This article is part of our NBA Draft Kit series.
As the start of the NBA season creeps closer, the reality of planning and executing a full season outside of a bubble environment is beginning to set in.
Last week, the league issued a comprehensive health and safety protocol for the 2020-21 season in the form of a 134-page document. While that may seem excessive, the range of challenges and liabilities the NBA is preparing to accept over the next several months is massive.
Thanks largely to an exhaustingly thorough testing and quarantine protocol, the NBA was able to pull off the Orlando bubble with tremendous success. No players tested positive for COVID-19 at Walt Disney World, and the league was even able to safely bring family members and close friends into the bubble during the postseason.
But without the isolation of a (mostly) impermeable bubble at a deserted theme park, the NBA is opening itself up to many of the issues faced by the NFL and Major League Baseball over the past several months. From traveling through airports, to monitoring activity on the road and away from team facilities, the undertaking will be an even longer and much more complex high-wire act than the Orlando bubble.
To the league's credit, it's done well to temper expectations and acknowledge that it's highly unlikely the season carries on without significant interference by the COVID-19 pandemic. Protocols are already in place, like the schedule being deliberately designed to account for the potential of postponed or canceled games.
On Friday, the league released
