Welcome to Around the Realm, where we look at the top news stories from around the league. If I missed any notable stories, feel free to discuss in the comments!
The Bubble took a toll on everyone
The NBA Bubble was an unmitigated success. Players were safe, the season was able to finish, and a champion was crowned. But the players will not be eager to repeat the experience, according to a profile in the Los Angeles Times.
It’s a shared sentiment among players here in the bubble that the experience was too difficult, too disruptive and too isolating to replicate.
It’s probably been the most challenging thing I’ve ever done as far as a professional, as far as committing to something and actually making it through, Lakers star LeBron James said before the NBA Finals. But I knew when I was coming what we were coming here for. I would be lying if I sat up here and knew that everything inside the bubble, the toll that it would take on your mind and your body and everything else, because it’s been extremely tough.
It’s an in-depth look at the experience of the bubble, talking to plenty of players, Michele Roberts of the NBPA, and Adam Silver.
We have no idea what next season will look like, but another bubble setup seems very unlikely.
76ers add to their front office
The Philadelphia 76ers are adding two new members to their front office. According to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly is adding Peter Dinwiddie and Prosper Karangwa to Brand’s staff.
The expectation is that #IndianaPacers senior vice president of basketball operations Peter Dinwiddie and #OrlandoMagic director of scouting Prosper Karangwa will join the #Sixers front office to work with general manager Elton Brand, according to multiple league sources.
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) October 16, 2020
Brand has struggled and was expected to bring in additional help. There were expectations that he could be seeking a bigger name to help run the day to day GM responsibilities. It remains to be seen if he’ll continue adding.
It’s worth noting that Karangwa is likely filling the role left vacant when Philly’s previous Director of Scouting, Phil Jabour, left to join Monte McNair’s staff.
What are alternative ideas to a second bubble? Things might not be back to normal by next year.
A realm?
A realm means the kings should rule. 😉
I smell elderberries.
That’s because your mother was a hamster!
I imagine they’re exploring every idea. I think they want games in arenas even if capacity is limited or nonexistent.
A vaccine.
I wonder who disliked that…
An anti-vaxer, flat-Earter, pizza-gater?
Aren’t those all the same person?
edit – wrong thread
Realistically, if the plan is to start in the dead of winter, and not run another bubble, we’re going to end up with a lot of very sick millionaires. You can’t let the hoi polloi in and just let them breathe while they watch games.
Maybe they’re planning on doing severe attendance limitations, but Covid isn’t your average virus. Apparently, it can live on glass for a month. I don’t know if you can risk your rebounding guys under those circumstances.
The people “living their best lives” right now have made it impossible for life to return to any semblance of normality in the foreseeable future. I’d guess when the fatalities have sailed past 350k in the US by 2021, the NBA might be wary of exposing the product to myriad human vectors.
If they proceed without having a workable bubble as Plan B, I’d be pretty shocked.
This is one stubborn fucking virus, that’s for sure.
RANDOM!
The other day War for the Planet of the Apes came on, and 2/3 of the way through it hit me, this is about a fucking virus!
And the Twilight movies are basically The Bachelorette, in cinema form. 🙂
Jacob: “Edward, mind if I steal Bella for a minute?”
Also, I have a sneaky suspicion that the Zombieland movies are a love letter to the NRA.
…More on the Twilight movies…
My wife and I are like the couple in the TV show Fresh Off The Boat. The Husband LOVES Halloween and his wife hates it/doesn’t understand it.
Anyway, this also applies to horror movies so to try to get my wife to watch horror movies with me I thought I’d get her hooked on a gateway drug…you know, maybe if she watches Twilight and sees Vampires that we could then move on to REAL vampire movies, and so on.
I don’t like the Twilight movies, but figured it would be worth the sacrifice to open the door to actual scary movies in the future.
Well, we watch the first movie and I can tell she’s getting hooked. She doesn’t even get up from the couch to get a snack or anything…just eyes glued to the TV. And this is making me excited that my plan might work after all.
