German Basketball Bundesliga players to wear movement chips during tourney

Players participating in a 10-team, 36-game German Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) tournament slated to start in Munich on Saturday are being asked to wear chips monitoring their movements, league commissioner Stefan Holz told ESPN. The BBL has been suspended since March 8.

The league is isolating players, coaches, referees and other staff during the three-week tournament to limit the risk of infection. Each team will have up to 22 people in one location. The league submitted hygiene and safety protocols to authorities and political bodies for approval, including plans for about 2,750 COVID-19 tests.

NBA team and league officials are paying close attention to the resumption of play in Germany, sources said, as it has implications for the NBA's plans to resume play in Orlando, Florida, on July 31.

According to an official document released by the BBL, players will be tested upon arriving in Munich and then in intervals ranging from two to five days. Some teams have already arrived in Munich, while others are en route since their games occur later in the week.

Interaction with media, broadcast crews, league officials and others will be restricted but not eliminated. No family members will be allowed to visit the team hotel. Access to games will be restricted to the 22-member travel party and a limited number of others.

In the case of an infection, the league will isolate the player, coach or referee and conduct contact-tracing to determine who might have been in contact with the infected person.

This movement-tracking chip, designed by Kinexon, could lead to privacy concerns, especially because players did not agree to it. Some players contacted by ESPN slated to play later in the week were not informed of the league's plans to track their movements. Many were first informed of it upon arriving in Munich on Thursday.

BBL Commissioner Stefan Holz told ESPN that the wearing of movement chips is not required by the league.

"It is voluntary," Holz said. "It is optional. It is to trace contacts. If there is one positive test within the group, the whole group could be in danger. It could be the end of the tournament."

According to Bayern Munich general manager Marko Pesic, players will be "strongly encouraged" but not required to wear the chips around their wrist or neck. All movement in the arena and practice facility will be recorded by cameras that are already in place for contact-tracing.

According to a memo sent by the league to team officials, only doctors in the hotel will have access to the tracking data, and only if there is a positive case. The tracking will be used only in the hotel, not during basketball activities or trips outside the hotel. Players who wear the movement chip will not be required to wear masks at the hotel. Those who don't will be required to quarantine in case of a positive coronavirus test because "it is not possible to show whether there were contacts to the index case," according to the memo.

"Our hope is that everyone will understand why they are doing it," Pesic said.

The chip is similar to the wearable device some BBL and NBA teams use in practices to track movement. Players are permitted to leave the league hotel in groups of three, Holz said, but cannot come in contact with anyone from outside the hotel and cannot go to outside restaurants.

The BBL does not have a players' union and several players have voiced concerns about the league not consulting with players in designing this end-of-season tournament.

"Unfortunately there is no players' union here," one German agent told ESPN. "That definitely has been a topic for everything going on with this tournament. Players weren't asked for their input early on, regardless of these movement chips."

Following the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes, it appears likely that players will protest police brutality and racism during the tournament.

The BBL initially said it wouldn't allow protests, with Holz telling the dpa news agency that league rules forbid "political statements of any orientation," but backed down following criticism. Holz later apologized for the "unfortunate wording" of his comments and said the league would "position itself clearly against racism" at the tournament.

The Spanish ACB also plans on resuming competition on June 17 with a tournament in Valencia that will include the top 12 teams. Their competition will conclude by the end of the month and is not expected to have contact-tracing measures similar to those planned in Germany, a source told ESPN. The Israeli basketball league also has a tournament planned starting June 21 that will feature all 12 teams.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.