The only sport I follow on a daily basis is tennis, and I’m halfway looking forward to the impending trainwreck situation in New York when tennis players from around the world arrive for a month-long series of tournaments. Allegedly, the US Tennis Association has taken pains to create a makeshift “bubble” atmosphere for player safety. Well, the USTA might want to take notes on how the NBA is handling their “bubble” because it seems completely shambolic. The NBA is trying to recover part of their season by bringing as many players as possible to Orlando, Florida, creating a bubble at the DisneyWorld hotels and parks and hoping that grown-ass men make good life choices.
So far, a couple of players have tested positive for the virus just from within the bubble. That’s not counting Russell Westbrook, who tested positive before he even came to Orlando, and that doesn’t count the more than 25 NBA players who were corona-positive pre-bubble. There’s extensive, daily testing in Orlando once players come into the bubble. But journalists are there too, and they’re documenting what is increasingly looking like a WILD social experiment about rich young men and whether they care about their own health and safety or the health and safety of others. Speaking of social experiments, the NBA set up a hotline so that players can snitch on their fellow players about who is not adhering to Bubble Rules.
It seems like some NBA players are taking coronavirus precautions very seriously in Orlando. According to Sham Charania of The Athletic, there have been “multiple” calls to a hotline the NBA set up to anonymously report social-distancing violations at the NBA bubble at the Walt Disney World resort, where 22 teams are currently preparing to restart the season on July 31.
“Some players have received warnings from violations, sources said, as league ensures social distancing and mask protocols on campus,” Charania reported on Tuesday of the calls, made to what has become known as the “snitch hotline.”
While inside the Disney World campus, players are not allowed to visit each other’s hotel rooms but can socialize under restrictions. According to The Ringer, after teams arrived last week, players were immediately quarantined in their hotel rooms for 36 to 48 hours until they tested negative for coronavirus twice. Yet, two players — Richaun Holmes and Bruno Caboclo — were placed in quarantine a second time after breaking rules, according to ESPN.
Holmes, who plays for the Sacramento Kings, crossed quarantine lines to pick up a food delivery, he said in a statement. His mother playfully teased him for breaking quarantine in a post to Twitter.
I can only imagine the wonderful sports journalism that will come out of this period. I’m imaging a 30 for 30 documentary called The Bubble Snitch, at the very least. And honestly, I think it’s kind of great that the NBA set up a hotline and that players are using it?? That’s amazing. I would have thought that dudes would adhere to a code of silence about their teammates or friends breaking the rules. I’m pleasantly surprised that some of these guys are taking it seriously! LeBron James didn’t even bring his personal chef to the bubble!!
An NBA bubble story in four acts: pic.twitter.com/JU06QmTHqr
— 𝗧𝗔𝗬𝗟𝗢𝗥 𝗙𝗜𝗘𝗨𝗫 (@tayfieux) July 13, 2020
I already got invited to the bubble. Yea the season definitely ending early. 😭😭😭
— Hiiiiiii (@Ugly_Anna) July 12, 2020
Photos courtesy of Instagram.
Sometimes I don’t know whether to scream-cry or scream-laugh. It’s usually a difficult combination of both.
WORD.
Right?!!!!! So much.
Incredibly wealthy, young (so therefore mentally invincible) and healthy men make poor decisions?
Inconceivable!
A number of guys in that bubble have already had it and have been participating in medical research on antibodies for months. Others are taking their playoff runs very seriously and don’t want to mess with that. And then there are some idiots. This is going to be fascinating.
There are way too many teams there! The sad thing for sports is the NBA is likely the team sport best suited to playing in these kinds of conditions with relatively tight rosters. I cannot believe hockey and football are even considering it.
Every professsional sport that’s opened (soccer/baseball/tennis/basketball) has had this issue. With top notch doctors and daily testing.
But sure open up all schools and teachers can deal. It’s going to be a epic disaster
I know, right? How can the chronically underfunded education system (thanks GOP) possibly be able to do this remotely right? Chicago teachers are stepping to demand that the school year start online and I think that is the only possible safe option at this point.
The GOP tweeted a nasty message to teachers this morning telling them that parents can’t go back to work unless the kids are in school and it is the duty of the teachers to reopen the schools and save the economy. Sure, this is all the fault of teachers.
Imagine if the GOP hadn’t underfunded education and overcrowded classrooms for the last thirty or forty years. We might actually have an educated populace who understood science, followed mask-wearing and social distancing, and we could open schools. I’m just going to have to live in that imaginary world in my head, I guess.
You said it all ClaireB
But I’ll add one thing that you implied: If we had the right student/teacher ratio we may have been able to design a socially distant classroom experience.
I hate this so much. There will be no daily testing and bubble for the teachers. It’s going to be a nightmare, and a lot of people are going to get sick, suffer, and possibly die.
A player posted what the league is provided for meals daily.
Let’s just say I don’t blame Richaun at all for ordering from Postmates.
I read the article that was trying to get you to feel sorry or outraged for the players because of the food they were getting. You cannot make me feel sorry or bad about multimillionaires not getting gourmet meals for a few months while being completely catered and coddled too and playing a sport for a living during a pandemic when people are literally worrying about how to even get their next meal or pay their mortgage or electric bill.
Agreed Mel! And then compare the NBA standard of living and compare it to the “Wubble” of the WNBA and it’s disgraceful.
NOT “snitching.” White people would be called “whistleblowers.”
Good point.
A very good, and very important point. Choice of words, like this, matters so very much. Thanks @Doxie for pointing this out!
Seeing LeBron’s face made me smile. I’ve really come to like the guy and it will be very interesting to see how this all unfolds. What a world.
I remember at first he was saying “I’m not playing without fans in the the stands”. He’s certainly changed his tune…which is good.
At least their wives know where they are 🙄
Do they really???
Apparently they’re with Ugly Anna.
Can they see their kids…?
Stupidity is truly everywhere. I just don’t get it !!!!!
I suspect that more than a few of them are smart enough to realize they only have a season or two left of playing in them and won’t let the ones who think they are invincible blow their last few earnings years…
Why does this training or whatever. We’d to happen in a state with an uncontrolled outbreak?
Why did NBA officials think that a group of wealthy and rich men who regularly engage in risky behaviors (unprotected sex, etc) would follow quarantine rules?
This is a disaster. The season should just be cancelled until 2022.
Daily testing? For sports players?
I work where Senior citizens live, and we can’t even get decent access to tests for staff or residents. But sure, let’s burn through them by the box load for athletes.
The NBA is aware of the inequality of testing their players with such frequency while people in FL are having a testing shortage and have donated tests to the citizens as well.
I’m sure they are whistle-blowing on each other! A lot of money and success is riding on keeping themselves healthy, and I’d be mad too if people were risking it for food deliveries or to have visitors.
That being said, I saw a picture of the food they were eating with some caption along the lines of “Fyre Festival part 2” and they weren’t totally wrong.
Can just imagine Tristan to Khloe..I’ve got the covid baby I can’t come home (sound of 5 thots in the background)…them nurses baby
Oh ok Tristan 😉