Quarantined NBA Players watch team Practices on Zoom
One of the most interesting aspects of quarantine is that players literally can't leave their rooms.
For players that are quarantined for 14 days, there is no conditioning available to them. They can't join practices, and they can't touch a basketball. There's a chance players may have workout equipment in their room, but that's not certain. Fortunately, for Landry Shamet, he does have workout equipment in his room. Doc Rivers' solution is to have them participate via Zoom.
"Zu and Sham, in particular, have watched every practice on Zoom," Rivers said. "We Zoom our practices -- I don't know what you call it; is there a live Zoom? Live stream Zoom? Whatever the hell it is. But they're watching every practice and they're watching it with our coaches that are back. So I'm hoping you can learn a little bit by watching."
It's not the most ideal form of communication between a coach and his players, but they're at least not completely missing out.
"It's live," Rivers said. "I speak to them. I say hi. I don't speak to them much more than that. But it's live. They can hear everything."
Ivica Zubac and Landry Shamet have missed out on the entire bubble experience until recently, so they've become the team's first test dummies. As of right now, it seems like the experience could use a bit of improvement, and it will improve.
"Zu asked if I would wear a mic during practice," Rivers said. "I told him no. But he did ask. You know, it's just been really good for them. They wanted to feel like they're a part of the team and involved."
On the positive side, once players are out of isolation they're able to watch practices with coaches. Otherwise, they're left alone while watching practices on Zoom. Right now, the NBA is in uncharted territories. From fans on videoboards, to piped-in crowd noise, to Zoom practices, everything is a learning experience. While nothing is permanent, it's great to see that the league is adapting to change.
