NBA bubble may get encore shot
Another seven days of basketball in a bubble and another batch of COVID-19 testing without one positive for the NBA.
Even with that good news – 342 players tested daily for the past week without a positive – Commissioner Adam Silver can’t breathe a sigh of relief. He won’t be able to do that until a champion is crowned in October and players and staff return home healthy and safe.
Even then, his relief will be shortlived because he has to worry about and figure out how the NBA’s 2020-21 season will look – when it will start, when it will end, how many games will be played, what revenue will look like and, looming significant above all those questions, where games will be played.
As other team leagues and conferences try to figure out how to play a season, it’s become clear a bubble environment with rigorous testing and mandated social distancing and mask-wearing policies is the safest way to play games.
Silver’s difficult task is navigating that: find a way to play games, create revenue and protect players and staff.
In recent interviews, National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts, who has been steadfast about safeguarding player health, strongly suggests a bubble environment should be in place next season.
“Right now I don’t see how sports can be played outside of a bubble concept,” Roberts told Sports Illustrated. “I don’t see that, given the state of where we are, given the absence of a vaccine. Because as long as this thing spreads the way it spreads, the only way you can stop the spread from impacting their ability to perform, and this is at any job, is to isolate. Keep people separated and maintain as much distance as possible.
“Now, having said that, do I think our guys are going to be in a bubble for six or seven months? Hell no. It’s not going to happen.”
How does next season happen? Various ideas have been floated, including starting the season in a bubble, playing for two months, taking a few weeks off and then returning for another twomonth segment in a bubble to conclude a regular season.
Sixty days in a bubble playing every other day plus an occasional back-toback would allow a team to play 35 games in one bubble segment and 35 in another bubble segment and begin the playoffs. That would allow a 70-game season, which would satisfy the regional sports and national TV networks.
Another idea that has been suggested is bubble pods (Roberts referenced that possibility in a SiriusXM radio interview) throughout the country – in the West, Southwest, East, Southeast, midAtlantic and Midwest. A lot of bubbles right there, but the league has shown an ability to pull off something so bold.
The NBA would like to get back on its normal calendar at some point, perhaps starting its 2021-22 season in October. That would mean finishing 2020-21 no later than July while keeping in mind USA Basketball’s desire to send the best American NBA players to the Tokyo Olympics (July 23-Aug. 8) next summer.
While starting next season in December is preferable, it might not be realistic considering the two Finals participants will play into October.
Next season will require another set of sacrifices from teams and players, including financial.
Teams and players took a financial hit this season, and that was with fans at games creating ticket and in-game revenue for about three-quarters of the season. Silver said revenue from games generates approximately 40% of basketball-related income, which the league and players split just about evenly. A full season without fans could equal a loss of about $3 billion.
Save for the league’s handling of the China controversy – and the NBA is not the only one trying to balance business with human rights issues – Silver has been a strong and decisive leader during a turbulent time.
Completing this season will be an incredible achievement for Silver, his staff, teams and players.
And as soon it’s done, he has next season to keep him occupied day and night.