The ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ power of players in one placeīattling Covid-19 wasn’t the only issue permeating that first night of games back on July 30. In a sharp contrast to the outbreaks that hobbled other leagues, the NBA season concluded October 11 with a remarkable number of Covid-19 cases: zero. And it wasn’t perfect, with some players frustrated at being isolated from family and friends, and others forced to quarantine after inadvertently or intentionally leaving the bubble.īut it worked. Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times/ReduxĬreating the setup at Disney reportedly cost the league an estimated $170 million. Michele Roberts, executive director of the NBA players' union, photographed on Aug. “It sounded so simple and it was working in other environments…the question was how do we take that quarantine and be able to do it in a group context.” “I had very quickly grown to understand the importance of isolation, quarantine…social distancing and using masks,” Roberts, who was set to retire from the NBPA but stayed on to help confront Covid, told Sports Illustrated. The plan detailed everything from sanitizing basketballs and covering referees’ whistles to catch spittle, to setting daily testing and isolation guidelines. Players would live, play and practice there, in closely monitored isolation, from July to October. Twenty-two of the league’s 30 teams - those within six games of a postseason berth on the day play was suspended - went into that bubble, a closed campus at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando. Their work culminated in a 100-plus-page document outlining a six-phase plan to transition into and out of the bubble, where the full season would be played. Roberts and Paul spent months working with Silver and other league officials - along with legal, medical and business experts - to discuss the daunting details, from players’ personal concerns to Covid protocols to financial considerations. Yet just as soon as the league paused the season, an even more challenging decision presented itself: how to start it up again. “You have the league and players, the team ownership interested in ticket and sponsorship revenue, smaller markets who have different financial considerations, the networks, the events.” “Adam had to gain consensus from a group of so many stakeholders - it must have been like herding cats,” said Andrew Brandt, host of the podcast “Business of Sports” and executive director at Villanova University’s Moorad Center for Sports Law. Within hours the league announced the decision to delay. Then came the news that Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert had tested positive. ![]() Silver spent much of March 11 conferring with medical experts, Roberts, team owners and others on how to react to the rapidly worsening pandemic, according to USA Today. Paul George #13 of the LA Clippers arrives during practice as part of the NBA Restart 2020 on Jin Orlando, Florida. “It takes a lot of courage - and a lot of risk-taking.” ![]() “ we didn’t know half of what we know now about this virus, yet you have to make decisions about how you’re going to move forward,” Giorgio said. The trio of NBA leaders now found themselves facing dual crises: How to safely return to play during a global pandemic while confronting a national reckoning on race? But just as those plans were taking shape, the May 25 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer sparked massive social justice protests across the country and throughout the league. Two National Basketball Players Association leaders, President Chris Paul and Executive Director Michele Roberts, along with Silver, then had to find a way to keep players safe - pulling together a team of experts across various fields to create some kind of “bubble” isolation zone that would prove wildly successful. But at the time, he was the first to upend a league’s delicately balanced ecosystem of stakeholders with vested interests, from arena sponsors to broadcast networks to the players themselves. Nine months later, it’s clear NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s decision to suspend play was prescient. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver attends Game 2 of basketball's NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat on Friday, Oct.
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