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<\/p>\nIt\u2019s been more than five years since the first people arrived at Disney World for the NBA bubble. Wednesday marks the anniversary of the first games played there, and the Los Angeles Lakers were crowned champions at the iconic amusement park in October 2020.<\/p>\n
To mark the occasion, I reached out to a few of the players, coaches, NBA executives and journalists who lived the experience as I did. These are our stories.<\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019re all in it together\u2019<\/p>\n
Whether it was LeBron James, the world\u2019s most famous basketball player, or Malinda Adams, super producer for ESPN who does her work behind the camera, for the most part, the rules and conditions were the same. There were differences, of course, but we all were subjected to the same COVID-19 testing and safety protocols and had to stay inside the walls at Disney.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adam Silver, NBA commissioner: I am proud of how the entire NBA community came together to pull off something that had never been done before.\u00a0 Looking back at the bubble \u2014 a name I resisted at the time \u2014 I marvel once again at sports\u2019 unique ability to galvanize people and inspire creativity and innovation, especially during challenging times.<\/p>\n
Mike Breen, play-by-play, ESPN and ABC: The league had their job to do, the media, the players, the coaches, and the referees, too, but there was a bond there that, \u2018Hey, listen, this is a difficult time. This is not the norm. We\u2019re all in uncharted waters, but we\u2019re all in it together.\u2019<\/p>\n
Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez, assistant coach, Denver Nuggets (now head coach, Brooklyn Nets): Going into the bubble, at least you felt like you were entertaining people. You were the only live show in the world.<\/p>\n
Ben Golliver, journalist, Washington Post (and author of \u201cBubble Ball,\u201d a book about our time at Disney): Adam Silver\u2019s \u201ccollaborative\u201d approach to being commissioner really paid dividends in 2020, and the bubble should be remembered as one of the signature moments of his tenure. Without a strong working relationship between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association, the bubble could have popped before it got off the ground or as soon as the players came to terms with being physically trapped in Disney World. Billions of dollars were at stake, and the two sides pulled off the endeavor despite many complications.<\/p>\n
Kyle Goon, journalist, Orange County Register (now columnist for the Baltimore Banner): It\u2019s strange that we created a metaphorical safety net so people could play basketball. But it also was one of the last times I remember when people universally respected COVID as a vital threat.<\/p>\n
Sam Amick, journalist, The Athletic: Once I got past that first week of quarantine, which included a near-ejection for breaking COVID protocols (drinking wine with front-office executives outside of our respective rooms was a no-no), it was honestly a whole lot of fun. We got to watch high-level NBA playoff action up close with a few dozen other media members every night, then type our tales while working at the lakeside office inside the resort where we stayed. Rest, rinse and repeat \u2014 with a whole lot of pickleball played with the NBA officials in between.<\/p>\n
Tim Reynolds, journalist, The Associated Press: If you survived the bubble, you proved your mettle. It was three months away at the most exclusive basketball camp in world history. All we did in there was watch, talk, think, eat, drink and sleep ball. No family, just the fellow residents and games. We watched the world stop while we kept going. It was hard. It was too hard, sometimes. I wanted to go home.<\/p>\n
Daryl Morey, general manager, Houston Rockets (now president of basketball operations, Philadelphia 76ers): A strange combination of The Colosseum for fans outside the bubble and a luxury purgatory for those of us within it. Outside, audiences were entertained by competition in isolation. Inside, players and executives battled opponents and the mental challenge of not being able to leave.<\/p>\n
Marc Spears, journalist and Naismith Hall of Fame inductee, Andscape: The accommodations for the media were mediocre, as we were actually staying in a motel (Oh, it wasn\u2019t THAT bad \u2014 Vardon), which made it hilarious to me that the players were complaining about being in four- and five- star accommodations with the ability to bring a loved one (later during the playoffs). They also had their own chefs and commandeered a few restaurants that media couldn\u2019t go to. To mentally survive, I made my accommodations fit as best as possible for me with things that were important to bringing me joy daily. I had a wine fridge stocked, I had a toaster oven to warm my food, I made my own coffee every day with very good bottled water and I had a speaker for my music. Some referees would come get my coffee.<\/p>\n
