The Mayo Clinic and the Minnesota Timberwolves are spearheading an NBA-wide study that aims to establish what percentage of NBA players, coaches, executives and staff have developed antibodies to COVID-19. The initiative is supported by the league office and the NBPA. It is expected to have the participation of all 30 teams.

When Gersson Rosas was hired to run the Wolves, he hired Dr. Robby Sikka to help the franchise use data to optimize the health of players. Sikka is serving as the intermediary between the Wolves and the Mayo Clinic.

"We are learning about this disease," Sikka said. "We have learned a lot in two months. So if we can take the next two months, learn on the fly, mitigate risk, then we can move pretty quickly to do the right things to have safe play."

Stanford University conducted a similar study for Major League Baseball employees in mid-April. That study found that just 0.7% of that population tested positive for antibodies.

In this study, blood samples will be collected using the finger prick method and blood draws. According to a memo that was sent to teams and reviewed by ESPN, the Mayo Clinic hopes the study will help validate the less invasive method, making it easier for widespread antibody testing in the general public.

"I think teams are obligated to do something right for their communities before they do right for anybody else," Sikka said.

The Minnesota Timberwolves will be one of the first teams to participate in the Mayo Clinic's antibody study.

The research study is centered around studying the antibodies of people who have recovered from COVID-19 in hopes of potentially finding a vaccine. 

The Blazers are also participating in the research study. 

Several league figures who have recovered from the virus have donated their plasma for medical research.  

D'Angelo Russell has not lived in the same city for more than two years since he was a freshman in high school. Russell left Louisville before his sophomore season of high school and has since lived in Montverde, Fla., Columbus, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, San Francisco and now Minneapolis. 

The Timberwolves had dozens of employees waiting for Russell when he arrived to welcome him at the airport.

“From what I’ve been through previous years to where I come from in childhood, people don’t show their love and support for you like this, at this magnitude (when you first arrive),” Russell told The Athletic. “People don’t do that. For the organization to put something like that together, for me to feel that love and support right away, I was just like, ‘This has to be documented.’ That was the first thing I thought of.”

The Wolves paid a big price to acquire Russell from the Warriors and they believe he can be their co-star to Karl-Anthony Towns.

“I’m like, OK,” he said, “this is where I’m supposed to be.”

“His whole career, you look at it and it feels like he wasn’t wanted, whether he put himself in that position or whatever the situation was,” Towns said in March. “It just never felt like he was wanted, and he could feel it.”

Gersson Rosas said that he wants Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez to be with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the long-term.

Beasley and Hernangomez, who were traded to the Wolves at the trade deadline, are both free agents this summer.

"We want those guys to be Timberwolves for a long, long time. Hopefully, for the rest of their careers," said Rosas, addressing the state of the team on radio.

Beasley averaged 20.7 points with the Wolves, with Hernangomez averaging 12.9 points and 7.3 rebounds.

Rosas also suggested that the Wolves could be aggressive on draft night, describing having as many as 3 picks in the top 33 "the most draft capital" in the league.