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Tim BontempsESPN
As the NBA continues to deal with the reality of trying to play the regular season 2020-21 amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the league sent a note to teams Wednesday night with details of plans to try to supplement testing. already existing for players and referees with game tests located in all 28 NBA cities.
The note, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN, asks each team to spend the next two days trying to find local testing providers; the league plans to discuss these findings with the teams over the weekend with the goal of starting implementing additional testing next week. The intention is to find a local polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing provider that can turn around at least 40 tests, enough to handle the players on both teams, as well as the referees that night, who can pick up the morning of a match. and returned at least an hour before departure.
PCR tests are more accurate than fast tests, but take much longer to process.
While BioReference, which manages the two daily tests the NBA already uses (PCR and a quick test), will continue to be the league’s testing service, the goal is to find local testing in all cities. that, in the event that there is a problem with the transport of tests, there is a backup option available to ensure that everyone is clear about the possibility of participating in the game that night.
Under the current system, for players or referees to participate in a game, they must have a negative PCR test the day before the match and a negative rapid test from the morning of the game. So, for example, players and referees participating in Thursday’s game between the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers should take a negative PCR test on Wednesday and a negative fast test on Thursday morning.
The reason the PCR test is from the previous day is because there is approximately a processing time of 12 hours on these tests, so the results usually come overnight. However, in cities where there is a BioReference lab, these test results can change more quickly.
Additional tests come after the NBA and the National Association of Basketball Players agreed Tuesday to tighten the league’s safety and health protocols, including, among other things, closing rooms for guests who do not form a team at the hotels on the road, the use of masks and further limit the meeting times of the team and the contact of players. All of this is being done as the NBA tries to play its season during a pandemic that remains raging across the country and has significantly altered the league’s schedule over the past few days.
The NBA has postponed nine games this season, including eight just this week. Three of them were scheduled for Wednesday: Orlando Magic at the Boston Celtics; Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards; and the Atlanta Hawks and Phoenix Suns.