NBA commissioner Adam Silver said fans should think of the upcoming All-Star Weekend in Atlanta as a “TV-only event” and again discouraged fans from traveling to the game, which is played without fans. due to the COVID-19 pandemic. .
“The message from the NBA community is that we will operate in a mini bubble,” Silver said in an interview with ESPN on Wednesday. “There will be no NBA functions [for fans] to participate. We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing our All-Star Game on television … this is an exclusively television event in Atlanta. “
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has repeatedly discouraged fans from traveling to her city to play and has asked bars and nightclubs not to host parties.
However, several events have been planned that aim to have a connection to the game. The city of Brookhaven, a suburb of Atlanta, recently made headlines when its city council passed a measure extending the hours of dumping in its bars and restaurants until 4 a.m. this weekend. .
“I think when it comes to nightlife in Atlanta, the state of Georgia has made the decision to keep its restaurants and clubs open,” Silver said. “That’s their right to make that decision. All we can do, on behalf of the NBA, is commit to not participating in any way in this nightlife.
“Our players will be on a work quarantine protocol while they are in Atlanta.”
Players who participate in the game and other All-Star-related competitions fly in private jets and will be subject to the same improved health and safety protocols that the league has operated during this season. Although several star players have publicly complained about having an All-Star Weekend amid the ongoing pandemic, each of these conditions was negotiated collectively with the National Association of Basketball Players.
Silver said he appreciated the personal sacrifice made by everyone in the NBA since March 11 last year, when the league closed indefinitely after a positive test from Utah jazz center Rudy Gobert. From the players, coaches and staff who spent months away from their families to complete last season’s bubble on Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and the strict health and safety protocols they’ve had to follow this season, to the fans of the NBA, who have continued to support the league and the owners, who have lost billions of revenue.
“The ability to operate in a pandemic has required a huge amount of shared sacrifices,” Silver said.
“Players and coaches are at the front and center, but there are thousands of people behind the scenes who are doing it, allowing the NBA to continue to operate. And many of them are making huge sacrifices in their lives. In some cases, we work 24-hour shifts due to the nature of the PCR tests we are doing … and the travel schedules and quick decisions that need to be made regarding contact tracking and quarantine. , has no end.
“It really took all our collective will.”
Silver said it will take the same collective will to meet the countless challenges the league still faces at this stage of the pandemic.
This week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the state would completely reopen businesses and drop its mask mandate, beginning March 10th.
The three NBA teams, the Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets, who play in Texas, will continue to be subject to NBA safety and health protocols for fans, as they are in other states that have NBA markets: Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma, but have no mask mandates.
“We’ve set our own standards,” Silver said. “In some cases, we have postponed public health officials. And in others, we believe we need to follow a national standard.
“I also recognize, and this may be even more true as we move forward in the future, that the United States is a large country and it may be appropriate to have different rules in different jurisdictions. If so, we expect these decisions to be based on what is the best health and safety information in these communities.
“We will continue to work with national public health officials and local health officials to determine who they are. But so far we believe we have achieved a proper balance. About half of our teams, at this time, have Arenas fans. As far as we know, no we have had no problems in terms of dissemination among the fans in our areas “.
In addition to rapidly changing reopening plans across the country, the NBA will soon have to address how the ability to vaccinate players, coaches and staff will affect its protocols.
This will also be negotiated collectively with the players association, Silver said.
“We and the players’ association agree that no one should be given the mandate to take the vaccine, ”Silver said. “My recommendation, my strong recommendation, not just to our players, but based on all the information I have, is for people to get vaccinated.
“But I recognize that these are individual decisions. I haven’t been vaccinated yet, but I’ll do it as soon as it’s my turn.”
Silver noted a recent CDC announcement that vaccinated people do not need to be quarantined if they are exposed to someone with COVID-19.
“That will make a big difference in this league,” Silver said. “We have been transparent about the positive cases we have had since the start of the season. But there is also another category of players who have had to be quarantined based on the contact they have had with positive players.
“I think, for example, accepting that a vaccinated player should not be quarantined will be very liberating. In addition, we have a fairly complex set of rules in place now that in many cases require laboratory testing twice a day. our players to ensure we can prevent the spread – maybe when players get vaccinated, we can loosen test schedules and therefore give players more freedom.
“But I also respect that not everyone sees it the way we see it. And ultimately, that’s an individual decision that players have to make.”