NBA’S ‘iffy’ bubble is the best that we’ve got
League trying to show it can resume season safely
Getting sports back in the middle of a pandemic was always going to be complicated.
It was always going to be risky.
It was always going to be ripe for debate.
So it was always going to involve someone like Justise Winslow.
One of the newest Memphis Grizzlies became the first Grizzlies player to publicly question the NBA'S Disney World “bubble” concept last week. Rather bluntly, too.
“This (expletive) ain't even bout basketball or our safety anymore. All About The Benjamins baby,” Winslow posted to his Instagram page, and tagged the NBA and National Basketball Players Association to be sure they heard him.
“Not sure if they really care if we get corona.”
Peel back the layers of Winslow's criticism, and it highlights the dilemma that's playing out in real time as every league and team and athlete begins to return to their playing fields and arenas and courts with COVID-19 still spreading. How much risk is too much risk?
The answer might not be the same for the NFL as it is for college football. It might not be the same for Memphis 901 FC as it is for the Memphis Grizzlies.
It might not be the same for Justise Winslow as it is for Ja Morant.
But if one of the answers isn't the NBA bubble, what is the answer?
If the NBA can't resume its season playing in a campus environment isolated from friends and family, with frequent testing and oversight, what does that mean for the NFL'S plans to play in home stadiums this fall?
If the NBA can't finish the season because it can't avoid a coronavirus outbreak, what hope is there for college sports with athletes in a much larger campus environment?
If the cohesive approach the NBA took with the NBPA leads to too much dissent, what might happen to Major League Baseball now that it turned this pandemic into a labor dispute?
If the NBA bubble plan isn't the answer, if a schedule of games in a controlled setting with no fans in attendance can't be completed, what on earth can be done?
Because the NBA bubble plan seems to be the best plan we've got right now.
The latest data, and Dr. Anthony Fauci's recent seal of approval for the plan, suggests as much.
Horse racing and NASCAR each have returned in varying forms, without fans in attendance, and done so with minimal issues thus far. But neither sport involves contact between humans.
UFC has dealt with positive COVID-19 tests, and the PGA Tour had its first positive tests in recent days; both entities are still forging on with events. But neither are team sports.
Novak Djokovic, on the other hand, was one of a number of tennis players
who tested positive for COVID-19 after participating in controversial events with fans in Serbia and Croatia. They had to be canceled after a coronavirus outbreak attributed, at least in part, to lax health protocols. Djokovic also was photographed recently with Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, who reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.
College sports, meanwhile, gathered momentum until June arrived and college football players actually began returning to campus.
No University of Memphis or University of Tennessee football players or staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, but more than 50 have been quarantined at Clemson and LSU. Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas all have dealt with positive tests as well.
Houston, Boise State and Kansas State are among the schools to shut down or alter their return-to-campus plans because of positive COVID-19 tests.
The hope, of course, is that these positive test results are the result of the protocols put in place. That the initial positives today pave the way for smoother testing results as the college football season approaches two months from now. That's the plan, at least.
Hope, in this case, is the only option for colleges and franchise owners facing the risk of losing millions of dollars in revenue if there aren't fans in the stands or, worse yet, no sports at all.
But hope also exacerbates the risk of bringing back sports this soon, especially if an athlete or a coach, or a person they come in contact with, contracts a serious case of COVID-19. It doesn't eliminate the risk that comes with knowing more than 123,000 people have died from COVID-19 in this country as of Tuesday.
Neither does the NBA'S plan.
It's complicated, it's risky and it relies on a group of millionaires staying within the property limits of Disney World for months at a time. It's perfectly reasonable to question the plan's viability like Winslow and Kyrie Irving and Dwight Howard have, or to decide not to play like the Washington Wizards' Davis Bertans or Portland Trail Blazers' Trevor Ariza, or Los Angeles Lakers guard Avery Bradley.
But if the NBA can't make it work, if this plan with a bubble and a robust testing apparatus doesn't create a safe environment, what chance do the NFL or college sports or high school sports stand?
So Winslow is right to be “a little iffy about Orlando.”
That's what he said in a subsequent NBA TV interview last week as a result of his Instagram post. He explained that his apprehension was because of COVID-19 concerns and what was best for the national social justice movement taking place at the moment.
Unfortunately, “iffy” might be the best we got right now.