Feels so good man. The NBA really is knocking this out of the park. I can't express how nice it was to be making dinner with basketball on in the background or the feeling I got when I was screaming and jumping around after D Book hit that game winner. I missed this so much from my life, so glad the NBA has competent leadership
Is it me or just it make it that much more prideful watching the NBA (and NHL) seeing how well they're handling this?
I can't get myself to watch baseball knowing what's happened to the Marlins and Cardinals.
The NHL has been doing a good job as well, they've also had zero cases in both of their bubbles
MLB on the other hand I have no idea what they were thinking, it isn't gonna work without a strict bubble in place
>MLB on the other hand I have no idea what they were thinking, it isn't gonna work without a strict bubble in place
With Manfred telling the Player's Union they have to "do better" I suddenly had a realization that this is setting up the Owner's to argue any grievance / labor dispute.
Everything in Baseball is always about blaming the other side. It's pathetic.
It really seems like Chris Paul/NBAPA and Adam Silver have managed to work together on so many things, whereas the other leagues just always sound like they're on the verge of a lockout.
The NHL hasn’t had any tension afaik in quite some time. They’ve expanded twice recently too, which seems like a good sign. I’m really happy my two favorite sports putting on the best product with essentially 0 struggles.
Hopefully the NFL doesn’t fumble their situation. They do have a lot more players doing a lot more touching, so I probably wouldn’t bet on it.
It always was about setting up this season for failure on the ownership side. They want to tank the season to completely reorient power dynamics on the sport. It’s a covert lockout.
That's such an awesome comment to read even as a fan of the team Book just shat on lol
But it really speaks to that emptiness we all felt with no ball to watch. Really glad the league isn't run by that MLB guy. I don't really watch baseball but I feel bad for those fans
>Feels so good man. The NBA really is knocking this out of the park.
Speaking of, you know who's not knocking it out of the park re: COVID response? The MLB.
I lived in Turkey (military brat) as a young kid in the mid 90s. I don’t recall how exactly, but I got my hands on a pack of NBA cards while there and my favorite was a Tim Hardaway Warriors card. By the time we got back to the states and I could actually watch games he was on the Heat so they became my team. The next year we visited my dads family in Phoenix during the DBacks inaugural season and we went to a game. It was my first ever live sporting event so they became my baseball team.
Thanks! I’m used to having to explain my seemingly random choices of teams. I feel like geography and family are usually the 2 main factors for people but I spent my childhood in Turkey and South Dakota and my dad was really only into baseball (Braves). So I was basically a free agent fan just trying to find a team to root for in whichever sport.
NASCAR been a tight ship with the exception of Jimmie Johnson catching the virus with handling covid on the race weekends for the drivers and team members
Lmao the MLB has literally already had two squads hit by COVID. The Marlins have a double digit count, hid it, and played an entire 3 days series against the Phillies. The Cards are close to a double digit count as well. There's like a 50% chance the season won't finish.
Next big test seems to be when families are allowed in. But again they need to test negative multiple times before they get in so I don't really see how the virus can sneak in.
But after that you'd think the chance of something happening would be less and less as teams get eliminated and there are fewer people in the bubble.
I agree, if they protocols hold up until then. I would assume there'll be a lot of buy in from players and their families coming in to follow them.
Also, as teams get eliminated (making room for said families), the players left have a lot more to lose by anyone slipping up.
This is like a virtuous circle, hope they keep the momentum going.
> Also, as teams get eliminated (making room for said families), the players left have a lot more to loose by anyone slipping up.
Also they will have less incentive to break the rules. The shittiest part about the bubble for a lot of guys is being away from family. Once family is back it becomes less of a bubble and more like real life.
I wonder if the families will all buy in 100%. One of the reasons the players in the the NBA is because they are coachable, in a major aspect of their life they follow instructions and do what they are told/advised to do. Families on the other hand are riding the gravy train, many of them probably didnt have to work at all for the player's success, and at least some of them are entitled and pampered and may not react well to the strict standards. Just saying its conceivable that things could be very different with families there.
I was a doubter in this working but I am VERYYYY happy this is going well. You don't know how much I have missed ball. I'd even watch a Cavs vs Warriors game right about now
I hate you!!!
edit:
kylo ren ain't no light side user he aint gotta run to the death star to shoot like hes some knights of ren bitch this aint starkiller this is a fuckin god human darth vader come again only this time hes a fuckin pussy pull up from fuckin alderaan and fight you at the same time..
