'Get on the next flight': Inside the frenzy to fill NBA rosters decimated by COVID-19
WHY WAS SOMEONE calling Mac McClung at 7 a.m.?
It was Dec. 20, an off day inside Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay resort -- and a chance to sleep in before McClung's South Bay Lakers prepared for a semifinal game against the juggernaut Delaware Blue Coats at the NBA G League's Winter Showcase.
There was real money on the line: $100,000 went to the tournament's winner to split among players who average around $40,000 for the season.
The call was from McClung's agent: "He said I've got to get on the next flight and head to Chicago."
Two days later, McClung, who went undrafted but joined the Los Angeles Lakers' summer league and G League rosters this season, signed a 10-day hardship contract with the Chicago Bulls.
By Dec. 15, a total of 60 players had entered health and safety protocols for the season. That number skyrocketed to 260 by the time the calendar flipped to January. Fortunately, McClung did not test positive, and he has played well enough to get a second 10-day contract with the Bulls.
Those who tested negative at the right time got their dreams delivered and -- with 10-day hardship contracts that guaranteed rookies more than $50,000 -- more than doubled their salaries.
McClung's unorthodox path to an NBA court has quickly become a theme for 2021-22. NBA teams were scrambling to find healthy replacement players as the omicron variant spread, with operational roadblocks challenging franchises at every step.
"It hasn't been just getting players who can play the positions you need," one assistant general manager said. "It's been getting players who aren't [COVID-19] positive.
"We love giving guys opportunities, but if you get them and they test positive, it's just a waste of everyone's time and money."
WITH HIS BAGS packed across the room, Theo Pinson was playing Madden at his place in Portland, Maine. He was leaving in an hour for the Vegas Showcase with the G League's No. 2 seed Maine Celtics, thinking about a shot at winning and getting some extra money too.
"I'm not paying attention to my phone. Then I look, and [my agent] texted me," Pinson said. "'Yo, don't go anywhere.'
"I'm like, 'What are you talking about?'"
That night, Pinson met the Dallas Mavericks in Minneapolis. He would play 22 minutes in his NBA debut a couple of days later in Dallas. "They were calling [plays] I had no idea what it was," he said.
Pinson signed a second 10-day contract last week as Dallas continues to deal with players entering protocols.
Quinndary Weatherspoon made it through the Vegas Showcase with the Santa Cruz Warriors and took a red-eye through Atlanta to his home in Jackson, Mississippi, to see his infant son during the Christmas break. Within hours, he was back on a plane -- this time to the West Coast as a hardship call-up to the parent -- and NBA-leading -- Golden State Warriors.
"It was surreal, exciting, but it was a bittersweet moment just because I haven't seen my son since he was 2 weeks old," Witherspoon said. "But when these opportunities come, you can't turn them down. So I got my head together, got focused and packed my bags and was out again."
Veteran Isaiah Thomas was in a Fred Meyer grocery store in Seattle, just back from his 10-day hardship deal ending with the Lakers, when Mavs general manager Nico Harrison called and asked if he could play for the team that night in Sacramento.
"I was like, 'Hell yeah, I can play tonight!" Thomas said. "It was a no-brainer when he asked."
Thomas got the playbook sent to him while he was on the flight and was on the ground in the California capital by midafternoon. But after six points and four assists in 13 minutes in his Mavs debut, Thomas tested positive and was sidelined.
This is a story that repeated itself over and over in the league. The Toronto Raptors had a game in Chicago postponed because two of the hardship players they signed tested positive after flying in and had to go into the protocols.
"It has gotten to the point where you ask the agent: 'Has your player already had omicron?'" a league executive said. "Those guys are more valuable because you know it's likely they'll be able to play."
As another executive said, "There were some guys who weren't getting signed, and we were wondering why that guy doesn't have a job. ...
"[We] found out why: They had COVID."
THERE ARE STORIES about teams going to their "available list," a loose ranking teams refer to when they need a player, and then calling agents only to learn the player had been signed the day before in the flurry of transactions.
After the NBA decided to suspend the G League into January, teams were more likely to rely on players off their own affiliates instead of looking elsewhere. It was easier and quicker to determine a player was negative before signing and flying the player in.
