-
Tim BontempsESPN
A day after the 2020-21 regular season was tipped, the NBA has postponed the first game. Late Wednesday afternoon, the NBA announced that the game between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder, scheduled for 8:00 PM ET, had been postponed because the Rockets did not have eight players.
This news only underscores the myriad challenges the league faces in completing the season beyond the confines of a bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, where the NBA closed the 2020 playoffs.
As the NFL, MLB, and MLS have already shown, trying a season outside of a bubble brings all kinds of complications. Here’s what we do and don’t know about the postponed game, the breaking news with James Harden, and what’s next for both the Rockets and the rest of the NBA.
What’s going on in Houston?
According to reports from ESPN’s Tim MacMahon and Adrian Wojnarowski, The Rockets are dealing with two separate issues with the coronavirus.
After a video of Harden maskless and off at a social media club surfaced, the NBA began investigating whether Harden had violated the league’s safety protocols by attending an unapproved indoor event sometime in the past week. The Rockets also had three return tests for players who were positive or inconclusive and had to include four other players in the league’s contact tracking program, including former All-Stars DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall, as well as rookie Kenyon Martin Jr., who had one. used to be. of players with conflicting COVID-19 test results. Wall, Cousins and Martin were among the Rockets players who gathered in a player’s apartment on Tuesday night, away from the team facility, to get haircuts.
The combination of the two events meant that Houston had fewer than eight available players, delaying the Rockets’ season opener against the Thunder.
When will the match against the Thunder be made up?
The league has not announced a date for replay of the game, but it has built flexibility into its schedule to deal with this scenario. By releasing only the games played through March 4, the NBA has three options for rescheduling: before the March 5-10 hiatus; during that break; or in the second half of the season, for which the program will not be announced until sometime in February.
According to ESPN’s Royce Young, the Thunder will fly back to Oklahoma City on Wednesday. They plan to leave Oklahoma City Friday afternoon to fly to Charlotte for what will be their season opener on Saturday.
What is the competition investigating regarding Harden?
The league has sanctioned specific restaurants in each NBA city where players, coaches, and staff who make up each team’s tour group are allowed to attend. The protocol prohibits those people from going to bars, lounges or clubs and from participating in social gatherings of more than 15 people. There are also evolving, more stringent league mandates in certain markets, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, that prohibit teams from traveling outside the hotel or arena.
In the photos of Harden that circulated on social media, he did not wear a mask in the club. The NBA deemed Harden unavailable due to violation of health and safety protocols, although it is still unknown how long Harden will be unavailable and whether he will face league penalty.
How does the contact tracking protocol work?
The competition has deliberately given itself leeway in contact tracking to be flexible in the way it handles each individual situation.
The backbone of the NBA’s plan is its rigorous testing procedures. Players are now being tested twice a day every day, in the hope that it will enable the league to detect any virus as quickly as possible, reducing the need to isolate players or make them miss time.
However, situations like the one reported are more complicated, where players congregate in an environment that is far from a training or match and there is a case of a positive test. Earlier this month, for example, Utah Jazz guard Mike Conley had to be quarantined for a week after coming into contact with someone from his family who was outside the competition’s testing schedule.
What are the ‘return-to-play’ protocols?
For players who have tested positive for COVID-19, there are two possible ways to return: a time-based resolution and a test-based resolution.
According to the time-based solution, the infected person must have left at least 10 days since the date of their first positive test or the onset of any symptoms, if they have had one; gone for at least 24 hours since their fever went away without taking any medication; and had improved other symptoms. It is specifically noted in the protocols that the loss of taste or smell alone will not prevent a person from leaving isolation.
The test-based resolution requires the subject to return at least two consecutive negative PCR tests from samples taken at least 24 hours apart.
Regardless, a player who is determined to receive another positive test case should not participate in training for at least 10 days from the positive test date or the resolution of symptoms, if they have one.
Once a player has waited that minimum of 10 days, he should be training alone for two days, without interacting with anyone or participating in team activities, and undergo a cardiac exam.
Any player who has had a serious case of COVID-19, or who has ever been hospitalized, must be observed for at least three full days before being released to play again.
What are the possible penalties for violating the security protocols?
The NBA has a section in the health and safety protocols that describes discipline and penalties for players and team personnel.
While no specific penalties are mentioned, penalties for players who fail to comply with these competition rules include possible warnings, fines or suspensions. Teams that don’t follow the rules can also experience adjustment or loss of draft picks and forfeiture of the match.
Players who violated protocols in the bubble – like LA Clippers’ Lou Williams – and were forced to miss games as a result, lost pay for every game missed. In this event, Harden would forfeit $ 284,517 (1 / 145th of his salary) for failing to provide services for violating protocols.
The gray area with this interpretation is that the Rockets-Thunder game has been delayed and not canceled, so for technical reasons, Harden hasn’t missed a game yet.
Will this affect the commercial value of Harden?
When asked if Harden’s behavior would be a red flag when acting for the former MVP, team executives told ESPN they thought it was selfish and reckless but wouldn’t prevent a deal.
Teams have already done their homework when it comes to Hardening, both on and off the field. An executive told ESPN that the team hired a private investigator to conduct a thorough background check, treating the process of gathering information about him as a preliminary prospect.
If a team is comfortable acquiring Harden, the greater challenge would be to put together enough outgoing pay (at least $ 33 million) to make a transaction legal without wiping out the existing roster.
Teams are in the early stages of evaluating their rosters and at this point are not willing to make a hasty judgment. That could change if the Rockets cut their asking price on Harden, which is currently reported to be a mix of young players with star potential and significant drawing assets.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks contributed to this report.