"We're going to Disney World!" NBA to resume season July 31 at WDW

bigq

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I’m pretty excited for this. Really hope everyone can stay healthy.
 

Kliq

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Fingers crossed they can still pull the bubble off, but I’m not getting too excited with still a month to go.

I think the NBA is missing a big opportunity not showing some weekday afternoon games when so many people are WFH.
 

JCizzle

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Fingers crossed they can still pull the bubble off, but I’m not getting too excited with still a month to go.

I think the NBA is missing a big opportunity not showing some weekday afternoon games when so many people are WFH.
I don’t follow the Premier League, but it’s been enjoyable having sports on in the background while teleworking. Especially since I only find myself really focusing after i hear a goal. Probably would pay more attention to the Celtics though lol
 

88 MVP

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I can’t wait. If Kemba is healthy I think they are poised to make a run.

The Celtics are 3 games back of Toronto and 2.5 ahead of Miami, so it’s likely that those last 3-4 games will be meaningless tune ups unless Toronto staggers out of the gate.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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You can't take all the cars off the road just because pintos explode. The US is the pinto. The world is driving on ahead. We should be locked in a garage.
LOL. The last Pinto rolled off the assembly line about fourteen years before Kliqster was even in existence. I wonder if he knows what you are referring to without having to Google it.
 
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nighthob

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You can't take all the cars off the road just because pintos explode. The US is the pinto. The world is driving on ahead. We should be locked in a garage.
The US is in a different spot, we can’t just shut up our borders the way that “liberal paradises” did. (The US has tried, but it’s pissing into the wind here. It’s a lot easier to close the borders when you’re Germany.)
 

djbayko

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I agree. I firmly believe that no sport can eradicate the virus. They have to test and remove the positives and play on with the rest. That's what golf is doing.

Frankly, even in the "bubble", players will probably test positive. The NBA must be like, "We spent 550 hours setting up this plan in Florida and now it's on fire. What. The. Fuck."
Well, Florida eventually being on fire was one of the most obvious things ever back when the NBA was putting this plan together. I don't know if they had blinders on or not, but the decision to go there was probably defensible either way: (1) the existence of accommodating facilities, and (2) one of the few local governments that would actually welcome them in the middle of a national shut down.
 
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joe dokes

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The US is in a different spot, we can’t just shut up our borders the way that “liberal paradises” did. (The US has tried, but it’s pissing into the wind here. It’s a lot easier to close the borders when you’re Germany.)
Im not talking about closing any borders. And I'm not talking about "waiting for a vaccine." But the nba, even with its 3000 page manual, is delusional. The *only* thing they've got right-ish is that their plan limits the risk to outsiders.
 

JCizzle

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Im not talking about closing any borders. And I'm not talking about "waiting for a vaccine." But the nba, even with its 3000 page manual, is delusional. The *only* thing they've got right-ish is that their plan limits the risk to outsiders.
I think that’s an unfair assessment. Dr. Fauci disagrees. In your analogy, they are locking the Pinto in a garage (Disney) and just letting it idle.

“Fauci said. "I was very pleased to see that the intent was not reckless at all. They really wanted to make sure that the safety of the players and the people associated with the players was paramount. So I think that you might be able to do something like that with basketball. Could you extrapolate that to some of the other sports possibly? I think they should look at that model, see how it works, and then take it from there. Maybe modifications of that for some of the other sports.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2020/06/13/nba-season-restart-dr-anthony-fauci-backs-league-plan/3183345001/
 
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Euclis20

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That's really it, but the drop off from Philly to Brooklyn (or Orlando) is pretty steep. All season long there have been three groups of playoff teams in the East - Bucks at the top, Celtics/Raptors/Sixers/Heat/Pacers in some order from 2-6, and Nets/Magic at the bottom. Being able to play the bottom group rather than the middle group in round 1 would be huge.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Bundesliga has operated 6 weeks without a bubble and with no outbreaks. Why can it work there and not here?
I spent a week at a South Carolina beach two weeks ago with as much isolation as possible. Driving down Ocean Blvd you couldn’t squeeze more people into the bars at night or more people into the breakfast restaurants in the morning (many over 60)........did not see a single mask. The only place I saw masks were at grocery store and that was by about 40% of the people.

A friend in FL told me similar down on Atlantic Ave in Delray. 30 min to park downtown and every bar slam packed with no masks.

Edit: I’ve shared this experience somewhere ast week.....if I’m repeating myself I apologize.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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Time to Mo Vaughn

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Interesting interview with Dr. Stephen Gonzalez, Assistant Athletics Director for Leadership and Mental Performance at Dartmouth, discussing potential mental health ramifications of the bubble here: https://nypost.com/2020/06/27/nba-players-face-these-mental-health-challenges-in-disney-season-restart/.

Dr. Gonzalez predicts that some players are going to drop out mid-session. Will be interesting to see how they handle it.
That's pretty weak considering it's better than the conditions and with more freedom than most people have been living with since March.
 

johnmd20

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Interesting interview with Dr. Stephen Gonzalez, Assistant Athletics Director for Leadership and Mental Performance at Dartmouth, discussing potential mental health ramifications of the bubble here: https://nypost.com/2020/06/27/nba-players-face-these-mental-health-challenges-in-disney-season-restart/.

Dr. Gonzalez predicts that some players are going to drop out mid-session. Will be interesting to see how they handle it.
This is decidedly not interesting. Every player will be, and have been, facing the same issues as all the other players.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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That's pretty weak considering it's better than the conditions and with more freedom than most people have been living with since March.
Better conditions? Undoubtedly. More freedom? I doubt it. Also, no family members at least through the first round in the playoffs is not something most of us have to go through (for better or for worse).
This is decidedly not interesting. Every player will be, and have been, facing the same issues as all the other players.
Just like quarantine, some players will deal with it better than others. It's a bit different for guys who are super rich and famous and are used to doing whatever they want.

