NBA restart may come with nightly coronavirus testing: Report
Tests would probably be mouth swabs or light nasal swabs, reporter for The Athletic says
When the NBA reboots its season in Orlando next month, players may be subject to nightly coronavirus testing as well as a lengthy quarantine if they have been exposed, according to a senior lead sports reporter for The Athletic.
Any NBA player leaving the "Orlando" bubble would likely be required to quarantine for at least 10 days and have two negative coronavirus tests, Shams Charania of The Athletic, a subscription-based sports website covering professional and college teams, said on Twitter, without identifying his sources.
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Last week, Charania noted that players may also be subject to testing every night during the season. The tests would "likely" be mouth swabs and light nasal swabs, according to Charania.
The tweets came on the heels of approval by the NBA's board of governors to let the 2019-2020 season resume on July 31 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex after a lengthy pause amid efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The NBA suspended its season March 11, becoming the first of the major U.S. pro leagues to do so after Utah's All-Star center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. The list of NBA players who were known to test positive eventually grew to 10 — not all were identified — and Commissioner Adam Silver said that the actual total was even higher.
The newly-approved plan calls for a 22-team format, with eight regular-season games played at the complex, a massive campus on the Disney property near Orlando, to determine seeding for the playoffs.
The complex is a 255-acre campus with multiple arenas that could host games simultaneously and has been home to, among other things, the Jr. NBA World Championship in recent years. ESPN is primarily owned by Disney, one of the NBA’s broadcast partners.
The NBA didn't immediately respond to FOX Business' request for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.