The NBA season tips off Thursday, and the league reportedly had zero positives tests in its latest round of results.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, out of 344 total tests, none came back positive.
Sources: Zero NBA players have tested positive for coronavirus out of 344 tested at Orlando campus since last results were announced July 20.
Consecutive testing rounds where no new player has tested positive.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 29, 2020
The league soon put out a statement confirming that there is no COVID-19 in the bubble that they have identified.
NBA and NBPA Announce COVID-19 Test Results pic.twitter.com/7qPHfL8fK2
— NBPA (@TheNBPA) July 29, 2020
As Charania notes, this is now two straight stretches without a positive, which is even more noteworthy considering the concern at the outset of the bubble experiment that false positives could throw everyone into chaos. The NBA has avoided infection, but they’ve also gotten lucky that no tests have wrongly displayed a positive for a healthy player or staff member.
This is particularly good news considering what is happening with MLB, which is already experiencing its first team outbreak on the Miami Marlins. Even compared with MLS and the NWSL, pro basketball has done well. Both American soccer leagues saw teams drop out of the bubble environment before games even began due to infections on participating teams. In the case of MLS, two teams entered the bubble then left after outbreaks, while the NWSL side that dealt with the virus never entered its bubble.
The NBA is already beginning to discuss next season and how to safely play in 2021, so the league and its teams will be glad to see infection rates zeroed out to begin the Bubble games on Walt Disney World property.
The NBA restart tips off Thursday at 6:30 p.m. ET when the Utah Jazz take on the New Orleans Pelicans.
