Snitch hotlines, waffles and lots of ping pong: the strange world of the NBA bubble
In order to keep players and staff insulated from the Covid-19 pandemic, the league will resume operations at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Disney World, Florida when the season restarts on Thursday. The NBA sees the venue as ideal as it has a number of courts to host games and practices as well as hotels and restaurants to keep the players housed and fed, and leisure facilities to keep them entertained. Keeping the players in one place means they can avoid the cross-country travel that is usually a part of the season, and has already caused problems for baseball when MLB started last week.
There is, of course, the small problem that Florida is a global hotspot for Covid-19 with the state regularly recording 10,000 positive tests a day in recent weeks, but the NBA is confident its bubble will stay intact. Major League Soccer has started its own tournament at the same venue and, although two teams dropped out early on after positive tests, things have gone fairly smoothly since.
The format
The NBA was midway through its season when Covid-19 struck and the league shut down. Twenty two of the league’s 30 teams have been invited to Disney World to complete the season – the 16 franchises in the playoff places and another six who are still in contention to grab a spot. Each team will play eight “regular season” games to decide the playoff places and seedings before the playoffs start in mid-August. The NBA finals, to decide the league champion, will be completed by 13 October, eight days before the 2020-21 season was due to tip-off (it will now, hopefully, start in December).
Testing
Players were tested twice in the first 36 hours after arriving at Disney World, and will be tested “regularly” for the duration of their stay. Coaches, staff, media members and workers at Disney World will also be tested.
The NBA has said that “a small or otherwise expected number” of positive tests will not shut down the season, which suggests the league expects at least a few people to come down with Covid-19 over the next few weeks. A positive test will result in individuals being placed in isolation, on the Disney World campus, for a minimum of 14 days.
Players will need to isolate upon their return if they leave the bubble. Three players so far have broken the bubble – the Rockets’ Bruno Caboclo claimed he did not know he was not allowed to leave his room, while Richaun Holmes and Lou Williams both left to grab chicken wings. Williams had actually left on an approved trip to attend a family funeral but had to isolate after going to a strip club. Brilliantly, he insisted he was going to the club because of their excellent wings, which are named after him, rather than the more obvious reason. All three players were told to isolate in their hotel rooms for 10 days. Chicken wings are available on room service.
And if players weren’t paranoid enough already as an invisible disease stalks the country, the NBA has set up a “snitch hotline” for those who want to report on people contravening the Covid-19 guidelines. The league apparently has a few budding spies in its ranks too: the hotline has already received “multiple tips” and the season hasn’t even started yet.
Entertainment
There’s more than Stasi cosplay to keep the players entertained though. Unsurprisingly – given that Disney World is now a crucible of very large, freakishly talented, hyper competitive, alpha males – a plethora of competitions have sprung up.
Players have been going head-tohead in golf, cards, video games, ping pong (no doubles allowed!), spikeball, kickball, cornhole, beach volleyball (being 7ft tall is helpful here), and … fishing.
Furkan Korkmaz’s efforts at golf offer a reassuring example that even world-class athletes have their weak spots.
Each team has their own 24-hour dining room, and there are a limited number of restaurants on the campus – ESPN reports that Rix Sports Bar and Grill is particularly popular with players and staff. Room service meals –Micky Mouse waffles anyone? – meanwhile, got rather less glowing reviews.
And then there is the sex and drugs, one of which will be easier to find than the other. Players will not be allowed to have family or partners at Disney World until the end of August, but, possibly aware that games of ping pong may get a little tiresome after a while, the NBA will not test for marijuana or other recreational drugs for the rest of the season.
“When you think about it, it’s damn near inhumane for them not to have marijuana,” Al Harrington, a former NBA player who now runs a marijuana business, told the Athletic. “These guys are going to need something to get away. Normally in the course of the season, the playoffs, if you have a bad game, you have a bad turnover to lose the game, you get to go home and see your kids. In this bubble situation, you can’t get away from the bad game.”
Oh, and players are also free to try their hand at basketball too if they want. The NBA will even pay them for that one.