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Welcome back.
I'm Rachel Nichols alongside Kendrick Perkins, and we're thrilled now to welcome in ESPN Senior MBA insider Zach Lowe.
So Guys Cove it issues striking again.
The MBA officially postponing the Hawks Sons Game scheduled for tonight.
Jazz Wizards, Magic Celtics Those had previously been postponed as well.
Now Magic forward Aaron Gordon tweeted this.
It's starting to get Jaenke.
I'd be cool with a bubble if it was in the Bahamas or Hawaii, and we got to bring our family, wife or girlfriend.
The jump in Hawaii does have a nice ring to it.
Just saying yesterday the league introduced some new covert protocols, like forbidding players from leaving the team hotel when they're on the road.
No, let's say just special guests are allowed to visit no Inter team interaction before after the game and more restrictions on who could be massless during games, as well as restrictions on what players could do at home, who they could see what they can leave their house for.
N B.
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George Hill Not thrilled about these new guidelines.
Take a listen.
I'm a grown man, so I'm gonna do what I want to do if I want to go see my family.
I'm gonna see my family.
They can't tell me I have to stay in the room 24 7.
If it's that serious, then maybe we shouldn't be playing.
But, um, you know, it's life.
No one's gonna be able to just cancel their whole life for this game.
And that's how I think about it.
Zach, I want to make the point that the MBA has not had to postpone these games because there has been a huge rash of players actually testing positive for coronavirus.
Ah, lot of the postponements have happened because contact tracing right, One guy gets it, and they determined that there have been enough teammates in close enough contact.
They have to sit them for a week.
So there isn't some huge rash of covitz spreading around the league.
Well, what they have tried to done with do with these rules is eliminate close contact points, right so that there won't be contact tracing absences on teams if one guy test positive.
But you heard George Hill.
Does he have a point as a counter to all of that?
In terms of just his personal liberty, experiencing his family.
He has a point on two levels.
Number one, um, this is gonna be mentally straining.
I mean, I guess it's a first world problem, these Air five star hotels and all this, but to be cooped up in isolated, it's It's a version of the very riel mental strain and anxiety that players felt in the bubble.
That's a real thing.
And his point of maybe we shouldn't be playing.
I think that's actually a reasonable question.
Clearly, everybody, including the players union who, by the way, has signed on to all of this from the beginning, has made a decision that we're gonna play now.
Players can opt out of the season.
He would have to sacrifice a huge amount of money to do that.
But it's on the table, but I don't think it's unreasonable for him to ask.
Hey, wait a second.
Is this really safe?
What are we gonna learn about how this virus may or may not spread during basketball games?
We think we know some stuff.
How much stuff do we really know?
So I think he's raising some real concerns.
The whole I could do what I want, think well, you actually can't because the union in the league bargained all these rules.
And if you do some of that stuff, you could get fined and punished for it.
That's sort of unrealistic on his part, but I don't think the general question he's raising is crazier.
Ridiculous.
Well, I do Zach, and look, I love George here.
He's a great, He's a great friend of mine.
Great individual, right?
And I get it.
He is a grown man, but we're talking about trying to keep people safe in the workplace so we won't have to postpone games, and the league is trying to tighten it up so they don't have to go and use a bubble.
And here's the thing.
It's not just about the players is not just about the coaches, but people have to realize you have the medical staff.
You have the training staff.
You have all these people that worked behind the scenes and work for these organizations that depend on work that depends on their salary to feed their families.
So although I get what George here saying about him being a grown man and him wanting to do what he wanna do, it's not about you, G Hill.
It's about the others.
That that haven't got paid me is the dollars that actually need this money.
So when you think about when you say things like this, don't just think about the players and yourself.
Think about the guys that are washing your jerseys.
Think about the people that are putting the shoes in your lockers and making sure you have everything that you need.
The training staff, that air taping your ankles.
Those are the people that matters, too.
So when you talk about situations like this, it don't just affect the players and coaches.
It affects everyone.
And I would say that's such a great point.
It's also a great point about George Hill.
I think he has so much respect from everyone around the league.
This doesn't change that.
But I would say toe all players, anyone associated with teams right now, at this point, we all know the issues right.
We all know the risk and reward.
We know how much money would be lost if the MBA shut down for a significant amount of time.
We know that the people involved in running the MBA have decided they would like that business and that money to continue.
And if you are someone who is just out there speculating, I don't know, maybe we shouldn't be playing.
You've got all the information and you can decide personally.
Is that pointed out that you don't want to be playing and forfeit your salary?
You could be a voice in the union to say we should all shut down and I'm willing to lose all this money for everyone but to just sort of throwing it out there.
At this point, I think we have all of the parameters down, and the union has made a decision to go forward.
And frankly, George has made a decision to go forward.
So the speculation sometimes doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
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