How Has the NBA Bubble Affected the League?
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected major league sports in a variety of ways and by far, the NBA has handled it the best. The 2019–2020 NBA season has set many firsts for not just the league, but for all major league sports. It marked the first time the NBA season was suspended two times in a single season. It also marked the first time that all the teams still eligible to play were all located in a single city and played in arenas near one another. Lastly, it also marked the first time that the NBA has played at Walt Disney World.
The NBA first shut down on March 11, 2020 after Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz contracted the virus. They were originally planning on shutting down for at least 30 days, however, as more players began testing positive, it was clear that it would not be possible, even without fans in attendance. The shutdown started at the conclusion of the Nuggets-Mavericks game the day Gobert tested positive and other games scheduled to play were postponed. After the shutdown started, teams who had come in contact with the Jazz were also asked to self quarantine for 14 days, as per the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). On March 12, the NBA stated that players were no longer allowed to leave their market, or the area the team is located in. Players also were not able to have group practices or workouts and had to talk to their trainers and physicians every day. After a couple days, on March 15, the NBA decided to allow players to leave their markets as long as they quarantined and informed their teams of their whereabouts. On June 4th, the NBA Board of Governors agreed to allow the teams to resume play at Walt Disney World in a “bubble”. This bubble has become known as the NBA Bubble, Orlando Bubble, or the “Disney Bubble”, due to its location in Walt DIsney World, Orlando.
The objective of the bubble is to continue playing basketball, while making sure that all the people involved, be it referees, coaches, or players, are safe. The bubble cost the NBA around $170 million dollars, which was seen as a good investment compared to the amount of money they would have lost if the season had not continued. The season officially resumed on July 22, playing exhibition scrimmages. The 2020 playoffs began on August 17. The bubble comes with a 100 paged rulebook, to stress the importance of keeping everyone involved safe. There are several precautions, such as wearing masks at all times, except for eating and exercise, and isolation periods. There is an anonymous hotline that players are allowed to use to report other players who have broken the rules within the bubble. All players wear MagicBands, which are typically used as hotel keys at Disney World, to determine contact tracing and to check in at any point in time. This way, the NBA can make sure that everyone has been safe and reduce the possibility of people within the bubble getting sick. The bubble has been very effective, with no players testing positive for at least five consecutive weeks. Some players have left the bubble for various reasons, but have not contracted the disease or brought it back to the bubble. After August 30, players were allowed to bring close friends and family to the bubble.
The bubble has also led to social justice activism from players and coaches alike. Play was suspended again following the shooting of Jacob Blake, an innocent black man shot seven times in front of his children by police officers in Wisconsin on August 23, 2020. He is alive, although paralyzed from the waist down. Following the shooting, there were many protests, including within the NBA and their partner league, the WNBA. The Bucks boycotted their game that night against the Magic and led to the postponement of all the games that day, up until August 27. The Lakers and the Clippers both voted to stop playing for the rest of the season, whereas the other teams all wished to continue. They eventually agreed to continue the rest of the season on August 27th. The players and the association both agreed on three more commitments for social justice reform, including converting all their arenas to voting sites and including advertising in each playoff game to raise awareness for voting. They also agreed to create a coalition of players, coaches, and governors to focus on advocating for many things, such as voting, and police and criminal justice reform.
The statistics don’t lie. For the majority of players, they have played better during the bubble thus far, compared to before the shut down. The last time all teams playing in one night scored over 110 points was in 1988. It happened the second day into the bubble (Press). The average points scored by players in the bubble has also gone up. The current leader in the bubble is Donovan Mitchell with an average of 37.6 points per game. Prior to the bubble, he averaged 24 points per game. Rick Carlisle, coach of the Dallas Mavericks, believes that this is due to the fact that the conditions in the bubble are fairly similar and this allows players to compete in a situation that is almost identical to their practices. Carlisle also believes that because there are no longer fans, the players are able to play without the ever present hostile fans taunting them. The last reason Carlisle believes that teams are able to do better is because they are no longer traveling, so players do not have to deal with the constantly shifting between time zones and being tired after their flight (Press).
However, as the amount of points being scored has increased significantly, so has the number of fouls. Last season, there was an average of 48.1 fouls being called per game (Dubin). In the bubble, it has risen to 52 fouls on average. This is not necessarily good. There are many reasons that could come into play as to why there has been an increase in fouls throughout the league in the bubble. First of all, it is likely that the referees are being more cautious due to the fear of spreading COVID-19, even though everyone has been getting tested consistently. This could lead to them calling fouls over things that they were not likely to call before the pandemic. For example, being more weary of when players are touching each other. Also, due to the lack of fans in the stands, the referees are also able to focus on the game more and are able to concentrate on it and ensure that they are making the right calls without being distracted by the fans constantly pestering them. Lastly, it could simply be because the players are playing more aggressively in the bubble.
Overall, the bubble has generally benefited the NBA league seeing as they are the only sports league to properly contain the pandemic. Although it is needed with the other leagues as well, it will be very hard to replicate and find an area large enough for all the league members along with their families and guests with room to sleep comfortably. It is likely that the NBA will continue in this bubble until it is safe to go back to everyone’s franchise market. Moving to the bubble was a good decision for the NBA because they were able to escape the consequences of COVID-19 that many other leagues were not able to.
“2020 NBA Bubble.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Aug. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_NBA_Bubble.
Dubin, Jared. “It’s Early … But There Have Been A Lot Of NBA Foul Outs.” FiveThirtyEight, 30 Oct. 2019, 2:28 PM, fivethirtyeight.com/features/its-early-but-there-have-been-a-lot-of-nba-foul-outs/#:~:text=Last%20season%2C%20the%20league%20averaged,rate%20of%20offensive%20foul%20calls.
“NBA Lockout.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 July 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_lockout.
Press, Associated. “Scoring in NBA’s Bubble Reaching New Heights.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 9 Aug. 2020, www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29628560/scoring-nba-bubble-reaching-new-heights.
“Season Leaders.” NBA Stats, stats.nba.com/leaders/?SeasonType=Regular+Season&Season=2019–20.
“Suspension of the 2019–20 NBA Season.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Aug. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_the_2019%E2%80%9320_NBA_season.
Swanson, Mirjam. “Why so Many Fouls in the NBA Bubble? Theories Abound.” The Orange County Register, 6 Aug. 2020, www.ocregister.com/2020/08/06/why-so-many-fouls-in-the-nba-bubble-theories-abound/.
TalkBasket.net. “How Has The NBA Bubble Affected The Stats?” TalkBasket.net, 21 Aug. 2020, www.talkbasket.net/100033-how-has-the-nba-bubble-affected-the-stats.
Wojnarowski, Adrian. “Questions Percolating in the NBA Bubble.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 8 Aug. 2020, www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/nbareturn29616991/questions-percolating-nba-bubble.
