Only half of NBA teams can get back in the gym and these are the rules

Next Friday, James Harden can walk onto the practice court in the basement of the Toyota Center in downtown Houston and start his work to get ready for the NBA playoffs. Luka Doncic can do the same at the Mavericks’ practice gym, as can Donovan Mitchell with the Jazz.

LeBron James, meanwhile, can’t resume training at the Lakers’ facility, just outside of Los Angeles. Neither can Kawhi Leonard for the Clippers, nor Giannis Antetokounmpo for the Bucks in Milwaukee.

As states slowly try to restart their economies by opening businesses after weeks on lockdown, the NBA is allowing its teams to open training facilities for highly regulated, sanitized, individual workouts for players beginning May 8. Gyms have been closed since mid-March, days after the league stopped playing games on March 11 due to the spread of the coronavirus, and it remains unclear when — or if — this 2019-20 season will be salvaged in any form.

But when it comes to the facility reopening that some see as a crucial first step in this unprecedented process, there is a significant catch. Fifteen of the league’s 30 teams, including the top two in the West (Lakers, Clippers) and top four in the East (Bucks, Raptors, Celtics, Heat) are in locales that will still be under shelter-in-place orders at the end of next week.

Those teams couldn’t come back to work next Friday even if they wanted to, creating at least some competitive advantage for the teams that will have access to training sites. Or so it would seem.

“The thing I keep hearing is the whole competitive advantage idea,” said one player on a team that could resume individual workouts next week. “If we open up half the teams’ facilities when it’s safe, what’s a team like Brooklyn going to do? That’s a question because I certainly have no idea what that looks like.”

According to the league’s tracking of state-by-state government orders related to the virus, the Suns, Nuggets, Magic, Hawks, Pacers, Timberwolves, Hornets, Cavaliers, Thunder, 76ers, Grizzlies, Rockets, Mavericks, Spurs, and Jazz all live in states where stay-at-home orders will expire on or before May 8.

The Sixers play their games in Pennsylvania, where restrictions are receding, but practice in New Jersey where they are still in place. At present, the organization does not know what it will be able to do next week.

That leaves the four California teams (Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Warriors), the Wizards, Bulls, Pelicans, Celtics, Pistons, Knicks and Nets of New York, Raptors, Blazers, Bucks, and Heat as the teams located in cities or states where lockdowns will still be in effect. On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said most of the state could start to re-open on May 4, excluding Miami-Dade County, where the virus is still spreading.

As of now, the playoff matchups would be as follows:

Playoff Positioning: Blazers, Pelicans and Kings were 3 1/2 games behind Memphis for the 8th seed when the season was suspended.

The NBA front office clearly sees the problem. In a 19-page memo sent to all 30 teams, which outlines the new guidelines for opening practice facilities and which was obtained by The Athletic, the league said explicitly to the clubs not in states that are open for business: “We will be contacting the team’s General Manager to make alternative arrangements.”

A league spokesman declined to discuss what the “alternative arrangements” might be. The NBA could lobby a state’s governor (or the Canadian equivalent)  for an exemption. In the case of Florida, it probably wouldn’t be a hard sell. DeSantis’ orders specifically cite the guidelines laid out by President Donald J. Trump, who has also said he wants sports to come back soon. Another idea would be to allow a franchise to cross state lines to work out in places where restrictions have been eased. That one opens up a whole new bottle of headaches.

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and the team’s legal counsel lobbied Los Angeles health officials for help in getting the practice facility open in El Segundo, Calif., a source confirmed to The Athletic (first reported by ESPN). And the Lakers are hardly alone when it comes to lobbying efforts.

Sources say all four of the league’s California teams (Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, Kings) are hoping to convince Governor Gavin Newsom to include them in “Stage 2” of his reopening plan, perhaps with the help of the mayors in their respective cities. As Newsom detailed via Twitter on Tuesday, that stage would include “gradually reopening some lower-risk workplaces with adaptations.”

The hope, if he agreed to do so, is that those teams could return to their facilities by the third week in May.

In Cleveland, team officials phoned Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to ask if guidelines from the governor (Mike DeWine) would allow for the Cavs to open their facility to players? General businesses can open on May 4, but “gyms” are to remain closed. The answer from Husted was “yes,” multiple DeWine administration members said, the Cavs could let their players work out at team headquarters.