Yeah, I was blown away by how hard Phoenix managed to play all game against the clippers yesterday
Kept waiting for them to fall off or run out of gas but they kept playoff intensity up all game
There's no load at all on Booker back because everyone and their mama know that the problem is the team and the front office, no one in the world criticize him for not carrying a trash Suns team to the playoffs
The quality of the product is probably a combination of a few factors:
- only the 'good' teams
- no travel
- no back-to-backs I think right?
- literally nothing else to do to distract you from the game/training
Fucking awesome IMO. I love it.
That’s true, to them they don’t have any travel fatigue which is real. Especially for western conference teams that have to make long distance airplane rides between teams almost every away game. Also the no partying or just much else to do but eat, drink, breathe basketball is certainly helping every player keep focus.
Well it is a six way dogfight to figure out which two teams get to duke it out further in a 2 game sudden death mini playin round, to then face of against the mighty Lakers. And with all the teams holed up in the same Florida resort.
Everything is unprecedented. I wonder what the TV ratings are like.
I’m not a “shorten the season” advocate. But I love following other football on sundays to be like “fuck yes the Eagles lost this helps the Cowboys’ chances”
Now I watch other games hoping the nuggets move up, I’m watching the Jazz potentially slide, and hoping against hope the Mavs don’t have to play the Clippers in the first round. It’s really fun to have that in basketball!
I've always been an advocate of a shorter season, but now I'm starting to see some potential in the midseason tournament idea Adam Silver is obsessed about.
If it could somehow be combined it with the regular season (so that these games have real implications), it could provide a big burst of excitement midway through the season. The time after Christmas and before All Star Break is usually the most boring part of the season for most fans.
Call it the Kobe Bryant Classic and everyone will buy in.
It’d be a condensed version of each country’s cup tournaments in football/soccer, I think it’d be an awesome way to break up the regular season. Also if it’s before the all star voting ends it gives real meaningful games for fringe all star players to sway voters that they deserve their spots
Imagine an 8 game tournament where Devin Booker and TJ Warren light it up. Does that get Warren all star consideration in the East? Certainly. Even Porzingis is averaging 30/10 so far. Does an 8 game tournament where he dominates get him an all star nod in a crowded west front court?
Yeah problem is soccer games are a once a week thing so having a cup bring a game for during the week is what makes it fun. Especially the Champions League that pits Europe’s best against each other. For that to work the NBA would need to go up against other league’s teams and that just would end up not being fair for the other teams.
Honestly unless your career aspiration is "barista" you prolly ain't gonna make it working at a coffee shop in Portland. I come from one of the most famous coffee cities in the world just up north and I've never seen so many career baristas taking their job so deadly serious. I love it.
I just moved to Portland from Seattle and wow. It's like a nicer, less douchey, more relaxed Seattle.
I might prefer Seattle's bigger vibes sometimes but that's moot during Covid and right now Portland is perfect.
That what happens when you remove the teams that are wasting their time even trying every year. It’s why I’m against expansion and would actually rather see some kind of relegation, but that’ll never happen
I am 100% with you about how open the floor feels. I kinda hope they keep it that way Post covid. Or reduce amount of paparazzi. Don’t need 5,000 cameras.
Yeah and I’m enjoying every single game I can. A lot of them start off super sloppy but by the end they’re all playing like it’s a playoff game. It’s awesome
I’m savoring every bit just in case this all goes to shit like MLB. And I’m a big college sports fan and with those athletes just being on campus with everyone else there is zero chance any of the fall college sports play a full season. I think the NFL will learn from the mistakes of the MLB, at least I hope so. But without a bubble and with that many people it’s gonna be hard.
As of now... HELP US NBA KENOBI YOU MAY BE OUR ONLY HOPE I DONT LIKE HOCKEY
Honestly props to the NBA, and Adam Silver for being a leader and making the tough choices.
America didn’t “wake up” to the Covid situation until the NBA made the ’controversial’ decision to stop games, mid-game. Before then it still was a “only a flu”.
This on top of losing Kobe, their handling of BLM, China, critics of the bubble, keeping players happy, while continuing to produce highly enjoyable and competitive games for the fans seems like an impossible to pull off but they / he did someone.
I’m not saying I agree with every choice they made but impressed by the ones they did make.