But that led to rosters evolving within hours of game time.
The Raptors played a game in Cleveland with four regular roster players and four hardship signees, going over their plays for that night with the new players on the floor before the game in full view of the Cavaliers coaches.
One Eastern Conference executive compared it to the annual frenzy of summer league and free agency -- only that it also coincided with teams playing regular-season games simultaneously.
"It was the worst part of free agency and the worst part of summer league on a daily basis," he said.
All just part of the operational mess of the past few weeks. Equipment managers' and travel coordinators' typical day-to-day procedures are a constant state of stress, but these are situations no one had ever seen.
When the Lakers were hit with COVID-19 on a road trip, they ended up with guard Malik Monk and broadcaster Mychal Thompson following protocols in a hotel in Minneapolis, while coach Frank Vogel and guard Austin Reaves were quarantining at a hotel in Chicago. Five days later, the Lakers chartered a jet to get Vogel and Reaves in Chicago then head to Minneapolis to pick up Monk and Thompson, before heading back to L.A. This was just a couple of weeks after LeBron James had to take a private plane home from Sacramento earlier in December, only to find out he had a false positive.
"Every morning, you wake up and you look at your phone, not knowing what you're about to see," said Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff, whose team was decimated by an outbreak. "First the email to find out whether you're positive and then the messages from the staff on what players might've tested positive."
Cases have dropped over the past week, and steadily teams have made it through dire circumstances to get players back. But because of the evolving nature of the virus and the changing rules -- the NBA has altered its protocols several times during the outbreak -- no one is sure whether the worst is over.
What they know is they've never seen anything like this. Well, almost nothing.
"If you've been around this a long time, as I have, these things happen. It happened in 2005 when we had the Palace brawl, we had the same type of thing," Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said in his trademark deadpan about one of the worst things the league has experienced in the past 20 years.
"We may have had three or four minor league guys starting with injuries and suspensions and stuff like that. You've just got to really become a better problem-solver."
ESPN's Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon, Nick Friedell, Dave McMenamin and Jamal Collier contributed to this story.
'Get on the next flight': Inside the frenzy to fill NBA rosters decimated by COVID-19
WHY WAS SOMEONE calling Mac McClung at 7 a.m.?
It was Dec. 20, an off day inside Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay resort -- and a chance to sleep in before McClung's South Bay Lakers prepared for a semifinal game against the juggernaut Delaware Blue Coats at the NBA G League's Winter Showcase.
There was real money on the line: $100,000 went to the tournament's winner to split among players who average around $40,000 for the season.
The call was from McClung's agent: "He said I've got to get on the next flight and head to Chicago."
Two days later, McClung, who went undrafted but joined the Los Angeles Lakers' summer league and G League rosters this season, signed a 10-day hardship contract with the Chicago Bulls.
By Dec. 15, a total of 60 players had entered health and safety protocols for the season. That number skyrocketed to 260 by the time the calendar flipped to January. Fortunately, McClung did not test positive, and he has played well enough to get a second 10-day contract with the Bulls.
Those who tested negative at the right time got their dreams delivered and -- with 10-day hardship contracts that guaranteed rookies more than $50,000 -- more than doubled their salaries.
McClung's unorthodox path to an NBA court has quickly become a theme for 2021-22. NBA teams were scrambling to find healthy replacement players as the omicron variant spread, with operational roadblocks challenging franchises at every step.
"It hasn't been just getting players who can play the positions you need," one assistant general manager said. "It's been getting players who aren't [COVID-19] positive.
"We love giving guys opportunities, but if you get them and they test positive, it's just a waste of everyone's time and money."
WITH HIS BAGS packed across the room, Theo Pinson was playing Madden at his place in Portland, Maine. He was leaving in an hour for the Vegas Showcase with the G League's No. 2 seed Maine Celtics, thinking about a shot at winning and getting some extra money too.
"I'm not paying attention to my phone. Then I look, and [my agent] texted me," Pinson said. "'Yo, don't go anywhere.'
"I'm like, 'What are you talking about?'"
