NBA Teams to Have League-Assigned COVID-19 'Protocol Officer' on Road Trips

The NBA will be taking a number of precautions as it attempts to hold a 72-game season with travel involved during the COVID-19 pandemic, which will include each team utilizing a "protocol officer," per Marc Stein of the New York Times.

Per that report, "All 30 teams will also have a league-assigned 'protocol officer' with them on the road and on team planes, trying to ensure adherence to the many restrictions outlined within the league's nearly 160 pages of rules to govern the season."

The NBA will be returning to play without a bubble environment, which worked incredibly well for a short slate of regular-season games and the postseason but would be a tough sell to players, asking them to be away from their families for an entire campaign.

Just six franchises will have limited fans in attendance for games to start the season: The Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, New Orleans Pelicans, Orlando Magic, Utah Jazz and Toronto Raptors (playing in Tampa Bay, Florida, after Canada's pandemic travel restrictions made playing in Toronto impossible).

"We are in the same boat as a lot of people out there," Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told Stein. "Everything is strange for everybody. We're lucky to be working, and we recognize that. So we are embracing our circumstances rather than lamenting them."

Preventing outbreaks among NBA teams will be particularly tricky at a time when the United States has seen a significant surge in positive coronavirus cases. The cause for optimism is the rollout of coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. 

Regardless, it will be another unique season for NBA teams.

"We won't be able to eliminate cases and outbreaks," Mavericks governor Mark Cuban told Stein. "But if we can minimize them, then hopefully it can be as close to a normal season as possible."