The NBA has reportedly sent a memo to all 30 teams saying that players are allowed to leave their team’s city while play is suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Though the memo will allow players to travel elsewhere, the league’s recommendation is that they remain in their team’s market, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
According to Charania, there are multiple rules players must follow if they decide to travel outside of the team’s market during the hiatus, including providing whereabouts, remaining home and practising social distancing.
Teams may also be permitted to pay for certain travel, Charania said, and are being encouraged to establish daily check-ins over FaceTime or Skype regarding players’ health and basketball.
Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, there have been several announcements about travel restrictions that may impact the ability for some NBA players to travel home to Europe, and it is not currently clear how those restrictions would restrict players’ ability to return home if they were born outside of the United States.
The United States announced Wednesday that it was restricting entry from travelers arriving from 26 countries in Europe. On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump expanded those restrictions to include the United Kingdom and Ireland as well.
The ban on foreign nationals entering the U.S. from Britain or Ireland will begin at midnight on Monday, Vice President Mike Pence said during the announcement.
Worldwide, the COVID-19 epidemic has sickened more than 167,000 people, according to a New York Times database of reported cases, as of Sunday evening. At least 6,304 people have died, including 3,091 outside of mainland China.
On Sunday evening, the United States Centers for Disease Control issued a new advisory recommending the postponement or cancellation of all events that would have 50-plus people for the next eight weeks, giving a rough timeline for the absolute earliest professional North American sports could return.
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