Adams, ESPN producer: We did 10 days of quarantine (most only served seven days in quarantine, but Adams and Malika Andrews were there before the players), which was the WORST part of it to me. We only left our room for daily testing and then right back in. We couldn\u2019t even keep our doors open. I did a 5K in my room daily, and I brought my bands and weights from home, thank goodness. We took COVID tests daily, for 108 days straight, and had to follow strict protocols. We also got to test new technology like O\u0304URA rings and KINEXON tracking and tracing devices. So, it was really exciting to be on the front lines of that. In my opinion, we proved that following protocols works. No one got COVID.<\/p>\n
Marc Stein, journalist, New York Times (now publishing on Substack): Five years later, honestly, I would use the same word that I used frequently back then: unmissable. As soon as we started hearing about it, I viewed the bubble as a had-to-be-there assignment, and I\u2019m so grateful in retrospect that I was a resident of the NBA\u2019s first-of-its-kind village for 50-something days \u2026 even though I can also admit that I\u2019m not in a real rush to deal with all those rules, regulations and restrictions again. I\u2019m not sure we\u2019ll ever see the whole league (or two-thirds of it) congregated in one place again to build up to an NBA Finals that takes place in, uh, October.<\/p>\n
Adams: I asked to go. I wanted to work and be a part of history.<\/p>\n
Vardon: So did I.<\/p>\n
Kyle Korver, guard, Milwaukee Bucks (now assistant general manager, Atlanta Hawks): I think the legacy is tied around like, humans can figure things out.<\/p>\n
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Jimmy Butler, then a member of the Miami Heat, speaks to Steve Smith and Jared Greenberg of NBATV after Game 3 of the 2020 NBA Finals. (Jim Poorten \/ NBAE via Getty Images)\u2018An AAU tournament that included NBA players\u2019<\/p>\n
In part because there were no fans, and in part because NBA teams and media don\u2019t typically live together, perhaps never before have reporters gotten quite as close a look at the players they cover as during the bubble.<\/p>\n
Breen: Even without the fans, how hard the players played, how intense those games were, just goes to show you how much they crave and love the competition. I mean, there\u2019s nobody there cheering them on. Some of these guys make these spectacular plays, and there\u2019s no crowd roar. It was odd, but it had zero impact on the player\u2019s intensity, and that wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez: I thought that some of those games were really cool. We got to two Game 7s, and we came back from a 3-1 deficit (against the Utah Jazz). So, for us, it was very special. And we didn\u2019t have enough with the Lakers (in the conference finals). They were very good, ended up winning. But I thought the guys were impressive. Jamal (Murray), Nikola Joki\u0107, the whole group.<\/p>\n
Spears: What doesn\u2019t get talked about enough about the bubble was how amazing the basketball was there. It was truly basketball heaven. We basically were at an AAU tournament that included NBA players. It was absolutely incredible. There were three gyms next to each other, and games being played in two of them. I will never forget seeing Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals and then walking 15 yards to a gym to watch one of the craziest games ever in Game 7 between the underachieving Clippers and the Nuggets. Keep in mind that the media was able to sit close to the floor for games just like it was in the earlier part of my career.<\/p>\n
Vardon: There were a bunch of tables outside the Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs, where the teams stayed. I was throwing a party for my fellow media members, and we had boxes of pizza and endless bottles of wine assembled. We were eating and drinking at dusk when, on a bicycle, wearing a helmet, LeBron James pulled up. \u201cHey, LeBron,\u201d I shouted to the noted wine connoisseur and fellow Akron, Ohio, native, \u201cCome have a drink with us.\u201d \u201cY\u2019all got any tequila?\u201d he countered. A little perplexed and on my heels, I said no, but we had plenty of wine, and good red at that, and added something to the effect of \u201cWhen would we have a chance to have a drink like this?\u201d He wasn\u2019t moved, declared he was looking for tequila and rode his bike back toward the hotel \u2013 the doors opened automatically, and he pedaled through the carpeted hallway. \u2026 I also remember seemingly dozens of players, few if any of them playing for the LA Clippers, gathering around then-Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue to talk and laugh and listen on those same outdoor tables, and then-Nuggets coach Michael Malone, before the Nuggets\u2019 first game, putting name tags on the bench for each player to sit, socially distanced, with his own dedicated water bottle.<\/p>\n
\u2018An inflection point\u2019<\/p>\n
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