contagious dangers of the coronavirus became more alarming.
According to a report by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the teams will be allowed to reopen facilities starting Friday. Players in states such as Georgia, which already has changed the stay-at-home policy, will be able to work out, although the league still will prohibit group workouts and organized team activities.
When the players were allowed to work out in the wake of the suspension of the season, steps were taken to keep players working with just a trainer and not with other players.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said that no decision on the status of the current season will be made before May 1. He has clarified that he did not mean a decision will be announced then, simply that one won’t come before then.
While states such as New York have announced a downturn from the peak of the virus, there remains no clear idea of when the league will be able to resume play, even in arenas without fans.
With the season shut down, players were allowed to leave the cities they play in and be with family at home. For example, the Knicks' R.J. Barrett headed to Orlando and Mitchell Robinson and Elfrid Payton went home to Louisiana.
According to the ESPN report, players who are able to travel to facilities that are allowed to open will be able to use the opened team facilities. The Knicks' practice facility is in Westchester County, which has been one of the hardest-hit areas. Just as the Knicks players have hosted offseason pickup games in New York, the Knicks and Nets players will be able to use the facilities near them if the restrictions are loosened.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
