Players begin to work out and train as the leagues prepare to get into action in July
Two of the major sports leagues in the US are preparing for a return to sports activities. The NBA is getting ready to finish the regular season that was interrupted, while the NFL doesn’t expect any delays for its regular season kicking off in September. Both the NBA and NHL confirmed that they expect to resume seasons in July, so players are starting to get back in uniform to restart their training.
Several NBA teams have gone back to their training facilities but only to participate in voluntary exercise and training programs. The NHL, on the other hand, has lifted the restrictions for teams to return to their facilities; however, due to ongoing policies that have been implemented to keep COVID-19 from making a rebound, a number of players are still not able to return. For example, the Vancouver Canucks have problems restarting because many of their players are not even in the country.
Since every person is put in a 14-day quarantine period when arriving in Canada, those players won’t be able to touch a puck or a stick on the ice until the end of the month.
The NBA decided to run things in one neutral place, so the league is heading to Disney World in Orlando. Thanks to a massive partnership with ESPN, which is owned by Disney, all 22 teams will go down to Florida at the end of July for a modified playoff structure. The idea is to somehow to finish this 2019-2020 season with some resemblance to regular seasons. Teams like the San Antonio Spurs and others are already participating in voluntary workouts at their own training facilities as of this week.
