I'm really happy Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, is getting kudos over his ability to keep his players safe. He and everyone who has worked hard not to test positive for Covid in Orlando deserve it. But I am having trouble with this gleeful rejoicing over "The Bubble."
Because, when it comes down to it, that's what it is -- a bubble. It doesn't reflect the real world. It doesn't reflect what's happening in society or, for that matter, mere miles from the area Disney has partnered with the NBA to cordon off from Orlando and Central Florida.
Florida had its worst day for infections this week. Fifty of the 186 people who died Monday because they could no longer breathe were from Central Florida, many not far from the five-star sterilization of the NBA family, of which I'm proud to be a part of -- even peripherally now
And while it's great to laud the league for its proactive measures and prescient planning for getting part of America back to work safely, it's also fair to ask if playing in a hot-spot state experiencing so much grief and death and poor health right now is a little tin-eared.
I'm not sure the "Bubble" should be the standard for which each league strives; it’s a nearly hermetically sealed, cordoned-off chunk of property whose residents --- from players and coaches to my beloved sports-media brethren -- participate daily in cognitive dissonance.
We are told on television the players "will be fighting for social justice while also fighting for a championship.”
No, they won’t. They’ll be wearing socially-woke T-shirts and playing basketball. Which is fine. Many have already demonstrated and protested before the bubble.
No, they won’t. They’ll be wearing socially-woke T-shirts and playing basketball. Which is fine. Many have already demonstrated and protested before the bubble.
But let's not make this more than it actually is: owners and players recovering lost millions by honoring network TV partnerships worth billions. It's about getting closure to a fascinating regular season halted by a global pandemic. It's about feigning normalcy amid madness.
This isn't a slam on the league or anyone participating in the success of protecting the NBA Bubble from Corona-induced catastrophe; it's merely pointing out that in order to preach how great a distraction LeBron and Giannis will be, you also have to participate in denial.
You have to put aside the reality of thousands of Americans, including the four dozen who died on Monday in Central Florida, cannot breathe because they don't have a bubble to save them from their lungs failing them. You have to trick yourself that basketball matters right now.
You have to tell yourself (as a player, coach, trainer, league or team employee, sports journalist) that what you're doing inside the bubble is more worthwhile than what you could be doing outside the bubble. And maybe it is. Still, there has to be some dissociation.
Because while in NBA World 0 for 344 in Coronavirus tests is cause for virtual fist-bumping and contactless celebration, in Outside the Bubble World most of America doesn’t care whether Zion Williamson now must undergo four days of quarantine for his 11-day bubble absence.
Many years ago I took a test while applying for a job as a high school sports writer. I had to put together a group of facts about a basketball game that included spectacular performances, a packed house and, oh, a fire consuming the gym before the game ended, forcing evacuation
I put the high scorers in the second paragraph and then awkwardly segued into “In the third quarter, a fire that began outside forced both teams and fans to evacuate the gym.” I didn’t deserve to get that job because I neither understand the context nor importance of the news.
Today there is a fire raging outside our locker rooms and fields of play. Covid-19 ignited it. It's undefeated and has no network TV contract. It only wants to attack as many of our immune systems as it can. And most Americans outside the NBA bubble don't have good protocols.
And if we're really going to heap massive praise on a locked-down sports league about to re-start -- amid record-breaking cases and fatalities in many states across the country -- we also need to acknowledge that the good happening in that bubble is not real life; it's sports.
