The NBA will not exclude coaches from participating in the season’s resumption near Orlando based solely on their age, coaches union president Rick Carlisle said yesterday.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver expressed concern in early June about the inclusion of older coaches in the league’s “bubble” at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, with health officials stating that people 65 and older are particularly susceptible to severe symptoms if they contract the coronavirus.
“Everybody goes through a screening process, but we’ve been assured by the league that no one will be red-flagged from going to Orlando based on age alone,” Carlisle said, according to ESPN.
The NBA has three head coaches who fall in the vulnerable age category: the San Antonio Spurs’ Gregg Popovich, 71; the Houston Rockets’ Mike D’Antoni, 69; and the New Orleans Pelicans’ Alvin Gentry, 65.
D’Antoni was asked yesterday if the NBA had responded to his publicly stated plan to coach the Rockets in the “bubble.”