Report: NBA will allow teams to open practice facilities on May 1 amid coronavirus pandemic
The NBA will reportedly allow teams to open their practice facilities again starting on May 1, more than six weeks after it suspended operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Teams will be allowed to re-open those facilities only if their respective local governments have eased stay-at-home orders, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Sources: Teams will be allowed to make facilities open to players on a voluntary basis for individual work, but larger group workouts will still be prohibited. In NBA markets that aren't loosening restrictions, league plans to work w/ teams on other arrangements for players. https://t.co/yZSKsXedW1
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 25, 2020
There were more than 926,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States as of Saturday afternoon, according to The New York Times, and millions of Americans are still under some form of a stay-at-home order — many of which have been extended past May 1.
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Teams will not be permitted to require players to work out at their facilities, but rather will let them do so on a voluntary basis. No organized team activities or group workouts will be allowed, either.
While some markets will have lifted or significantly loosened stay-at-home restrictions by that date, many will still be implemented past that date — including both New York teams and the four California franchises. The NBA, per Wojnarowski, will work with teams unable to open their facilities directly in order to make sure every player has the chance to safely practice again.
Many players had been asking their teams about traveling to Georgia to workout, too, per the report. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has allowed certain businesses in the state to re-open this week — a decision that has drawn criticism, even from President Donald Trump — including gyms. The league, however, made it clear it doesn’t want players working out at public fitness centers there.
Though it appears that this is the first step to resuming the season in some form, the league is “still unsure” when it will play again, if at all, per Wojnarowski. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said last week that the league is “not in a position to make any decisions” about what the rest of the season may look like, but that “everything is on the table.”
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