The NBA Bubble has brought back some excitement during this terrible, life-changing pandemic. After 5 long months, it has allowed us to be able watch the best basketball players in the world compete in a safe and protected environment.
Since the NBA was called off on March 11, 2020, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has tried his very best to make sure the league was up and running to finish off the 2019-20 season. Around the end of June, Adam Silver put out there that a plan has been made where the NBA players can play in a safe environment called the NBA Bubble. All of the NBA players who were able to and chose to play in the Bubble would stay at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.
There were a couple of players, such as Avery Bradley, Trevor Ariza, and Kyrie Irving, who all opted out of playing in the Bubble for safety reasons. All players were required to go by themselves which means they wouldn’t be able to see any family for 1-3 months. Players still have to wear masks wherever they are in the Bubble unless you are playing in the game. Nobody is allowed to leave once entered the NBA Bubble unless it is for a family emergency. There have been multiple NBA Players, such as Zion Williamson, Lou Williams, and Mike Conley, who have left for that reason. If anyone leaves the Bubble without notice to the NBA front office, they will have to quarantine for 2 weeks and will be suspended 8 games. There has been one player, Richaun Holmes, who did that on the very first day. During the 2nd round of the playoffs vs the Los Angeles Lakers, a player named Danuel House from the Houston Rockets snuck a girl into his hotel and was caught up. He was told to flee the campus for disobeying NBA Bubble conduct. The next day, his team was knocked out of the playoffs.
All of the 22 NBA teams invited to play were all either in the playoffs already or had a chance to get themselves into the playoffs. Each team played 3 scrimmages to get a feel for the game again, then played 8 seeding games where some teams were fighting to stay or get into the playoffs. The Phoenix Suns came into the Bubble as the 11th seed and had a very, very low chance to get into the playoffs, stated by ESPN. They would go on to absolutely shock all of their doubters and go a perfect 8-0 in those seeding games. Unfortunately, they would barely miss the playoffs as they needed either the Portland Trail Blazers or the Memphis Grizzlies to lose their last game and they both ended up winning. For the seeding games, they announced Damian Lillard as MVP for being the best player during those 8 games. He had a historic run that saw him put up 40 one night, 50 the next, then 60 after that. He was going absolutely ballistic on the court.
The playoffs have been going on for almost a month now and it has come down to the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. In the west, the Los Angeles Lakers have emerged to the Western Conference Finals and on 9/15/2020 we will watch as the Los Angeles Clippers and the Denver Nuggets battle it out in an anticipated game 7. The winner will advance to play the Lakers.
The NBA Bubble has brought some life back to the world during this tragedy. It also started to bring some light into sports returning, which now we have all sports playing again. This plan will go down as one of the best sports events to ever happen in sports history.
