Phoenix Suns temporarily halt workouts after positive COVID tests

As the NBA begins to test its players for COVID-19 in advance of the league’s restart in Orlando, the Phoenix Suns are the first to have players test positive.

On Tuesday, the NBA began to test its players in preparation for the league’s late-July restart in Orlando. Considering that NBA players do exist in a society currently under siege from the COVID-19 pandemic, it should come as no surprise that there will be positive test results, and probably a considerable number of them across the league when all is said and done. Two Phoenix Suns players have tested positive as reported by the Arizona Republic, and as a result, the Suns have temporarily halted their voluntary workouts.

The testing timeline has been planned in such a fashion that teams can get results and quarantine players for the mandatory two-week period so that they can be ready and COVID-free to begin training camp in Orlando on July 11th.

Of course, this disease and the way it impacts those whom it infects is anything but predictable, so that might be highly optimistic, but it’s the way the dates were set regardless.

Arizona is one of the hottest COVID-19 spots in the United States currently. As the northern and northeastern states have the virus largely under control comparatively, the southern and western states find the pandemic raging anew.

As the NBA looks to get back into action, it couldn’t find a worse region to be impacted. With the Suns already affected, the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks in the hot spot region of Texas, and the NBA’s restart taking place in Orlando (Florida is yet another surging hot spot), it’s everywhere the NBA is trying to be right now.

In the meantime, the Phoenix Suns will finish their testing and quarantine the players in question, and then we will see how long it takes to get their workouts back underway, if that happens at all.