The NBA granted teams permission to open their facilities on Friday as certain states begin easing stay-at-home mandates during the coronavirus pandemic, but Portland Trail Blazers star CJ McCollum is urging the league to take precaution.
In an interview with Yahoo Sports, McCollum expresses an uneasy feeling about working out at the team facility. Along with the Blazers, the Denver Nuggets and Cleveland Cavaliers are also planning to open their facilities.
“I am worried like the rest of the world, but I like that it is optional and I’m pleased with the caution, structure and measures the Blazers organization has put in place to ensure the safest environment possible for all parties involved,” McCollum said. “I get the measures [the league is] taking, but you have to think at some point when there are drastic measures that need to be taken, ‘Is it really worth it?’ It’s either safe or it’s not.
“ … And let’s just be honest, man, it’s not like it will be the first time players got gym access outside of the team’s facilities. Some people have been working out, if we’re being honest.”
However, McCollum, who serves as the vice president of the NBA’s Players Association, said he plans to go in Saturday to assess if it’s safe to conduct his workouts with so many restrictions.
“The issue is you can go to your practice facility, but there’s all these stipulations,” he said. “You can’t use certain stuff, can’t do certain stuff. Now they’re talking about you might have to be 12 feet away from your strength coach. How are you going to lift 12 feet away from somebody?”
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban declared why his organization wouldn’t be opening up its facility anytime soon while on The Athletic’s “77 Minutes in Heaven” podcast.
“The problem, obviously, is that because we can’t test people, then we can’t assure anybody’s safety whether they’re basketball players or anybody else,” Cuban said. “Even though we can try to take all different kinds of precautions, it’s just not worth it — particularly when our guys are staying in shape and they’re going outside and shooting on outdoor hoops and working out in various ways. So, I just don’t think the risk is worth the reward.”
McCollum, 28, said the Portland organization has done a great job of “calling and checking in” during these trying times. The 2019-20 season was his seventh with the team since it drafted him 10th overall in 2013. Averaging 22.5 points per game, McCollum was in the midst of his most prolific year since the 2016-17 season, when he was named the league’s Most Improved Player.
When asked what he thinks will happen with the remainder of the 2019-20 season, McCollum is seemingly just as clueless as everyone else.
“I don’t know, man,” McCollum said. “I’m probably as optimistic as the casual fan. Some days you feel like there’s a chance, and then some days you’re like, ‘I don’t know.’ But in the meantime, if you go to work out at the facility, I get it. Work out, but we’ve got to figure out a balance between what’s safe and what’s forcing it.”