Before the movie is over, I start thinking of what we can watch next now that we’ve cleared the hurdle. Maybe some Dracula movies? The Fearless Vampire Killers? The Omen?? Suspiria???
The movie finally ends and I’m sitting there all smug, thinking my plan has worked. The last credit rolls and she looks at her phone. Then looks up at me and says:
“THERE ARE 4 MORE TWILIGHT MOVIES!”
True Blood?
I would assume their banking on some combination of rapid testing for the limited fans in attendance, strictly enforced mandatory mask requirements, some sort of contact tracing program, and a gradual loosening of the rules on indoor activity.
Unless they’re going to require same day testing for all fans in attendance for games, I don’t know how they do it safely even with mask requirements.
This doesn’t address the bubble issue, but it might address the attendance issue. One thing I bet the NBA might be thinking is going full pay per view. I know they have their TV deals, but they might negotiate a one year reprieve or restructuring of their contracts.
If the NBA was played in empty arenas around the country, would fans buy single game passes to watch on pay per view with home teams getting the viewership revenue? I know the NBA has played around with VR seating. This may something that gets kicked into high gear now. If there were ever a league to embrace full tech in regards to viewing live sports, it would be the NBA.
This is full spitballing, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
Oh, that’s interesting.
This might be an opportunity for Vivek to get involved an use his techie instincts.
To me, this is an awful idea. I wouldn’t buy PPV for Kings games & I don’t watch many non-Kings games.
So do you actually watch the Kings?
See, I only have cable so I can get the Kings games and watch Shawshank Redemption every other Sunday on TNT. If I could PPV choice games, or just buy the whole season, I’d cut the cord and call it a win.
Also, keep in mind, I said the home team would get the revenue. So when the Warriors or Lakers are in town, their viewing audience helps keep the lights on at Golden One. Think of it as an advanced, tiered, and specific League Pass. To me it is a logical solution if fans cannot be in attendance.
League Pass + a chromecast device. Even though I just complained about League Pass sucking, it’s worth putting up with to cut the cord.
But they can’t even get League Pass to work reliably. There’s too many independent contracts for teams getting in the way for a league wide streaming to function properly. Look at what Nuggets fans dealt with last season.
NBA and technology? Dude, have you used the League Pass? NBA is like a tech dinosaur.
Ya I don’t know about these athletes. I spent 4 straight months at sea once when I was 20 years old… and I got paid a whopping $1000 a month for it, and I ate whatever the hell unidentifiable slop the navy gave me each day. No ports, no liberty, just 110 straight days of 18 on, 6 off in the 115 degree Indian Ocean/Persian Gulf.
If someone said to me… you are going to be trapped at Disneyworld for 4 months, and you will have to play basketball… and we are going to pay you $10 million dollars for that…. I can pretty safely tell you that I would have not had much of a problem with it.
Exactly Ialmost…the league needs to be very careful to not alienate its fans.
Well put. It befuddles me why the players complained so much about the bubble. Especially given they were free to opt out at their choosing. No one was forcing them to have an all expenses paid plus salary vacay at Disney World.
Agreed, but you’d also be pretty happy to get off the ship. Just like I wouldn’t want to live 2.5 months out of a hotel room. And resorts fucking suck. Boring as hell. I’m sure some of the players would agree with me on that one.
Oh for sure I was glad to get off the ship. Can’t argue with that. But the notion that “it is too difficult and too isolating to replicate” is what gets me. I mean, if it’s the bubble or do not play… I think I’d take the bubble. It’s not like after we got back to port we didn’t have to turn around and go back out again. I did that for 2.5 straight years…(it was during desert shield and desert storm, and I was on a forward deployed ship out of Yokosuka Japan so we were ALWAYS underway…) and I can promise you I would have given my right arm for a hotel room as opposed to my little rack in a berthing with a couple of hundred other guys. So I think I could handle a few months in a nice private room for millions of dollars.
