The adjustments to basic everyday life routines continues for Chicago Bulls players, who can now reportedly travel outside of this city starting March 16.
Some more news that is a step in the right direction it seems for the Chicago Bulls, along with the rest of the NBA’s players, is the freedom to get away from the markets now. Later in the day on March 15, the NBA announced that it would now be allowing its players to leave their team’s market. That was an original mandate from the NBA that was announced back on March 12.
The report first came from Shams Charania of The Athletic that the NBA informed all 30 teams that their players could leave that market with consultation from that team.
This is really the first news for the NBA since the first precautions really dropped for the novel coronavirus that shows the league dealing with known circumstances. This is still a long process of discovery, though.
It seems like a good date for when the NBA would be shooting to resume basketball activities would be once the CDC guidance of eight weeks to hold no events with more than 50 people in the same place runs up. That still puts the restarting of the NBA season around Memorial Day.
The NBA has informed its 30 teams that, effective Monday, players are able to travel out of market with consultation from their respective teams, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 16, 2020
More realistically a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on March 15 showed that the NBA would be fortunate to get back up and running around June. Mid-June is now sounding like the best case scenario for when the NBA would return to game action.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps also reported on March 15 that part of this allowing of players to travel is the suspension of team practices indefinitely. Teams likely won’t even be practicing together for a while.
The NBA has extended its ban on team practices indefinitely, league sources tell ESPN. Players are still able to work out individually at team facilities.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) March 16, 2020
Although there is some news finally coming out of a more known situation in the midst of the COVID-19 precautions, there is a very long way to go. Novel coronavirus has essentially halted not only all major sports around the world, but also any major social events with anything more than a few dozen people in the same place.
For more information on COVID-19 and the most recent updates, you can visit the CDC’s website.
The NBA is seemingly leading the way among the professional sports leagues on figuring out what the best way to react to the COVID-19 precautions should be. They originally shut down after the March 11 slate of games after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.