No one is against imposing player health and safety rules during a pandemic, in fact, they should be encouraged. But at a certain point, the new rules and regulations are asinine and have little to no scientific logic working in their favor. Players are constantly bumping up against one another while also breathing heavily and shouting on the court, so the idea of banning handshakes makes no sense. These are some of the protocol changes, as reported by ESPN Senior NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski:
After witnessing some opposing players disregarding new league rules against unnecessary contact on game nights, the NBA is moving team security into the midcourt area to dissuade violations that include hugging and handshakes, according to a league memo obtained by ESPN on Wednesday.
The league has also banned jersey exchanges post-game.
The thing that the NBA and other sports leagues have wrong about COVID-19 is that it does not politely wait 15 minutes and then decide to enter your system. The coronavirus is not a defender in a game of 4th-grade touch-football at recess who needs to count to five Mississippi before rushing the quarterback. Reducing exposure time absolutely reduces the chances of contracting the virus. Making cuts in exposure opportunities whenever possible makes sense. But banning three-second interactions that are already happening on the court regardless of the rules just pushes players to rebel against the serious ones even more.
When it comes to restricting handshakes and jersey exchanges, it’s gone too far. If LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard are posting each other up for an entire game, chances are the contact will have already happened. If they want to exchange a handshake with one another, it’s not like they haven’t already grabbed onto each other multiple times a game. The additional few seconds they spend at half court will not change anything besides a topical view of the league. If anyone is upset with handshakes, they would be appalled with playing an entire game maskless. I cannot imagine anyone drawing the line at handshakes.
This is yet another example of leagues making up bogus rules for the optics. In the days following the implementation of the new restriction, Kyrie Irving attempted to exchange jerseys with Bam Adebayo after a game and was blocked at half court by security. The exchange being prevented was understandable. Those are the new rules, silly as they may be. But the next night, Irving proceeded to surreptitiously pass his jerseys to Adebayo anyways. When questionable restrictions are put into place it only makes people want to break them even more.
Alternatives should be put in place to help facilitate the common gestures before and after the game. If you want to have a jersey swap, have an equipment manager run the jersey through the tunnel after the game. If you want to have a handshake, ask that the players wear masks if it is outside the field of play. But restricting these commonalities altogether pushes players like James Harden and Irving to go to parties and disregard the rules that actually matter in keeping the entire league healthy.
This is new information for me as I don't pay much attention to sports. You are absolutely right about banning hugs and jersey exchanges is a dumb move when the players already shout and make necessary physical contact during the game. I also understand why this restriction might be carried out because I am in a similar situation myself. I'm in a circus show, at the beginning of this year, wearing masks when not performing, checking temperature before entering the theatre, and testing covid after travelling became a new company policy. Since no words stated performers cannot hold hands, we would still do the "pre-show ritual" where all performers hold hands in a circle and pass a squeeze. We need…
I agree that its hard to find a middle ground between too harsh and too lax COVID restrictions. I thought it was pretty funny when Bam and Kyrie decided to swap jerseys even after league officials stopped them in the game before, however I think what the league should be focusing on is stopping the players from breaking COVID restrictions outside of the games. If they focus on controlling outside exposure, it shouldn't be an issue whether players are shaking hands or fist bumping. The more exposure a player has outside of the sport, which is already a good amount of exposure itself, the more likely they are to spread it during.
The consequences of COVID on sports is extremely upsetting. Sports fans across the world experienced extreme loss over the past year, but the reasoning behind shutting down sporting events seemed necessary to help pull us out of the pandemic. There is a very fine line between respecting the rules of the CDC, and upholding the magic of sports. The physicality of athletes, the sportsmanship traditions, and the moments of candid expression that are hidden by masks are all elements to this culture which make it a form of entertainment. We learn to love individual players not just by how they behave on the field, but off of it as well. COVID has narrowed the amount of spaces where athletes can…
Daniel, I agree that the rules and regulations have gone a little too far. I find the pandemic rules comical because if they are enforcing players to not interact after then they shouldn’t be interacting during the game… which is not possible. I believe that the reason for these protocols aren’t necessarily for the players (because if they were then they would not be having the game in the first place) but only for how it is perceived on television / to the spectators.
Daniel, I agree with this concept. I think it's hard to draw a line between what kind of contact should and should not be allowed during professional sporting games right now. There's no black and white answer because the human nature of celebrating a good play with a high five or a bad one with a pat on the shoulder can't be restricted. I also think it's interesting that these players are restricted from game-time commonalities when they could get the virus from the grocery store....How do you think social media has played a role in how players go about their daily lives? Do you think professional players should be vaccinated in the near future?