The National Basketball Association has had an additional nine players test positive for the coronavirus. That number brings the league’s total to 25, and adds to already heightened concerns that the anticipated restart of play later this month may not happen.
In all, 351 players have been tested since June 23rd.
The league also reports ten positive cases among the 884 staff that have been tested.
AS ESPN reports, “The NBA season is scheduled to resume on July 30 with 22 teams participating in Orlando, Florida. Training camps will run from July 9-29, with three scrimmages per team.
“Commissioner Adam Silver earlier this week said the NBA is testing players daily and that he remains “pretty confident” about the league’s plan to safely resume play.”
Though, Silver also says that a spike in cases could derail the league’s restart.
“One thing we are learning about this virus is much [is] unpredictable, and we and our players together with their union look at the data on a daily basis,” Silver said. “If there were something to change that was outside of the scope of what we are playing for, certainly we would revisit our plans.
“We are testing daily. We haven’t put a precise number on it, but if we were to see a large number of cases and see spread in our community, that would of course be a cause to stop as well.”
On Thursday, it was also learned that legendary NBA broadcaster Marv Albert, decided to sit out the NBA’s restart for health reasons. Opting instead to handle play-by-play duties from a remote location.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn
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