The NBA has usually been ahead and a leader when it comes to social movement, inclusion, community help, and so on. The Covid-19 pandemic has not been an exception, and the league was probably the most successful in achieving the best possible results last season, in the Orlando Bubble and with 0 player cases during the entire playoffs and NBA Finals.
The new season started recently, and things have already turned out a bit differently. There has been talks about forming a new bubble once the playoffs come, but for the regular season, teams have been playing home and away games, and have been traveling, even though the schedule was specially rearranged to decrease the number of times teams need to travel.
This new dynamic, having to travel back and forth, going home and having a regular life, of course has many different challenges that were not there at the end of last season. In fact, there was already a postponed game on the first day of the season, so things are a bit more complex, and the NBA is trying to do everything it can to make things easier.
So, what’s the NBA’s new anti-COVID-19 plan?
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver sent out a memo stating that the league is planning to use a contact tracing program that will require players and staff to wear sensor devices during all league and team activities outside of games, starting on January 7th.
Players and specific staff members, according to the league’s health and safety protocols, will be the ones who must wear these Kinexon SafeZone contact sensor devices during certain work-related activities, like on planes, when the team travels, on the bus, during practice in arenas or at home practice facilities, which many players have, and any other activity that is work-related and requires for players or staff to be together.
Players will not be required to wear the sensors during games or at the team’s hotel when playing away games.
How do these Kinexon SafeZone sensors work?
To put it in simple words, they basically create a bubble around the person who’s wearing it. The sensors activate when coming within proximity with another person wearing one, meaning 6 feet close.
The sensors will not record GPS locations, but they will “the distance and duration of in-person interactions” with other people wearing them. The NBA will then have better tools to measure and determine any probable contact with anyone that could be a positive Coronavirus case, and use camera footage, make interviews and so on, to better understand who might have really been exposed to the virus and who hasn’t, hence, in determining who needs to be quarantined or not.
“We don't want to have to needlessly quarantine someone that doesn't need to be,” said an NBA official, who requested to remain anonymous.
There is no guarantee that this will work, but it is certainly a step in the right direction for the NBA, considering how many times teams will need to travel and be around other people during the season. There will probably be some adjustments down the road.
More payperhead tips:
Per Head Sportsbook
Per Head Racebook
Per Head Casino
Find more about our PPH Sportsbook
Gambling Software
