Dr. Anthony Fauci ‘Very Pleased’ With NBA’s Proposed Return-To-Play Plan

The NBA is putting a return-to-play plan in place, and one of the United States’ top doctors is “very pleased” with what he’s seen.

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Saturday told Stadium he’s impressed with the plan the league has put together ahead of resuming its 2019-20 season. The league will bring 22 teams down to the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. and resume play. Games reportedly will begin around July 30.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases hopes other leagues will follow the NBA’s lead.

“I actually have looked at (the NBA’s) plan and it is really quite creative what they’re really trying to do, and I think they might very well be quite successful with it, is to create a situation where it is as safe as it possibly could be for the players by being in this bubble: Essentially, testing everybody, make sure that you start with a baseline of everybody being negative and trying to make sure that there is no influx into that cohort … and do a tournament-type play,” Fauci told Stadium.

“It’s not the classic basketball season, but certainly for the people who are thirsting for basketball, who love basketball the way I do, it’s something that I think is a sound plan. I was very pleased to see that the intent was not reckless at all. They really wanted to make sure that the safety of the players and the people associated with the players was paramount.”

Hard to disagree with that logic.

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