At least some teams that can open facilities, including the Cavs and Nuggets, are still working through decisions of whether or not to do it.

“Our thing now becomes grasping an idea of how much longer this is going to be, and then what it looks like for the guys when they get back,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said in a phone call with The Athletic. “I mean, is it something that you do every day, is it something every other day? So it’s trying to give everybody a routine. And the way that the gym space can be used, it’s gonna be difficult for everybody to get in every day, just because of the hours and the spacing and all those things. So those things we have to finish discussing and put that plan in place.”

As anyone who has read all 19 pages of the league’s memo can attest, that’s no small task.

All the teams that are eligible for a facility reopening must satisfy a laundry list of requirements that underscores the gravity of the situation. From the preventative measures to get in the building to the controlled workout to the constant clean-up that will be an omnipresent part of the process, there will be a scientific remodeling of sorts at each facility.

The health check

• No more than two hours before entering the facility, players and staff members who have been deemed “essential” must have “one set of symptom and temperature checks.” If the player or staff member has a temperature, team physicians will advise on next steps.
• Players who are working out at the facility must also be given an electrocardiogram and a troponin test as part of cardiac screening efforts.
  “Any player who was infected (or presumed to be infected) with the coronavirus, discuss with the team’s consulting cardiologist to determine whether any additional cardiac testing is necessary.”
• As for COVID-19 testing, the memo states that the “decision whether to test a player or any other team-affiliated individual for COVID-19 should be made by a physician in consultation with an infectious disease specialist.” Teams are required to set up an “isolation protocol” and designated areas for possible testing.
• Players must wear “facemasks or face coverings at all times … except during the period when they are engaged in physical activity.” Staff members are required to wear facemasks and gloves at all times.
• Players and staff are expected to stay at least 12 feet apart, though there’s a written acknowledgment that it may not be possible when a player is receiving treatment. Areas of the facility that are deemed “non-essential,” like break rooms, player lounges and kitchen areas, are closed.

The workout

• Only individual workouts are allowed, and only on a voluntary basis (“e.g. a one-player, one-basket rule”). Players are not allowed to work with the team’s head coach or any other “first-row” assistant, but can work with behind-the-bench assists or player development coaches. General managers are not allowed to watch workouts, even from afar. No more than four players are allowed in the facility at any given time.

The dirty work

The NBA got an assist from Spalding when it came to teaching teams the proper way to clean a basketball. The memo even includes step-by-step directions:

• Mix 1⁄4 teaspoon of dish detergent (e.g., Dawn) per gallon of water.
• With a clean cloth or towel, wipe down the basketball with the dish detergent and water mix.
• Further wipe down the basketball with water alone
• Allow the basketball to air dry.
• Once dry, spray the basketball with an EPA-approved disinfectant.

Ditto for the floors, with the assist from the company, Bona:

• Disinfect wooden floors with an EPA-approved disinfectant.
• Rinse and clean the floor with the Bona SuperCourt Hardwood Gym Floor Cleaner (which is ph neutral) or the Deep Clean Solution with an autoscrubber and a clean white polishing pad or a microfiber cleaning pad. (Bona recommends the use of an autoscrubber because it will remove any residue as well as the solution from the floor. Although these products are not disinfectants, they can help thoroughly clean the floor without leaving a residue and without affecting the floor’s finish or coefficient of friction.)

Teams still won’t be allowed to hold practices, scrimmages, 3-on-3 games, or anything of the sort. So basically, we are talking about glorified shooting and running drills.

But it’s still a small leg up for the teams that can do this right away, versus the ones that can’t, and that stands for teams likely to make a run in the playoffs as well as for teams headed for the lottery and a fresh start next season (young players on, say, the Hawks, or Cavs, could get extra work with professional coaches, while players on the Warriors or Knicks could not).

As of now, no player is allowed into his team’s facility or some other gym to work out. Development staffers are not supposed to be working with the players. If a player has a private gym at home, great. Many have said they do not. Others, according to multiple sources, are practicing secretly on their own at gyms that are supposed to be closed.

“It’s just safer to have them in our gym, instead of random gyms all over the place,” said one assistant coach from a contending team.

Guidelines for these workouts were developed by the league, which is consulting with numerous healthcare professionals, in conjunction with the players’ union, multiple sources said. So, at least as a group, the players are on board.

— The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Bill Oram and Kelsey Russo contributed to this story.

(Top Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)