The bubble is the real MVP of this NBA season

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — The bubble hasn’t bur st .

And the finish line is in sight.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledges that he had doubts if this was even possible. So did many players. Racial injustice protests were happening around the country and coronavirus positivity rates were skyrocketing in Florida when the NBA moved into Walt Disney World — the league calls it a campus, everyone else calls it a bubble — three months ago. It wasn’t a stretch to think it was only a matter of time before trouble started.

Never happened. The NBA got the games in and kept the virus out. Players managed to find a balance between what they felt were their basketball obligations and social responsibilities.

This season, a year that was longer than a year and difficult in almost every imaginable way, is nearing an end; the Los Angeles Lakers have a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals over the Miami Heat, with a potential title-clincher in Game 5 coming Friday ni ght .

“The job’s not done,” Lakers forward LeBron

James said.

He’s right, on many levels. The NBA came here to crown a champion; that hasn’t happened yet. Players came here to use their platform to fight against racial inequality and voter suppression; those efforts continue. And the coronavirus pandemic rages on; no end in sight there, either. Outside the bubble, problems reign.

Inside the bubble, things are not perfect. It has not been easy. Often, it was not fun.

But it worked.

“I wanted everybody to have perspective on how difficult this is, how extraordinary of an experience all of this is,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Being part of this bubble, being here for 80-plus days, surviving all of it and earning the right to compete for an NBA title.”

When the Lakers got to Lake Buena Vista, there were 22 teams in the bubble — more than 1,300 people in all, teams living in three different hotels, crossing paths at times. Social distance guidelines and protocols are followed and people are tested daily.

Though there is no retreating to familiar surroundings to escape setbacks, failures on the court or to go recharge their batteries, players are able to talk about their top priority: social justice. They talk about affecting change. White players talk about why it matters; Black players do the same, some at every opportunity.

Only two teams remain, and they’re still talking about the same things. Heat All-Star Bam Adebayo ends every media session the same way: “Black Lives Matter, people.” He says it because he believes America still needs that reminder.

“What’s important to our players is important to us, but it wasn’t just our players,” Silver said. “The players know, and the NBA community knows, there is a long history in this league of fighting for social justice, for racial equality. And it seemed appropriate.”

They put Black Lives Matter on the courts. They put it on jerseys. When players felt the message wasn’t getting through, they shut down play — stopping for three days during the playoffs. Some players were willing to go home to make the ultimate statement. Things nearly came apart in a threehour meeting.