PBA Teams Now Allowed to Hold Non-Contact Individual Workouts

Philippine Basketball Associations (PBA) teams have already begun their respective preparations for the potential April opening of the league's 46th season. That is after the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases gave teams the go-signal to hold non-contact individual workouts.

According to PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial, the government agency tweaked its original limit on the number of participants per training session. In the original order, only four players plus two coaches or trainers were allowed. That number rose to five players plus five coaches or trainers per session and that, all participants must follow a strict home-gym-home route. 

Last Tuesday, it was revealed that the NLEX Road Warriors, one of the first teams to begin training, underwent swab tests for 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) and all results yielded out negative. NLEX Head Coach Yeng Guiao led the opening of the training at the UP Epsilon Chi Center  “Mostly conditioning, weights and skill work,” Guiao said. 

He added, “No interaction between players yet. Different sets of players and coaches per session,"

NLEX is coming off a Clark bubble conference where they started slow, recovered midway before falling short of securing a quarterfinal slot. They also have two players that are currently inside the Calamba training bubble where Gilas Pilipinas is preparing for the final window of the 2021 International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia Cup qualifiers later this month. 

NLEX will have the third and fourth picks in the first round of the 2021 PBA Rookie Draft on March 14. 

Photo is from the PBA