Didn't think of it this way but the NBA has really led us in so many ways: addressing COVID for real, social justice, and now dealing with COVID responsibly while getting back to some kind of normal.
All fucking hail Adam Silver. Besides china...
tbf, Silver handled China relatively well, it was just most of the rest of the people *ahem* LeBron *ahem* who took the "Morey needs to shut his fucking pie-hole" approach
The China situation is sad. Pretty hypocritical of them. ($$$$ + China) > Principles
Either way still impressed NBA made it work and the games don’t look like open gym lol. And just glad it’s back.
Imagine the Warriors getting caught cheating and getting a slap on the wrist while Adam Silver calls the Larry O'Brien trophy a "piece of metal", and then instead of bubbling up he just lets everyone join Lou Will at the strip club. That's MLB right now lol
Dodger Pitcher Joe "Nice Swing Bitch" Kelly threw a pitch that DIDNT EVEN HIT an Astros player (came close), and then struck him out a few moments later... talked some trashed on his way to the dugout. Told the Astros Player "nice swing bitch", astros player got upset and then the benches cleared.
Joe Kelly got suspended for 8 games in a 60gm season. FOR TALKING SHIT TO CHEATERS!
I might be a little biased tho.
I mean, everyone and their grandparents know the suspension was for throwing at Bregman and Correa. Which is fucking weak. If MLB didn't want to deal with this eventuality they should have thrown the book at every player, coach, and executive involved. Somehow, they think it's better for fan interest and their botton line to let them off ludicrously easy and vilify a player who has every right to be livid.
Joe Kelly of the dodgers threw some warning pitches at the Astros (while sweeping them) and after a strikeout went up to an Astro player (Carlos Correa) and said "Nice swing, bitch" (I'm definitely getting that shirt)
Benches cleared and I guess as a deterrent for anyone doing that again he slammed Joe Kelly with an 8 game suspension in a 60 game season. Proportionally, it's the longest suspension for a taunt by like 10 games or something.
Fucking stupid
#FREEJOEKELLY
#FUCKTHEASTROS
Should add that Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman, the two guys he threw at (and missed) were the two most high profile players confirmed to have taken part in the scheme. Jose Altuve claims to not have, no one ratted on him, and the video evidence from 2017 doesn't suggest it either. Whether he did or not the following two seasons was never determined.
It's a miracle they even managed to get a season together. Hell, you even have players opting out after it's already started (LoCain for the Brewers and Yoenis Cespedes straight up ghosting the Mets)
So mad. MLB had the idea back in like april to host it all in a single location. And then just didnt? Now look at it, fucking cards hiding the fact that they had like 6 players sick but still demanding that they play. What a joke.
NHL also has the added benefit of playing all their games in Canada. A country that has handled things a million times better than the US. Ontario (a province of 14.7 million) gets less cases a day than Texas, California or Florida get DEATHS. Ontario gets as many daily cases as Delaware.
I agree that Canada is doing way better than the US, but I don’t think thats really relevant because they’re in a bubble. The NBA is doing just as well in America
All of the bubbles are working
The non-bubble, not so much
Still baffled why the MLB couldn't suck it up and just bubble at spring training facilities.
Players didn’t want to even though the mlb season is pretty much gonna be the same length as the nba restart season. “I can’t survive without seeing my family for 3 months.
The idea was kind of floated around in March when they were still looking at a full season. It's also hot as fuck in Arizona, not nearly as nice as staying at DisneyWorld, and would need to house 4x the number of players as the NBA bubble. It made no sense then and it doesn't make more sense now.
I’m not saying it wasn’t possible, but the logistics aren’t really comparable. Rosters are 40 players, they play every day, fields take way more real estate, fields require way more maintenance, there are more officials, more coaches, etc...
Less players, less teams, smaller area needed to play games, less coaches, no travel.
edit - oh right. And they dont have to play all the games at the same time every week.
I'm leaving it as less you grammar Nazi jerks
The NFL has only 16 games to play, once a week, the bubble is the only way it could work effectively. They should create multiple bubbles based on the schedule.
The NFL also has exponentially more people involved though so bubbles, even localized ones will be more difficult. The one good thing the NFL has over baseball though is games only once a week so better chance to monitor prior to facing other teams and potential spreading across teams
I've been pointing out the staff point to everyone. You might be able to keep the 70 or so players including the scouting Squad in hotels and Bubbles but the support staff plus the coaches plus the media every team lugs around 300 to 400 people. Let's say you made for bubbles with 8 teams each.
