Officially it’s happening.
The defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors took the first steps toward actually resuming the NBA season on Monday, with select players and staff leaving Toronto for Fort Myers, Florida where the team will remain until entering the NBA Campus at Walt Disney World in Orlando in early July.
According to a release by the team, there will be no group workouts during this phase of return to play.
Group workouts will only begin once teams arrive at the Disney campus.
Access to both the team hotel and voluntary individual workout facilities will be strictly limited to essential team personnel.
The team had the option of re-convening in advance of the Disney campus opening at their own facility in Toronto but with more than half the team in the US or overseas, the decision was made to limit the number of border crossings in advance of the campus opening in Orlando.
The active number of COVID-19 cases in Florida has been on the rise of late but the NBA is confident in the precautions they have taken within the Disney confines and as of now the plan is to go ahead with the planned resumption of the schedule.
Teams will go through a three-week period of training and exhibition games before the actual seeding games or remainder of the regular season games scheduled will begin. The first seeding game is scheduled for July 30th.
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