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With the NBA officially re-opening a number of practice facilities for teams residing in cities that have seen their lockdown policies eased in their respective areas, it appears that the season is nearing a much-awaited return. It turns out, however, that players like Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic will need to go through a rather tedious process before they are permitted to resume basketball activities. This report is via Ramona Shelburne of ESPN:
Flying back the team's home city presents an extra challenge. Foreign-born players such as the Dallas Mavericks' Luka Doncic, who flew home on a private jet to Slovenia after the NBA shutdown, according to sources, will have to fly back to the United States and then quarantine. Even players who flew out of state during the shutdown will have to make their way back and then quarantine.
This is not a great scenario for the Mavs, who are now probably seriously looking into the possibility of not having their star once the season resumes. Airport operations have been limited due to the pandemic, so Doncic flying back to the United States might pose its own challenges in itself.
Moreover, as mentioned in the above report, Doncic will have to go through a quarantine period — which usually takes 14 days — before he is cleared to make contact with his teammates and the Mavs staff.
Recently, Dallas team owner Mark Cuban opened up about his hesitations pertaining to his team resuming basketball activities, so this adds a further wrinkle to Doncic's situation. Clearly, NBA teams will be facing more than a few hurdles if and when the league finally decides to resume the 2019-20 campaign.
