NBA opening practice facilities, but don’t get your hopes up about the season

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA will allow some teams to open practice facilities. That’s good, but don’t get your hopes up about the season.

According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA will soon allow some select teams to open their practice facilities. This allowance will be restricted to teams in cities and regions that have eased their stay-at-home restrictions:

It seems like a taste of some good news towards resuming the 2019-20 season, but don’t get ahead of yourself. This easing is based on the opening of some areas like the state of Georgia, which many experts agree is a hasty step for the state to take.

Whether the easing of stay-at-home orders is being done with the wisest of intentions or not, the NBA has opted to ease their own restrictions on practice facilities. Since the league suspended its season in the immediate aftermath of Rudy Govert testing positive for COVID-19 on March 11th, teams have been forbidden to permit access to their practice facilities.

As Wojnarowski states, team executives believe their facilities to be the safest places for their players, regardless of state regulations:

"Many team executives have been clamoring for the chance to get players back into their facilities, which they believe to be among the safest possible environments around the pandemic."

On the other hand, because nothing is cut and dry in this uncertain time both in sports and real life, there’s a group of executives who have no confidence in the easing of stay-at-home orders, and they don’t feel good about it:

"Upon learning of the league’s decision to allow for some facilities to reopen starting as soon as Friday, some GMs expressed concern to ESPN about the safety of the idea — especially given expert medical opinions have been against the idea of reopening businesses."

Certainly, players and personnel in contact with them will be closely observed and will likely be tested as frequently as is prudent and possible, but it’s a decision that seems to be fraught with risk and diminishes the degree to which these individuals can practice social distancing.

While some players and teams getting back to business to any degree whatsoever may feel like a step in the right direction, it’s really not a step at all. We’re a long way from being able to get back to normal, let alone the NBA opening back up for business anytime soon.

Some players may be able to break a sweat in close proximity together again starting in May, but that means absolutely nothing with regards to the NBA season resuming.