After an eternity without sports, it is finally time to find out once and for all who will be the NBA champions of the 2019-2020 season. The NBA is back! The NBA season was postponed on March 11th due to the coronavirus outbreak. Games were canceled, teams were not allowed to participate in any team events, basketball was on hold… But not anymore. The NBA will finish the rest of the season in a bubble on the Disneyworld campus in Orlando, Florida.
22 teams have been living inside the bubble since July, and they plan to stay there until October or until their team has been eliminated. Inside the bubble, players must follow strict guidelines to prevent catching the virus, including wearing a mask, social distancing in interviews, and most importantly, not leaving the bubble for takeout or going to a nightclub.
Players, coaches, reporters, and team owners are required to take a test frequently. The teams have been inside the bubble for almost two months, and there have been no confirmed cases for the virus. Lisa Salters, an ESPN reporter currently living in the bubble, said, “It's not only the happiest place on earth, it's the safest place on earth.”
Daily life for the players includes waking up early for breakfast, reporting to practice or shootaround, interviews, playoff games if their team has a game, more interviews, then sleep. Chris Mannix is a CNN reporter currently living inside the bubble. When describing the players lifestyle, he said, “It's like rise, wash, repeat, like every single day. It's just going to different practices or different games, but your days start early, and they end late.”
22 teams first entered the bubble, and now they are down to four teams. It is an exciting race to the finish line to see who takes home the 2019-2020 NBA championship.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Rowe