Raptors trying to find a comfortable `new normal' in temporary Florida digs
The Toronto Raptors and their NBA brethren adapted to life inside the Orlando bubble rather seamlessly last summer.
By all accounts, the basketball side of things was almost perfect with first-class facilities, great practice courts and a proximity to everything, making that part of their new lives easy to handle.
Mentally, there was still the issue of being confined to a single room for a good chunk of their day and, even beyond the hotel walls, being confined to a particular area.
Some handled it well, others didn't.
Now comes the grand test of taking the game back into the real world — unfortunately, right when COVID-19 cases are spiking once again.
That's an entirely new level of circumstances and risk to which the NBA family will have to adapt. There is plenty at stake, beginning first and foremost with the health of all the individuals involved.
For members of the Raptors, there is the added task of building a home away from home in Florida, something the 29 other teams won't be dealing with in the season ahead.
Border restrictions made playing in Toronto a non-starter, at least to start the season. So the team canvassed its players and staff members and a consensus was reached that if they had to be out of market, they may as well do so in a warmer climate. Fort Lauderdale and Nashville were passed over for Tampa which, in addition to offering a steady supply of Vitamin D, has a plethora of hotels and facilities that will make the transition easier.
The hotel, though, is expected to be the starting point only for most of the players. Already, they or their representatives are out in the market looking for housing and what they're finding is the pickings are pretty slim.
Seems the competition, if it isn't coming from a teammate looking at the same property, is coming from the much anticipated Super Bowl week, which will take over the Tampa area for the first part of February.
According to those familiar with the real estate adventures, potential landlords are hesitant to rent for the long term if it means locking themselves out of that potentially lucrative Super Bowl week, which some are suggesting could bring in well over US$50,000 just for that one seven-day period.
Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet has people out looking for him and says he knows his representatives have already run into the situation where they are scoping out the same place as another member of the Raptors.
VanVleet is eager to sign a lease because he wants that settled before he'll bring his family to join him in Florida.
But that's just one part of adapting to what VanVleet calls the “new normal.”
On Saturday, the NBA released a whole slew of protocols for the players going into this season to keep them as safe as possible, complete with suggested discipline should these protocols be ignored.
The testing they got so accustomed to in the bubble will again become part of their routine, but testing alone can't keep the players from contracting the virus. As for the rest of the protocols, VanVleet said they're all part and parcel of what everyone in the world is coping with right now.
“Just gotta roll with the punches,” he said.
“I'm not really a complainer and I try to keep a good perspective on things, so for better or for worse I think I'm just going to roll with it and see how it goes. Obviously, put the safety of everybody first, myself included and my family and try to stay as safe and healthy as possible, but realizing the world is kind of moving on and we have to find a way to kind of live with it and still follow all the guidelines the best we can.”
That said, VanVleet is too much of a realist to just believe it will all go off without a hitch. There are going to be some bumps.
“The NBA is definitely trying to cover all its bases and make sure it's a safe environment for us,” he said of the new measures.
“I don't have great expectations about that, I think it's going to be tough to do, but this is what it is and we've got to try to the best we can.”
VanVleet isn't going to get bent out of shape by his league advising him of places where he can safely eat when he's on the road or telling him and his teammates that they can't hit the bars either at home or on the road until the coronavirus is brought under control — either through widespread vaccine distribution or some other means.
In truth, he doesn't believe his teammates will put him or his family's health at risk by doing anything reckless, the same way he wouldn't put his teammates at risk with his actions.
But VanVleet knows adapting to the circumstances is just part of what has to happen if we're all going to get back to anything approaching normal.