One of the safety measures the NBA is taking in the bubble is providing a smart ring for everyone. Phoenix Suns head coach, Monty Williams, is wearing his.
When I first read the NBA bubble was going to provide a smart ring for the Phoenix Suns players and staff to wear that would detect early warning signs of COVID-19, I thought the latest 2020 apocalyptic event was some kind of time travel portal into the future. I knew wrist watches could play music, measure heart rates, and allow for wives to spy on their husband’s text messages, but a ring works as a portable nurse?
That’s crazy.
It is one step away from controlling electromagnetic energies such as gravity, radiation, heat, light, and powerful blasts of concussive force, a la Green Lantern’s power ring.
Then I found it has been publically available since 2016, and now I’m even more in shock.
Phoenix Suns players and staff will be wearing a pretty cool smart ring.
The smart ring is made by a company called Oura and actually has some NBA ties already, as San Antonio Spurs legend Manu Ginobili and Shaquille O’Neal are investors.
The ring and its accompanying app measure the wearer’s sleep, heart rate, temperature, and a metric it calls readiness, which is a scoring system that can predict when a user may be getting sick.
West Virginia University found that it can detect symptoms up to three days in advance with 90% accuracy, and one Finnish ring supporter claimed after his readiness score dropped from its usual 80-90 range down to 54, it prompted him to get tested for the coronavirus (which came back positive) even though he wasn’t exhibiting any outward symptoms.
The NBA dove in and purchased roughly 3,000 of the $300 rings to distribute to players and staff free of charge to them.
Even though the ring is an optional accessory, Phoenix Suns head coach, Monty Williams, has been wearing his.
"“It’s probably not working at all because I don’t have much of my brain for it to monitor (joking). So I know it’s not working on this. It’s probably checking my heart and oxygen levels and activity, but this thing is supposed to track a lot of our health points.”"
The NBA has gone all out for player safety in the bubble, and in my mind, has far exceeded any other professional sports league in their approach to resume play in a controlled and sustainable way.
The most surprising part of all of this, and I’m sure the NBA had limited control of it, is that Walt Disney World has reopened. I thought the whole purpose of a bubble was to you know, keep everyone isolated.
I’m sure they are doing exactly this within their NBA bubble boundaries, but an influx of tens of thousands of Micky Mouse enthusiasts in such close proximity (especially in Florida where cases are sky-rocketing) seems ill-advised on a number of levels.
What I’m saying is, I thought the bubble was going to be the Hall of Justice, but instead, it just seems to be a secluded, locked hall inside Arkham Assylum.
Hopefully, the lock holds, and the NBA can conduct this as safely as possible. With the smart ring and all the other safety measures in place, they’ve got as good a chance to pull it off.