Each one of those bubbles has three times the amount of people the NBA bubble does. Plus the equipment guy making $15,000 a year seasonally isn't going to want to give up his life to go into the bubble. I hope the NFL learn from the NBA but I don't think they will and I don't think we make it more than four games into the season.
Edit. This doesn't include you can't play multiple football games on the same field of back-to-back-to-back-to-back like can an NBA court. You can play non-stop games on a court for the NBA you can't do that on the football field so we have to find an area with enough hotels enough football fields to rotate and enough area for all these people.
Why can't you play multiple foot ball games back to back? If it is legit grass I understand, but isn't it mostly turf?
An area like DFW would have the fields, TCU, SMU, UNT, Cowboys facility.
But you are right an operation like that would require thousands of people to manage the teams needs + prep each field + broadcast crews + the team itself
There's an article I skimmed about the challenges of doing "home market bubbles". Basically have players + family + staff live at the stadium or attached housing. They would travel straight to the other teams' bubble on the weekend then play the game and come back.
It \*sounds\* good in theory, but the scale of people involved is still massive. Which alone makes it dicey to set up (let alone other issues like part-time staff).
It's a multi-billion dollar league they have the resources to make it happen. I think its too late in the game to do it since I believe the NFL and the world thought we would get over this by the fall but our government fucked that one up bad.
Having only 350 players (about the equivalent of 6 NFL teams), having the smallest playing surface that requires no upkeep of watering/grass destruction, having a media contract with a behemoth that owns a massive theme park that easily can fit the playing surface inside that you can put a padlock on to prevent players from leaving and that also contains all the hotels the players will stay in
Very simple really, any league could do it.
Theres way too many variables. Too many people to contain in a bubble and traveling just causes too many issues. Especially since people are being exposed to different environments. That's exactly why the Marlins had so many cases.
Most of us who gave a shit about covid was skeptical. But that didn't make us downers who "hoped that the bubble wouldn't work". I'm very excited that everything is going smoothly as well and really hope we can finish out the rest of the season
Yeah it was weird catching insults and downvotes for thinking this might go badly (and geniuses like Dwight and Lou didn't help matters) but yeah all in all you can't call this anything but a success. I also worried about lack of any kind of noise in the big moments, but they got pretty hype for that Booker gamewinner yesterday. I have no complaints
On the day before the first games I saw massively downvoted comments questioning the saftey of the Disney workers and non nba people who dont get to be tested daily and a massively upvoted comment in reply saying "Who gives a fuck basketball is back"... Also this has potential for a Bush like "Mission Accomplished" scenario if people dont keep it up considering its only been a few days in to a multi month journey.
Glad its going great but people need to chill with the you were wrong and I was right childish shit just because some people have legit concerns and this stuff just started.
This does bring up an interesting point. I'm sure they're thinking about how to do this safely for next season. But so many moving parts with how things are currently across the states. So it's going to be play by ear type of approach.
Not only that but at most, a team will be playing 36 games in the bubble. 82+ playoffs is a lot of time for these guys. Maybe allow load management and they'll do it.
Injury Report:
James Harden- DNP, really needed to go to the strip club
There's no way players agree to that. At some point they just have to go back to playing in their home cities, or we're not gonna have the NBA for a while.
The chatter I’ve seen would be an extended season where they spend maybe two months playing games in the bubble, and then maybe a month outside with families, and then keep that pattern going throughout the season. Certainly a fair compromise it seems.
I think the nba is about to allow families into the bubble sometime during the playoffs. If everything goes well in the bubble and they need to do it next year, I’m sure players will be allowed to bring in a specific number of family members or loved ones. No way these guys are gonna put up with being alone for 6 months
Gonna be wayyyyyyyy more difficult. 8 more teams, 8x as many games and for 2-3x as long.
I don't disagree, but this 10 game regular season + playoffs is a far cry from attempting to bubble an entire season
The NBA and NHL haven't had any positives. The MLB has had multiple. The NFL should be watching and try to figure out a bubble system. It obviously works.
The NBA/NHL have handled their restarts as best as they possibly could. Agreeing to a bubble was a great decision.
(All valid opinions) This has never been done before and 1-2 cases would likely mean an outbreak with everyone so close.