But I’m not saying it’s ideal… I DO understand that’s it’s a little difficult mentally… especially if they had to face an entire season of it as opposed to just 2 or 3 months. I’m willing to bet there are some kids in the NBA who had less than ideal childhoods who are just glad to be there who would be fine with it. It’s probably just a few spoiled vets who are whining about it.
Let’s be honest, LeBaby complained to the Refs in every game and the Lakers flopped. F them. The most challenging thing you’ve ever done and you recieved an NBA trophy? Get outta here with that junk.
His constant whining on and off the court alone is turning off fans.
I remember MLB had some issues early on with COVID being an issue that derailed a few series. NFL has yet to have any major issues preventing games being played (positive tests, but the games seemed to be moved and the spread was curbed).
Not saying this is not a serious issue that needs to be taken in to account, I just think that it is doable and players/staff can perform their duties with restrictions. As for fans attending…limited seating in certain sections, restricted movement in the arena (like their own mini arena bubble) and hand workers bringing concessions to the seats are all things that could be done.
Not a perfect solution, but something like that could be done to help mitigate the spread.
The issue I see arising from minimal capacity is the policing of attendees from sitting in groups, wearing masks, or sticking to their seats. Couple that with the serving of alcohol and I could see some trouble in the stands. You just know there will be that percentage of people who are going to do whatever the hell they want once they are in the arena.
Yep. You can have whatever rules you want and be as clean as possible, but employees can only do so much. There is unfortunately ALWAYS going to be people that just don’t care and don’t follow the rules, and if they get reminded what the rules are they throw a fit and spew out nonsense, which I think is why a lot of employees don’t confront people who don’t follow the rules that often.
Just a week ago, I went with my brother, Mom and Dad to Apple Hill for a quick day trip, and when we went inside the cafeteria to order lunch, there were signs that said “Mask required for entry” and there were social distancing markers on the floor, but my God, it was SO packed in there that it was impossible to keep a reasonable distance. And many people that walked in literally had no mask on, and no one was there to try to enforce it. It’s just so frustrating because if EVERYONE had just worn a mask at the beginning we would be in so much of a better place than we are now. But unfortunately because there is a sense of “I do what I want” mentality in this country, we’re going to be lagging so far behind other countries in trying to get out of this pandemic.
I couldn’t agree more.
People just don’t get it nor do they want to. I don’t know how obvious it needs to be but the mask is to keep YOU from spreading, not keep you safe like N95. People in general have become so “Me Me ME” that this doesn’t seem to compute with them. You need to help others to help yourself. The prisoners Dilemma proven once again.
Exactly. Me wearing a mask is more about protecting those around me, like the essential workers that risk their health everyday, people with health issues, or the elderly. The dangerous thing is how many people have the virus and are asymptomatic, and how the incubation period can last for a long time before symptoms even show up. Anyone that claims they don’t do anything to protect yourself and others need to do their homework on how wearing masks work.
And that’s the issue with this country…there are far too many people that are selfish and feel entitled because “I live in America and I can do whatever I want. If I get COVID, whatever.” They literally make such a big deal out of wearing a piece of cloth. It’s like, if you can’t even just a wear a mask for 30 minutes at the grocery store, think of all the people that have to wear them and be surrounded by sick people 24/7 at the hospital, and how because many in this country don’t seem to care, they contribute to the problem of overwhelming hospitals and putting stress on those healthcare workers.
Masks keep you from infecting others. In doing so, they reduce the spread of the disease. In doing that, they enable us to live relatively normal lives while we await a vaccine. It’s basic shit man, get with it.
The NBA literally just held 173 games in a bubble that worked due to testing and mask use, meanwhile the white house has had over 30 COVID infections over the same time period, with limited/no mask use.
Facts don’t lie champ.
But the apple donuts are ALMOST worth it, right?
We didn’t get apple doughnuts this time because the line was really long (and we were there on a Friday, not the weekend), but we did pick up some apple pies.
Expect another bubble? I demand it! Demand I say! Only this time everyone has to room at Pop Century and the Animation Resort, the so called $100/night value tier hotels. Better yet, make them all stay at Vista Way.
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