BURST YOUR BUBBLE
Nets know more than others risks at Disney World campus
Brooklyn has already seen far too much coronavirus, both as a borough and as a basketball team.
With the pandemic running rampant in Florida, and two NBA players in Orlando testing positive, just how fragile is the league’s so-called bubble? And how safe do the Nets feel inside it?
“The first part of it is you really don’t want anyone to catch COVID. The safety and the well-being of all our athletes is premium and at the forethought of everyone, just because we don’t have a history of what this does to you,” interim coach Jacque Vaughn said via Zoom. “Overall, there’s a sacrifice, a responsibility for each athlete who enters the bubble, for each individual who enters the bubble to do their part and not tamper with the bubble.
“So we’ll continue to talk with our group about making the right choices, the right decisions while you’re in the other bubble. I said to the coaches the other day ‘I don’t want to catch it.’ And it’s as simple as that. I have a family. I have two boys that I want to see grow up. But I did take this sacrifice, so I’m going to do my part in doing what I’m asked to do so that I don’t put the rest of the group at harm.”
Vaughn and his team saw Brooklyn become the epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic in April. Four Nets — including Kevin Durant — tested positive in March, then they lost Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan and Taurean Prince for the restart due to positive tests, and Wilson Chandler over coronavirus concerns.
The NBA has taken pains to make the bubble safe, but it’s easier said than done. Florida had 15,000 new cases on Saturday, and a Monday total of 282,435 cases according to Johns Hopkins — more than Italy, and three times what China has.
Two players who were still in quarantine — so not yet in the bubble — tested positive, according to a league statement on Monday. Houston star Russell Westbrook announced he’d tested positive and is in quarantine.
With the Disney employees not subject to the same daily testing the players receive, the bubble clearly isn’t impervious. And it could just as easily be popped from the inside if players disobey protocols — something sure to happen.
“It’s 310 players or something like that. Take NBA players out of it: That’s a lot of people to make sure you have complete control and complete guidelines over,” Jarrett Allen said. “Then you add the NBA aspect, a bunch of grown men in this situation. We have our needs, we have our wants, and you know how we are.”
French wing Timothe LuwawuCabarrot said friends back home are surprised at the U.S.’s lack of ability to stem the pandemic, or act responsibly.
Sacramento’s Richaun Holmes landed himself back in quarantine for crossing the Disney campus line to pick up food. Houston’s Bruno Caboclo also is in quarantine after inadvertently leaving the bubble. And Instagram model Anna Mya claimed a player had already offered to bring her into the Disney campus.
“I already got invited to the bubble,” Mya tweeted Sunday, according to the NBA Bubble Life account. “Yea the season definitely ending early.”
That’s exactly the fate the NBA is trying to avoid.
“Honestly, I’m not really thinking about what other guys are doing. I’m trying to focus on the Nets and myself, making sure I’m taking the right safety precautions and everything like that. I didn’t know that [Russell Westbrook] tested positive. So hopefully he gets well and everything’s OK with him,” said Caris LeVert, whose teammates outside the bubble have offered simple advice: Stay safe. “I’ve talked to a couple guys before coming here, a couple guys; and while I’ve been here as well. They’re just saying the same things, just ‘Stay safe’ and ‘Go out there and do what you do.’ ”