The NBA will have an anonymous hotline to report on players or staff leaving the bubble or breaking protocols
- The 2019-20 NBA season will resume in a "bubble" in Walt Disney World.
- Players and staff are not prevented from leaving the Disney campus, but they are expected to stay on the campus and follow the league's health and safety protocols.
- The league will have an anonymous hotline to report violations, and teams are required to do so.
In order to enforce the NBA's strict "bubble" environment in Walt Disney World, the league will have an anonymous hotline to report potential violations, according to The Athletic.
The news comes as the NBA released a 113-page health and safety protocols to teams on Tuesday, following a lengthy packet of information on the bubble environment sent to players and teams by the NBPA.
While the NBA's protocols state that the league won't force anyone to remain on the Disney campus, it is expected that players and team staff won't leave the campus. The protocols note some exceptions: the need to receive team-directed medical care off-campus, the birth of a child, documented severe illness or death in the family, or previously scheduled family wedding. Players or staff need prior approval before leaving.
If a player does leave the campus with prior approval, they will be asked to quarantine upon returning. However, if they submit daily PCR COVID-19 tests while away and return negative tests, their quarantine may be just four days upon returning.
If players leave without approval, they may face 10-14 days of quarantine, plus the more invasive nasal swab tests that the league is otherwise avoiding during the frequent COVID-19 testing.
Additionally, players will be deducted pay for each game they miss while quarantining.
The league's guide states that failure or refusal to comply with the protocols could result in warnings, fines, suspensions, or even removal from the campus.
There will be a fair amount of freedom on the campus. Though social and physical distancing is required, as are masks (with exceptions for some activities), players can golf, swim at a pool, fish, exercise, play cards, and hang out in player lounges in the hotels with movie screenings and video games.
Families or guests cannot enter the campus until after the first round, and they will not be allowed to return if they leave the campus.
With over 1,000 people entering the campus between teams and NBA staff, monitoring all members will be nearly impossible. As ESPN's Ramona Shelburne noted, there is a delicate balance between trusting members to follow the protocols and surveilling them.
Likewise, Shelburne said players have called for uniform punishment if players break the protocols or leave the campus.
The NBA's guidelines also teams are required to report violations of the protocols. It also says players and campus members are "strongly encouraged" to report any violations.
Naturally, the rules have spawned jokes about players reporting on competition leaving the campus to get a leg up on the competition.
The NBA's bubble environment will be unlike anything tested in American sports. While trying to prevent cases of COVID-19 and the results of the actual games will be the big concerns, maintaining the bubble will be a subplot of its own.
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