With some 265,000 new cases of Covid-19 recorded each day on average, the United States has broken a record, surpassing the 251,989 cases reached in mid-January 2021 according to Johns Hopkins University.
NBA players are not spared: since the start of the 2021-22 season, 214 have had to submit to the Covid protocol, including 170 during the last two weeks and 28 for the only day of last Sunday!
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NBA: schedule and results
Even though ten regular-season games have been postponed, including the most recent between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat, initially scheduled for Wednesday, NBA executives are determined to keep their championship going year after year.
In NHL, no less than 70 matches have been postponed, a disruption in the schedule that has forced its leaders to refuse to release the players for the Beijing Olympics.
To reduce the risk of postponement of matches and further disrupt the schedule, the NBA has reduced the isolation period from ten to six days for asymptomatic and vaccinated positive players.
After the postponement of the game against San Antonio, Miami coach Erik Spoelstra was angry
with the NBA's
sometimes “
confusing
” management of the Omicron wave, while several asymptomatic players were suddenly excluded because of the number of tests required by the league.
"It's literally a game of chance every time you take a test"
Lebron james
"
We are coming to a point where we need more information,
" regretted the Heat coach. Words that echo those in early December of NBA superstar LeBron James, placed in solitary confinement after an inconclusive PCR test which ultimately did not have to stay ten days in solitary confinement after negative tests. “
It's literally a game of chance every time you take a test,
” said Lakers star Lebron James, “
you just have to see who's available from there
”.
While franchises can appeal to compensate for absences linked to the Covid to players playing in their reserve team or without a contract -541 players in total have already played at least one game this season, unprecedented in the history of the NBA-, the question of the fairness of the competition arises.
"
Of course there is a form of injustice
", recognizes Adam Silver, the big boss of the NBA, to evoke this solution which sees exhausted teams continue.
"
But the other advantage is that we have 82 games in the season and long play-offs, so I think things will work out at the end of the season,
" he said.
The question also arises for the NFL, which has reduced the isolation period for all players, vaccinated or not, from ten to five days if they are positive for Covid and asymptomatic.
Especially since many teams are still in the running to win their ticket for the play-offs, before the last two days of the regular season.
500 positive players
More than 500 players tested positive in December, including unvaccinated Indianapolis quarterback Carson Wentz, a blow to the Colts.
But they could benefit from new guidelines from the NFL, revised following recommendations from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the main health agency in the United States.
They would allow a faster return of vaccinated or unvaccinated players who do not have a fever for 24 hours and whose other symptoms, such as cough, "
have disappeared or have improved
".
A decision that could well satisfy Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who denounced in a podcast this week a "
two-class system
", unfair for vaccinated and non-vaccinated players.
Some clubs have chosen to return to virtual meetings to preserve the health of their players.
Not easy to combine with a race for the playoffs.
"
I just have the feeling that the teams best able to handle the situation will be the ones who can get out of it and qualify,
" summarized DeForest Buckner, defensive player from Indianapolis.
