CLEVELAND – Nuggets coach Michael Malone said he was worried about an upcoming team meet-and-greet after multiple cases of coronavirus appeared in Colorado.
The charity event is scheduled for March 16 as a meet up for fans at Vehicle Vault in Parker.
“Itap scary,” Malone said at Saturday’s shootaround. “We have a team event coming up, and I’m really concerned about having that meet-the-team event because of whatap going on.”
On Friday, the NBA issued a memo that teams should prepare to play games with no fans in attendance, should the league deem it necessary. The memo also said teams should identify “essential staff” in what would be a worst-case scenario.
“Imagine if we had a game and it was like this,” Malone said, alluding to the empty seats at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland. “That would be strange. The essential staff, like not even everybody could be there.”
He added, jokingly: “I’m really hoping they wouldn’t allow the media. … You’re definitely not considered essential.”
Malone has been in constant communication with Steve Short, the Nuggets’ Director of Sports Medicine, and there are plans to have the team doctor address the team. The problem is that Denver is on the road eight of the next 10 games.
“We have not had our doctor speak yet, but we’re scheduling that for either when we get back prior to Milwaukee (on Monday), or something immediately after when we go on that three-game road trip to Dallas, San Antonio and the Lakers,” Malone said. “It wasn’t a question of if, it was a question of when, and the answer is now.
“Itap scary and itap real and itap something that I think the NBA is trying to get ahead of as best you can,” Malone said. “How do you get ahead of something that you can’t control? I know in my 20 years in the NBA, itap kind of the first time where itap even getting to the potential point of playing games with no fans, and I hope it doesn’t get to that because the fans are one of the best parts about our game.”