I didn't post the article to say that anyone should feel sorry for the players - after all, they are making a choice and are getting compensated handsomely for it. But they are superstar athletes and they are going into a situation they've never been in before. I'm sure most of the players will do fine but I'm also sure not every player will do fine. YMMV.
 

snowmanny

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I could see someone opting out if a family member got sick. And maybe someone who wasn’t playing.

I would put the over-under on rotational players who are healthy with healthy families opting out at one.
 

Ale Xander

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InstaFace

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Bubble Life just got a lot more interesting. I know this says ungood things about me but I would watch a reality show about J.R. Smith joining the NBA restart or simply a documentary of J.R. navigating a pandemic-laden world in search of truth.
We have some live footage of Smith being told that he can't have any contact with anyone outside the bubble for the duration of the season and postseason.

 

mauf

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That's pretty weak considering it's better than the conditions and with more freedom than most people have been living with since March.
I’d way rather be home with my family than in the “bubble” they’re creating for NBA players, even if the risk associated with both was identical (which of course it isn’t). I’m a little surprised there haven’t been more opt-outs on non-contending teams.
 

johnmd20

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I’d way rather be home with my family than in the “bubble” they’re creating for NBA players, even if the risk associated with both was identical (which of course it isn’t). I’m a little surprised there haven’t been more opt-outs on non-contending teams.
It's incredible how pampered people are these days. Soldiers leave their families, many with young children, for months and years at a time every single year to go to war zones and get sold out to Russia by the President. And they don't get paid millions of dollars to do it.

Asking a player to go to an upscale bubble of comfort for a month or two for a lot of money isn't asking for some grave sacrifice. Plus, players like to play. I am not surprised there haven't been more opt outs, although it is nice every player was given that option. The future of the NBA is at stake here and the players realize this.
 

DJnVa

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I’d way rather be home with my family than in the “bubble” they’re creating for NBA players, even if the risk associated with both was identical (which of course it isn’t). I’m a little surprised there haven’t been more opt-outs on non-contending teams.
I don't know. I get what you're saying, but people HAVE been at home, on different forms of lockdown for 3 months. People want to do things. People want to play. People want to earn money. People want to get away from their kids (kinda kidding, but not really).
 

mauf

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I don't know. I get what you're saying, but people HAVE been at home, on different forms of lockdown for 3 months. People want to do things. People want to play. People want to earn money. People want to get away from their kids (kinda kidding, but not really).
I get it. I’m back at work. But I come home in the evening and have dinner with my family. If my job required me to be away from them for three months, that would suck. And in these crazy times, I would worry a lot about their well-being. If I could keep my job and only forfeit the three months’ pay if I opted out, you’d better believe I’d stay home. I’d probably feel different if I were an NBA player, but if I were on a shitty team, I imagine I’d be tempted to stay home. (The flip side is that players on shitty teams won’t be in the bubble for anything close to three months.)
 

johnmd20

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I get it. I’m back at work. But I come home in the evening and have dinner with my family. If my job required me to be away from them for three months, that would suck. And in these crazy times, I would worry a lot about their well-being. If I could keep my job and only forfeit the three months’ pay if I opted out, you’d better believe I’d stay home. I’d probably feel different if I were an NBA player, but if I were on a shitty team, I imagine I’d be tempted to stay home. (The flip side is that players on shitty teams won’t be in the bubble for anything close to three months.)
NBA careers are short. So I can understand why players would want to maximize their chances to earn.
 

DJnVa

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I get it. I’m back at work. But I come home in the evening and have dinner with my family. If my job required me to be away from them for three months, that would suck. And in these crazy times, I would worry a lot about their well-being. If I could keep my job and only forfeit the three months’ pay if I opted out, you’d better believe I’d stay home. I’d probably feel different if I were an NBA player, but if I were on a shitty team, I imagine I’d be tempted to stay home. (The flip side is that players on shitty teams won’t be in the bubble for anything close to three months.)
A couple things:
1--Families can join them, with precautions, after a period of time. So, yeah, there will be a bit of extended time away from them, and that sucks, but, it happens in other professions, and professional athletes are used to some of it.
2--The actual shitty teams aren't even going. Your mileage may vary on Wizards.
 
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mauf

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NBA careers are short. So I can understand why players would want to maximize their chances to earn.
How much are players earning? They’ve already earned most of their regular-season salaries, and my understanding is that the players don’t earn much in the postseason. Obviously, there are other considerations for players who have meaningful endorsement income or play on teams that have a chance to win the title, but for, say, a rotation player on the Zards, I’m not sure the modest payday is even worth the injury risk, never mind non-economic factors like separation from family.

I totally respect that a lot of them will want to play — they didn’t get to where they are without being hyper-competitive, and they’ll only get to play basketball at the highest level for so long. I’m just a little surprised that more guys on crappy teams aren’t looking at the economics and the hardships of the bubble and saying “pass.”
 

johnmd20

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How much are players earning? They’ve already earned most of their regular-season salaries, and my understanding is that the players don’t earn much in the postseason. Obviously, there are other considerations for players who have meaningful endorsement income or play on teams that have a chance to win the title, but for, say, a rotation player on the Zards, I’m not sure the modest payday is even worth the injury risk, never mind non-economic factors like separation from family.

I totally respect that a lot of them will want to play — they didn’t get to where they are without being hyper-competitive, and they’ll only get to play basketball at the highest level for so long. I’m just a little surprised that more guys on crappy teams aren’t looking at the economics and the hardships of the bubble and saying “pass.”
It's not about this year. It's about the future CBA, which could get blown up if they don't play this year. That would effect every player in an extremely deleterious fashion.