There is only so much quarantine that athletic and home-bound NBA players can take. Now, reports have emerged that certain athletes without state-of-the-art home gyms are leaving their self-isolation by going out of their houses to play and shoot in gyms.
Article Continues BelowPer Sam Amick and Joe Vardon in The Athletic:
While it's understandable NBA players have gotten antsy to return to the hardwood and shoot hoops, this could be a massive setback for the league that hopes to return this summer.
On Friday, the NBA's Board of Governors voted to postpone the May Draft Lottery and Combine, potentially foreshadowing that the 2019-20 season's suspension would be lifted. However, players leaving their homes and violating quarantine could upset the balance of flattening the curve and preventing COVID-19 cases during the public health crisis.
Everybody wants the NBA, along with other major sports league, back in their lives. Nonetheless, curtailing self-isolation and social distancing could bring dramatic effects in the not-so-distant future, pushing everybody back in their homes a second, and perhaps longer, time while essential workers risk their lives.
Until the NBA works out a program or location to field a safe area to resume the season, players leaving their homes to play with others in gyms could be very serious and dangerous in the current tenuous public-health moment.