Two More Games Postponed
- by Grant Boone
- in Sports
- — Jan 13, 2021
Boston now has eight players listed as unavailable because they are on the NBA's health and safety protocols list - which means they either tested positive or may have been exposed to someone who is positive.
Adding to anxiety now affecting the National Basketball Association amid a spike in COVID-19 cases, multiple players who previously tested positive for the coronavirus have recently tested positive a second time, sources told ESPN.
Activities Outside the Team Environment: For at least the next two weeks, players and team staff are required to remain at their residence (when the team is in its home market) at all times except to attend team-related activities at the team facility or arena, exercise outside, or perform essential activities, or as a result of extraordinary circumstances.
Also, anyone in regular household contact with players or staff must be tested for COVID-19 twice a week.
Any pre-game meetings in the locker room are limited to no more than 10 minutes and all in attendance must wear a facemask. Every other meeting involving players and staff must happen either on the court, in a league-approved space or in an arena in a room big enough for everyone involved to be at least 6 feet apart.
The NBA has now postponed five games this season for COVID-19 reasons, with none of those games yet to be rescheduled.
The NBA said Tuesday that the Celtics game against Orlando in Boston on Wednesday has been called off, the latest items in a wave of bad news related to the coronavirus pandemic for the league in recent days. The league is no longer allowing players and staff to leave hotels for non-team activities, and it is eliminating visitors to hotel rooms, which one GM had told ESPN had been "the Mack truck driving through all our protocols".
Testing: Any individual who regularly visits the interior of the home of a player or team staff member for a professional objective must undergo COVID-19 testing twice per week. Only one game during the season's first two weeks, a season opener between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder, was postponed.
The Wizards canceled their Tuesday practice after having two players going on the health and safety protocols list, a decision made "out of an abundance of caution".
"We're just going to follow what the NBA" says, Washington coach Scott Brooks said. "We have to always focus on the safety of our players and staff and family, and that's more important to me than playing a game".
"I don't think there's any question about it".
