LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — NBA coaches and staff have been approved to bring guests into the bubble for the start of the respective conference finals, according to a memo obtained by ESPN.
Each team — including head coaches, front office and staff — can bring no more than 10 guests to the Disney campus beginning with seven-day on-site quarantines, the memo said.
Players’ guests began to arrive for the conference semifinals.
Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone decried the inability of coaches to have family at the Orlando restart late last week, but that conversation about allowing guests into team hotels has been ongoing for several weeks between the league and the National Basketball Coaches Association’s leadership, executive director Dave Fogel and president Rick Carlisle.
Guests — who must be family or longtime friends — would travel to Orlando either on a single plane or vehicle Monday and begin a seven-day quarantine in Orlando, per the memo. Each guest — like others in the bubble — would undergo daily coronavirus testing.
The admission of team staff guests is expected to be a topic for teams in the 2020-2021 season, too, sources said, with an expectation that there could need to be some sort of a bubble environment to initially start the season.
