Though the 2020-21 NBA season has already had its fair share of fascinating moments and one blockbuster trade, there is one simple fact that is putting a damper on all the action: COVID-19 continues to run roughshod over the United States. The Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Wizards have announced that the team’s scheduled game on Friday at Fiserv Forum has been postponed.

Once again, the dreaded “Health and Safety Protocol” concerns rears its ugly head. The specific cancellation revolved around “the number of unavailable players for the Wizards, contact tracing for other players on their roster, and the length of time preceding the game during which the team was unable to practice,” per a release from the Bucks.

This most recent postponement underscores a central issue with the entirety of the 2020-21 season: It is not being played in a bubble.

Why was the end of the 2019-20 season so successful? Because it was played in a closed environment in a single city on a single campus. Players were pretty much locked down and rules were strictly enforced.

Now, in the 2020-21 season, teams like the Bucks and Wizards are back to traveling around, going to different arenas in different cities all over the U.S., and what has been the result? A steady stream of COVID cases and a plethora of postponed games.

The COVID-19 virus is more omnipresent than ever before, and the United States is the “worldwide leader” in cases with nearly 25 million reported and over 415,000 deaths.

While this might be a tough pill to swallow, the NBA should truly ponder putting the season hiatus so that players can get vaccinated as well as other members of society can.

There is no telling what the long-term side effects of contracting COVID-19 are, but it seems likely that they would not be welcomed by professional athletes.