NBA Bubble Seems To Be Working After League Announces Another Round Of Zero Positive Test Results

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The NBA’s bubble in Orlando, Florida appears to be working as planned and hoped for after the league and its players’ union announced no players tested positive for COVID-19 after another round of test results came back.

On Wednesday, July 29, the league said no new positive tests have occurred during the last nine days inside the bubble at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

“Of the 344 players tested for COVID-19 on the NBA campus since test results were last announced on July 20, zero have returned confirmed positive tests,” the NBA and NBPA said in a statement.

NBA and NBPA Announce COVID-19 Test Results pic.twitter.com/7qPHfL8fK2

— NBPA (@TheNBPA) July 29, 2020

The positive news comes after consecutive days where Major League Baseball was forced to postpone multiple games after players on the Miami Marlins tested positive for the virus. Unlike the NBA and MLS, MLB isn’t playing its season in a “bubble” and plans to have teams travel.

MLS is also playing in Orlando and appears to be having the same successful results as the NBA.

On July 28, MLS announced zero “newly confirmed positive individuals from clubs/staff participating in the tournament for the period of July 26-27” after 748 tests were given to 654 people.

Later that night, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps reported that NBPA executive director Michele Roberts thinks a bubble might be necessary for the 2020-21 NBA season.

New ESPN story: As the NBA prepares to restart this season inside a bubble, NBPA executive director Michele Roberts says next season may have to be played inside one, too. "If tomorrow looks like today, I don't know how we say we can do it differently." https://t.co/ui0VVJQ5dh

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) July 28, 2020

“If tomorrow looks like today, I don’t know how we say we can do it differently,” Roberts told ESPN. “If tomorrow looks like today, and today we all acknowledge — and this is not Michele talking, this is the league, together with the PA and our respective experts saying, ‘This is the way to do it’ — then that’s going to have to be the way to do it.”

The NBA’s season will officially restart when the Utah Jazz play against the New Orleans Pelicans on July 30 at 4:30 p.m (MDT). That game will be televised on TNT and AT&T SportsNet.

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• Avoid close contact with people who may be sick
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Additional Resources

If you see evidence of PRICE GOUGING, the Utah Attorney General’s Office wants you to report it. Common items in question include toilet paper, water, hand sanitizer, certain household cleaners, and even cold medicine and baby formula. Authorities are asking anyone who sees price gouging to report it to the Utah Division of Consumer Protection at 801-530-6601 or 800-721-7233. The division can also be reached by email at consumerprotection@utah.gov.