A little over a week after the Nuggets returned home from their March 11 loss in Dallas to the Mavericks — the last game that was played before the NBA suspended the season — Michael Malone began to feel ill.
“I’d say maybe around March 20, I started not feeling well, and we began reaching out to team doctors seeing if I was able to get a (coronavirus) test,” Malone told CBS Denver 4 in an interview that aired Monday night. “Unfortunately, at that time, there was no testing available. So I only found out after the fact. I was able to get an antibody test probably right around Memorial Day weekend. And not surprisingly, our team doctor called up and said, ‘Listen, you’ve tested positive.'”
The positive test makes Malone at least the second member of the organization to contract coronavirus. On March 19, around the same time that Malone began to feel sick, the team announced in a statement that “a member of the Denver Nuggets organization tested positive for COVID-19,” and Malone said Monday that he was one of multiple people in the Nuggets traveling party that contracted the virus.
After Malone tested positive for antibodies he said his wife and two daughters also got tested.
“I like to say that I got coronavirus, and I kicked its butt,” Malone said. “I was able to survive, thank goodness.”
The NBA is scheduled to resume the season at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida on July 30 with 22 teams playing eight seeding games to determine the final regular season standings. A potential play-in tournament for the eighth seeds in both the Eastern and Western Conference could follow before 16 teams advance to a traditional NBA playoff format.
The Nuggets, who are 43-22 and currently the third seed in the West, have clinched their second-consecutive playoff berth and would play the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs if the current seeding holds.
The league hasn’t wavered on its plans to play at Disney World despite the fact that coronavirus cases continue to spike in the state. Over the weekend, the Florida Department of Health reported over 2,500 new coronavirus cases on Saturday and approximately 2,000 new cases on Sunday. Last Thursday, Orange County, where Disney World is located, reported 136 new cases, its largest jump in COVID-19 cases in more than a month.
The league will have a clearer picture of how many players and team personnel throughout the league have contracted the virus soon. Prior to teams traveling to Orlando July 7-9, all players and essential staff that plan to live in the Disney World bubble will get a COVID-19 and antibody test on June 23, according to ESPN. Those same players and staff will reportedly continue to get tested every other day as well as the two days directly before the team leaves for Disney World.
“I hope that going down to Orlando we’ll be in a safe environment and we can limit the amount of people that actually get it (coronavirus),” Malone said. “Because I do know there’s a lot of states where we’re seeing a lot of spikes in the number of cases.”
Malone also addressed the mental and physical challenges the Nuggets will face at Disney World when the season resumes.
By the time the Nuggets and the 21 other teams fly to Orlando there will have been more than four months between games. Malone believes one challenge teams will face is coming together and reestablishing the chemistry that they had before the hiatus.
Secondly, Malone said the conditions that teams will be playing and living in a bubble environment at hotels with no fans, family or friends will challenge teams mentally. Fans won’t be allowed at Disney World but guests and family members will reportedly be permitted to arrive on August 30 prior to the Conference Semifinals.
“My challenge to our team is not to survive, but thrive,” Malone said. “How can we thrive in that bubble from a mental standpoint?”
Lastly, Malone is concerned about potential injuries. Teams won’t be permitted to conduct 5-on-5 workouts prior to arriving at Disney World. Players will then have three weeks to practice and play exhibition games or scrimmages in Orlando before games begin July 30.