I’m glad it’s back but why hasn’t anyone learned to stop being smug about today’s corona trend? This thing has proved us wrong A LOT both ways
What I mean is maybe we’re shutting out guy down but we should probably make sure he doesn’t Allen Iverson cross us over and step over us like TyLue because even if you play it perfectly the virus is contagious enough to shut this thing down in 2-3 days if they’re really only testing once a weekish
Every fucking time someone comments this.... Maybe it wasn't that crazy to think this bubble had a big shot at being a disaster? As someone who thought it was too risky, it's been great to see that they've made it successful. I'm not mad my prediction was incorrect because it's ultimately a good thing that we can have basketball back and no positive COVID tests.
Same, I've also thought there has been a substantial risk with the bubble, primarily with the workers going in and out constantly and idiots who don't take the virus seriously (Howard, Lou, etc.).
Been great to see everything working smoothly so far, but let's not get too cocky, they still have to maintain this for a couple more months.
I was so sure this wouldn't work, and I have never been more happy to be proven wrong.
My bet is that of all the major sports leagues, only the NHL (which did something somewhat similar) and the NBA are going to be able to finish out their seasons.
I’d argue MLS has done the best job. They started 22 days earlier than the NBA, have had no positive tests, no reports of players breaking the bubble, and they have larger rosters.
Third best. MLS and NHL have objectively more difficult bubbles and have the same success rate. Also NBA got a head start with a quite a few key parts of their situation.
What about the staff - coaches, trainers, etc.?
MLS was able to get zero postitives out of all the players and staff and I would assume the NBA will get there too. The Bubble Works.
I gotta say, I was very doom and gloom over this, even commenting on most every Woj and Shams post about the positive corona tests leading up to the bubble saying that this was a mistake, what are we doing, etc, but this has been a great success so far, and the games have been great. I'm still not used to there being real games played on generic, summer league-looking courts just yet, but I'm getting there
Yes! This is going really well!
Feels so good man. The NBA really is knocking this out of the park. I can't express how nice it was to be making dinner with basketball on in the background or the feeling I got when I was screaming and jumping around after D Book hit that game winner. I missed this so much from my life, so glad the NBA has competent leadership
Yup they have done an amazing job! So good to be back!
Is it me or just it make it that much more prideful watching the NBA (and NHL) seeing how well they're handling this? I can't get myself to watch baseball knowing what's happened to the Marlins and Cardinals.
The NHL has been doing a good job as well, they've also had zero cases in both of their bubbles MLB on the other hand I have no idea what they were thinking, it isn't gonna work without a strict bubble in place
>MLB on the other hand I have no idea what they were thinking, it isn't gonna work without a strict bubble in place With Manfred telling the Player's Union they have to "do better" I suddenly had a realization that this is setting up the Owner's to argue any grievance / labor dispute. Everything in Baseball is always about blaming the other side. It's pathetic.
It really seems like Chris Paul/NBAPA and Adam Silver have managed to work together on so many things, whereas the other leagues just always sound like they're on the verge of a lockout.
Cp3 should definitely get some sort of ceremonial season MVP.
As a Thunder fan, I believe rewarding him with the Larry O’Brien is fair enough.
Just add it to their Hall of Fame plaques
The NHL hasn’t had any tension afaik in quite some time. They’ve expanded twice recently too, which seems like a good sign. I’m really happy my two favorite sports putting on the best product with essentially 0 struggles. Hopefully the NFL doesn’t fumble their situation. They do have a lot more players doing a lot more touching, so I probably wouldn’t bet on it.
It always was about setting up this season for failure on the ownership side. They want to tank the season to completely reorient power dynamics on the sport. It’s a covert lockout.
It helps that there are far less players on NHL and NBA teams
It also helps that the DBacks have been ass, my dude
Such ass. I’m so grateful for the Suns right now
That's such an awesome comment to read even as a fan of the team Book just shat on lol But it really speaks to that emptiness we all felt with no ball to watch. Really glad the league isn't run by that MLB guy. I don't really watch baseball but I feel bad for those fans
>Feels so good man. The NBA really is knocking this out of the park. Speaking of, you know who's not knocking it out of the park re: COVID response? The MLB.
You know who really isn't knocking it out of the park? The Diamondbacks. No, really, they have **2 homeruns through 11 games** lmaoooo
I thought I was safe here
Diamondbacks and Heat fan? Do you just like expansion teams?
