Last May, I wrote about whether the coronavirus pandemic could sway European NBA players away from re-signing with American teams. It was during the height of lockdowns, when the United States and European Union’s Schengen Area had reciprocal bans on all non-essential travel, without an exception for professional athletes. Those were wild times.
Since then, the Trump Administration here in the USA granted exemptions to the travel ban for professional athletes, including the NBA and WNBA. The EU is also allowing American professional athletes in the Schengen Area because they are there to work.