That night, Pinson met the Dallas Mavericks in Minneapolis. He would play 22 minutes in his NBA debut a couple of days later in Dallas. "They were calling [plays] I had no idea what it was," he said.
Pinson signed a second 10-day contract last week as Dallas continues to deal with players entering protocols.
Quinndary Weatherspoon made it through the Vegas Showcase with the Santa Cruz Warriors and took a red-eye through Atlanta to his home in Jackson, Mississippi, to see his infant son during the Christmas break. Within hours, he was back on a plane -- this time to the West Coast as a hardship call-up to the parent -- and NBA-leading -- Golden State Warriors.
"It was surreal, exciting, but it was a bittersweet moment just because I haven't seen my son since he was 2 weeks old," Witherspoon said. "But when these opportunities come, you can't turn them down. So I got my head together, got focused and packed my bags and was out again."
Veteran Isaiah Thomas was in a Fred Meyer grocery store in Seattle, just back from his 10-day hardship deal ending with the Lakers, when Mavs general manager Nico Harrison called and asked if he could play for the team that night in Sacramento.
"I was like, 'Hell yeah, I can play tonight!" Thomas said. "It was a no-brainer when he asked."
Thomas got the playbook sent to him while he was on the flight and was on the ground in the California capital by midafternoon. But after six points and four assists in 13 minutes in his Mavs debut, Thomas tested positive and was sidelined.
This is a story that repeated itself over and over in the league. The Toronto Raptors had a game in Chicago postponed because two of the hardship players they signed tested positive after flying in and had to go into the protocols.
"It has gotten to the point where you ask the agent: 'Has your player already had omicron?'" a league executive said. "Those guys are more valuable because you know it's likely they'll be able to play."
As another executive said, "There were some guys who weren't getting signed, and we were wondering why that guy doesn't have a job. ...
"[We] found out why: They had COVID."
THERE ARE STORIES about teams going to their "available list," a loose ranking teams refer to when they need a player, and then calling agents only to learn the player had been signed the day before in the flurry of transactions.
After the NBA decided to suspend the G League into January, teams were more likely to rely on players off their own affiliates instead of looking elsewhere. It was easier and quicker to determine a player was negative before signing and flying the player in.
But that led to rosters evolving within hours of game time.
The Raptors played a game in Cleveland with four regular roster players and four hardship signees, going over their plays for that night with the new players on the floor before the game in full view of the Cavaliers coaches.
One Eastern Conference executive compared it to the annual frenzy of summer league and free agency -- only that it also coincided with teams playing regular-season games simultaneously.
"It was the worst part of free agency and the worst part of summer league on a daily basis," he said.
All just part of the operational mess of the past few weeks. Equipment managers' and travel coordinators' typical day-to-day procedures are a constant state of stress, but these are situations no one had ever seen.
When the Lakers were hit with COVID-19 on a road trip, they ended up with guard Malik Monk and broadcaster Mychal Thompson following protocols in a hotel in Minneapolis, while coach Frank Vogel and guard Austin Reaves were quarantining at a hotel in Chicago. Five days later, the Lakers chartered a jet to get Vogel and Reaves in Chicago then head to Minneapolis to pick up Monk and Thompson, before heading back to L.A. This was just a couple of weeks after LeBron James had to take a private plane home from Sacramento earlier in December, only to find out he had a false positive.
"Every morning, you wake up and you look at your phone, not knowing what you're about to see," said Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff, whose team was decimated by an outbreak. "First the email to find out whether you're positive and then the messages from the staff on what players might've tested positive."
Cases have dropped over the past week, and steadily teams have made it through dire circumstances to get players back. But because of the evolving nature of the virus and the changing rules -- the NBA has altered its protocols several times during the outbreak -- no one is sure whether the worst is over.
What they know is they've never seen anything like this. Well, almost nothing.
"If you've been around this a long time, as I have, these things happen. It happened in 2005 when we had the Palace brawl, we had the same type of thing," Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said in his trademark deadpan about one of the worst things the league has experienced in the past 20 years.
"We may have had three or four minor league guys starting with injuries and suspensions and stuff like that. You've just got to really become a better problem-solver."
ESPN's Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon, Nick Friedell, Dave McMenamin and Jamal Collier contributed to this story.
