NBA
The NBA Put Its Money Where Its Mouth Is and Helped Make Progress in the Fight Against COVID-19
Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sportscasting in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sportscasting, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he's a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie. Growing up loving Shaquille O'Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he's continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives. As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He's barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe's big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level. Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.
Get to know Joe Kozlowski betterPublished16 Aug 2020
If you’re a sports fan, it’s easy to think that your favorite team is a matter of life and death. 2020, however, has shown everyone just how fleeting everything can be. The coronavirus pandemic, of course, placed virtually every sport on hold; while most leagues have since resumed play, things are far from normal. The NBA isn’t content to simply play basketball in their Orlando bubble, though.
Although basketball has returned and the playoffs are on the horizon, the NBA has actually made a much larger contribution to society than entertaining fans everywhere. In fact, the league just helped the United States take a step forward in the fight against COVID-19.
The NBA felt the wrath of COVID-19 in early March
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In the early days of 2020, most Americans viewed the coronavirus as a distant threat. On March 11, however, the NBA proved that wasn’t the case.
As basketball fans surely remember, a game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Utah Jazz failed to begin on time. After a seeming eternity in the arena, fans ultimately learned that the team wouldn’t be taking the court. Rudy Gobert had tested positive for COVID-19.
While there were some discussions about playing games in empty arenas, the league ultimately decided to suspend the season until further notice; before long, the rest of the sports world followed suit. Basketball didn’t resume until the end of July, and, even then, the entire NBA relocated to a secure bubble at Walt Disney World.
A new saliva test could help fight the coronavirus
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As we’ve all heard, one of the best ways to fight the coronavirus testing; if you can quickly determine who has COVID-19, it’s easier to control the disease’s spread. In the United States, that hope may be getting closer to reality.
As laid out by Bruce Y. Lee at Forbes, the FDA recently granted a new saliva test emergency approval. While this test has the same benefits as other saliva tests—since the patient has to spit in a tube rather than undergo a nasal or throat swab, there’s less of a risk an exposure risk for medical personnel—this one carries a new advantage.
“What makes this test unique is that you don’t have to take an extra step to separate the genetic material or nucleic acid from the sample,” Lee explained. “Therefore, to perform the test labs don’t need special nucleic acid extraction kits, which have been, surprise, surprise, in short supply during the pandemic.” That will theoretically make the test quick, cheap, and accessible, allowing for more frequent and more widespread testing.
While that sounds all well and good, what does it have to do with basketball? The NBA actually played an important role in Yale’s development of the test.
The NBA supported and helped fund Yale’s new COVID-19 test
When the NBA decided to resume play, they needed to ensure that everyone inside the Orlando bubble could remain safe. Since that required frequent testing, it gave the league an opportunity to make a larger impact.
“[Earlier this year,] the Yale lab at the time did not have its own test; it had used previously existing tests to measure the accuracy of saliva testing,” ESPN’s Zach Lowe explained. “[Robby Sikka, vice president of basketball performance and technology for the Minnesota Timberwolves] and the league pitched the idea of building one, and the NBA and players’ union offered to fund it.” The league and the NBA Players Association “contributed more than $500,000 combined to fund the Yale work,” according to ESPN’s reporting.
Beyond that monetary support, the NBA also provided plenty of data points regarding the test’s accuracy. “Yale administered the saliva test to a group that included NBA players and staff in the lead-up to the league’s return to play and compared results to the nasal swab tests the same group took,” Lowe continued. “The results almost universally matched, according to published research that has not yet been peer-reviewed.”
“My goal is not to test athletes,” Yale’s Nathan Grubaugh explained. “That’s not my target population. My target population is everybody. There were concerns about partnering with the NBA when all these other people need testing. But the simple answer ended up being the NBA was going to do all this testing anyway, so why not partner with them and try to create something for everyone?”
At this point, we probably won’t see fans in NBA arenas for some time. When we do, though, it’s quite possible that the Yale saliva test will have helped us reach that point.
