Basketball is back. It may be inside a coronavirus free bubble created by the NBA, where the players from the 22 invited teams can’t spend time with family members, order food from outside the campus and venture off into the city like players do on away games but basketball really is back. The NBA alongside the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association) after almost 142 days of planning have created this bubble in the thick of the hiatus. The last NBA game was on March 11, and since then over a dozen players tested positive for the virus leading to an incomplete ending to a possible storybook season. Now, how is the bubble going to prevent the virus you ask? The first 2 days after when players step foot onto the campus provided by Disney in Orlando, they will have to receive 2 negative COVID-19 tests and the food will be delivered outside their doorsteps, players can’t leave their rooms at all in the 48 hour testing period.
However post-testing negative, players can enjoy the lavish facilities and mass amounts of luxury provided by Disney. Players on campus can go fishing, bowling, for haircuts, manicures, pedicures, golfing, to an all-access arcade and video game selection and a lot more. We see players like Matisse Thybulle and Javale McGee take this time to vlog their experience in the bubble-like what we see popular YouTubers i.e Logan Paul and David Dobrik doing every day.
As many players haven’t touched a basketball in months now there will be 3 warm-up games per team and then they will head into 8 regular-season games that determine the ranking teams have in the playoffs. ESPN analysts are still getting word about having virtual fans on video calls instead of cheering sound effects amid the games but for now, the NBA has created a bubble where players get to focus on purely basketball and 16 hungry playoff teams tunnel into winning the NBA championship. This bubble being compared a lot to AAU highschool basketball road trips where young athletes only think about winning the high school championship and enjoying their hotel facilities.
But as fans of the sport, we do only care about one thing and that is that basketball is back, pandemic basketball nonetheless but basketball is basketball right?
Writer: Vansh Bijlani
27/07/2020
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