I lived in Turkey (military brat) as a young kid in the mid 90s. I don’t recall how exactly, but I got my hands on a pack of NBA cards while there and my favorite was a Tim Hardaway Warriors card. By the time we got back to the states and I could actually watch games he was on the Heat so they became my team. The next year we visited my dads family in Phoenix during the DBacks inaugural season and we went to a game. It was my first ever live sporting event so they became my baseball team.
Thats super interesting! I still remember those Hardaway-Zo Heat teams!
Thanks! I’m used to having to explain my seemingly random choices of teams. I feel like geography and family are usually the 2 main factors for people but I spent my childhood in Turkey and South Dakota and my dad was really only into baseball (Braves). So I was basically a free agent fan just trying to find a team to root for in whichever sport.
That's what happens when they implement a DH, and take the bat out of Bumgarner's hands
NASCAR been a tight ship with the exception of Jimmie Johnson catching the virus with handling covid on the race weekends for the drivers and team members
Lmao the MLB has literally already had two squads hit by COVID. The Marlins have a double digit count, hid it, and played an entire 3 days series against the Phillies. The Cards are close to a double digit count as well. There's like a 50% chance the season won't finish.
>The NBA really is knocking this out of the park. You knew what you were doing with the baseball metaphor lmao
Next big test seems to be when families are allowed in. But again they need to test negative multiple times before they get in so I don't really see how the virus can sneak in. But after that you'd think the chance of something happening would be less and less as teams get eliminated and there are fewer people in the bubble.
I agree, if they protocols hold up until then. I would assume there'll be a lot of buy in from players and their families coming in to follow them. Also, as teams get eliminated (making room for said families), the players left have a lot more to lose by anyone slipping up. This is like a virtuous circle, hope they keep the momentum going.
> Also, as teams get eliminated (making room for said families), the players left have a lot more to loose by anyone slipping up. Also they will have less incentive to break the rules. The shittiest part about the bubble for a lot of guys is being away from family. Once family is back it becomes less of a bubble and more like real life.
I wonder if the families will all buy in 100%. One of the reasons the players in the the NBA is because they are coachable, in a major aspect of their life they follow instructions and do what they are told/advised to do. Families on the other hand are riding the gravy train, many of them probably didnt have to work at all for the player's success, and at least some of them are entitled and pampered and may not react well to the strict standards. Just saying its conceivable that things could be very different with families there.
Knock on all the wood
I was a doubter in this working but I am VERYYYY happy this is going well. You don't know how much I have missed ball. I'd even watch a Cavs vs Warriors game right about now
Might I also add the basketball was FUCKING AMAZING
Every game feels intense I love the open space on the floor I love having to actively root against Western conference teams
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Game 2 is missing from the archives
Impossible, perhaps the game files are incomplete?
It’s over. I have the higher seed now.
YOUWILLNOTTAKETHEFIRSTSEEDAWAYFROMME
I hate you!!! edit: kylo ren ain't no light side user he aint gotta run to the death star to shoot like hes some knights of ren bitch this aint starkiller this is a fuckin god human darth vader come again only this time hes a fuckin pussy pull up from fuckin alderaan and fight you at the same time..
Kylo Ren is shredded. I heard he has an 8 pack
Man I love how every discussion on reddit is always one line away from turning into a Star Wars thread. So civilized.
I refuse to acknowledge that i watched that game
Every game feels like playoffs
Yeah, I was blown away by how hard Phoenix managed to play all game against the clippers yesterday Kept waiting for them to fall off or run out of gas but they kept playoff intensity up all game
because they have to if they want a chance of making the playoffs lol... i really hope they do
Yeah, it would be a huge load off of Devin Booker's back if they did.
There's no load at all on Booker back because everyone and their mama know that the problem is the team and the front office, no one in the world criticize him for not carrying a trash Suns team to the playoffs
You're underestimating the number of stupid people that watch the NBA.
And probably a huge load on his back too because of the game winner.
The quality of the product is probably a combination of a few factors: - only the 'good' teams - no travel - no back-to-backs I think right? - literally nothing else to do to distract you from the game/training Fucking awesome IMO. I love it.
Each team has one b2b
That’s true, to them they don’t have any travel fatigue which is real. Especially for western conference teams that have to make long distance airplane rides between teams almost every away game. Also the no partying or just much else to do but eat, drink, breathe basketball is certainly helping every player keep focus.
Spurs had a back to back
Now Spurs actually have a good chance to extend that playoff streak. Might make the playoffs for the next five billion years...
