Reacclimating with society is next step

Coming up: a new reality from ‘secluded and separated’ bubble

The question to Duncan Robinson and the response from the Miami Heat guard were so stark that theywere sobering.

With the NBA Finals winding down, Robinson was asked ahead of Friday’s Game 5 against the Los Angeles Lakers whether players could find themselves needing a period to get reacclimated to society outside of the NBA’s quarantine bubble atDisneyWord.

“It’ll come with its challenges,” he said, with theHeat confined to an extremely limited portion of the Disney grounds since July 8, as part of the league’s protocols amid the new coronavirus pandemic. “Habits are developed over the 90-plus dayswe’ve been here. You have your daily routines that are going to have to change. That’s just howit goes.

“The same adjustments that you made coming had here, you make them leaving.”

When theHeat departed South Florida, spring had just turned to summer. Nowit is fall.

“Definitely feel a certain level of disconnection,” Robinson said. “When you’re here, you very much feel like you’re in a bubble and kind of secluded and separated fromthe outsideworld.

“It’s been interesting staying in touch with family and friends that are outside, basically just getting updates on everything. A lot of questions, I ask a lot of questions about howeverything is in Miami, how everything is back home where I’m from. Just try to get a pulse as best you can.”

But closing time in the NBA also will mean an end to theNBA’s protective cocoon, where there has not been a single reported result of a player testing positive for COVID-19.

“Obviously, we know when we leave here we’ll be thrown back into the fire, the chaos of it all,” Robinson, 26, said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said with the NBA having resumed with the stakes at their highest, he limited his off-campus focus to family, not the duality of beyond the bubble.

“I have not, other thanmy conversations with my wife and our kids and school,” he said ahead of Friday’s game at the Wide World of Sports complex.

“That kind of brings youback to reality. Other than that, no, I haven’t given any thought, for right or wrong, to anything outside this bubble right now that’s not family related.”

Cashless society

Asked about his biggest lesson from living in the bubble, Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma noted the simplicity of the setting.

“The biggest lesson? I don’t know. I don’t need to spend that much money,” he said. “I don’t know. I think that’s the lesson.

“I haven’t really spent that much money here. Saved up a lot of money for after, so, you know, be patient with your money.”

Alternate plans

With his father’s Nigerian heritage, Heat center Bam Adebayo has long been chased by the country for its national team.

Adebayo instead tried out for andwas cut from theU.S. national team ahead of the 2019 World Cup.

“It feels good that people enjoy watching me play,” he said of interest he has sparked in Nigeria. “Having the next generation look up tomeand be something special for them, that feels great. Right now, I can’t reallyworry about the decision to put on a Nigerian jersey.”

Heat teammate Gabe Vincent, the guard on a two-way contract, played for Nigeria at the 2019 World Cup, including a 23-point effort against Poland.

Waiting game

Still undecided about his playing future, Heat’s Udonis Haslem said if there is to be a farewell tour it will come in consultationwithDwyaneWade, who turned 2018-19 into a farewell tour.

“I think he planned his farewell tour in his offseason,” Haslem, 40, toldNBA TV.

“That’s why he had a whole year of it. So he took the time in the offseason to plan it. That’swhy it went so well. If I do have a farewell tour, I’m sure to reach how to Dwyane to have him plan it, my party planner.

“He got a lot ofmoneyto pay for it, too. I knowit’s on him.”