Pelicans' Gentry: CDC's COVID-19 warnings won't stop me from coaching

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If the NBA resumes play this season, New Orleans Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry is confident he'll be manning the sideline.

He told The New York Times' Marc Stein that the CDC's warnings about the increased COVID-19 vulnerability for those aged 65-plus will "not stop me from doing my job one bit."

"I'm going to approach it with caution. But I will be immersed in it totally from a competitive standpoint and everything else," Gentry told Stein.

Gentry is among three active NBA head coaches above the age of 65. In early May, 69-year-old Houston Rockets bench boss Mike D'Antoni also expressed no reservations about returning to work, sources told ESPN's Tim MacMahon.

"It's not something that we worry about. Good (health) is good (health), and Mike has been in perfect health for all these years (he battled a virus briefly last April and was hospitalized, but recovered quickly to rejoin the team)," D'Antoni's agent Warren LeGarie told The Athletic's Sam Amick, adding that the coach does as much as possible to maintain his health "without lowering his immunity system."