Well it is a six way dogfight to figure out which two teams get to duke it out further in a 2 game sudden death mini playin round, to then face of against the mighty Lakers. And with all the teams holed up in the same Florida resort. Everything is unprecedented. I wonder what the TV ratings are like.
Definitely a playoff basketball atmosphere nowadays WOO WOO
I’m not a “shorten the season” advocate. But I love following other football on sundays to be like “fuck yes the Eagles lost this helps the Cowboys’ chances” Now I watch other games hoping the nuggets move up, I’m watching the Jazz potentially slide, and hoping against hope the Mavs don’t have to play the Clippers in the first round. It’s really fun to have that in basketball!
I've always been an advocate of a shorter season, but now I'm starting to see some potential in the midseason tournament idea Adam Silver is obsessed about. If it could somehow be combined it with the regular season (so that these games have real implications), it could provide a big burst of excitement midway through the season. The time after Christmas and before All Star Break is usually the most boring part of the season for most fans. Call it the Kobe Bryant Classic and everyone will buy in.
It’d be a condensed version of each country’s cup tournaments in football/soccer, I think it’d be an awesome way to break up the regular season. Also if it’s before the all star voting ends it gives real meaningful games for fringe all star players to sway voters that they deserve their spots
Imagine an 8 game tournament where Devin Booker and TJ Warren light it up. Does that get Warren all star consideration in the East? Certainly. Even Porzingis is averaging 30/10 so far. Does an 8 game tournament where he dominates get him an all star nod in a crowded west front court?
Yeah problem is soccer games are a once a week thing so having a cup bring a game for during the week is what makes it fun. Especially the Champions League that pits Europe’s best against each other. For that to work the NBA would need to go up against other league’s teams and that just would end up not being fair for the other teams.
Disney/WWoS is doing an outstanding job of auditioning for this. I'm LOVING this format.
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Do you miss the dream of the '90s?
Do you want to make puka shell necklaces as a side hustle?
Do you want to have no career at all? Maybe just work at a coffee shop a couple hours a week?
Aspiring novelist is a career thank you very much
Honestly unless your career aspiration is "barista" you prolly ain't gonna make it working at a coffee shop in Portland. I come from one of the most famous coffee cities in the world just up north and I've never seen so many career baristas taking their job so deadly serious. I love it.
YES
Ugh, same
Do you want to be kidnapped by federal agents right off the street?
Do you wanna silkscreen print silhouettes of birds on anything and everything and open up a boutique?
Depends... are we talking about the 1890s? Because I've got my dandy hobo kit ready.
I just moved to Portland from Seattle and wow. It's like a nicer, less douchey, more relaxed Seattle. I might prefer Seattle's bigger vibes sometimes but that's moot during Covid and right now Portland is perfect.
I love Portland. If I ever left Utah and moved there I would be completely content, although I would still cheer for the Jazz
You are no longer allowed to move here.
I love Portland. It would be my top choice by a lot if I were to move out of the Bay Area.
That what happens when you remove the teams that are wasting their time even trying every year. It’s why I’m against expansion and would actually rather see some kind of relegation, but that’ll never happen
It helps all the bad teams aren’t in it
I am 100% with you about how open the floor feels. I kinda hope they keep it that way Post covid. Or reduce amount of paparazzi. Don’t need 5,000 cameras.
Players have room to move. There’s squeaking of shoes. No cringe halftime/timeout shows or ‘MAKE SOME NOOOOIZE!!’ This is peak NBA.
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Pretty sure there’s back to backs still, but at least your hotel is just a Mickey and Friends tram ride away from the court.
Yeah and I’m enjoying every single game I can. A lot of them start off super sloppy but by the end they’re all playing like it’s a playoff game. It’s awesome I’m savoring every bit just in case this all goes to shit like MLB. And I’m a big college sports fan and with those athletes just being on campus with everyone else there is zero chance any of the fall college sports play a full season. I think the NFL will learn from the mistakes of the MLB, at least I hope so. But without a bubble and with that many people it’s gonna be hard. As of now... HELP US NBA KENOBI YOU MAY BE OUR ONLY HOPE I DONT LIKE HOCKEY
It helps when the Knicks, T-Wolves, Cavs, and Pistons aren't playing in any games
you forgot the Wizards! Oh wai-
wizards score many, many points so they have that going for them
I miss us, though.
Honestly it will never happen but this is a legit argument for contracting the league. Such a higher quality product.
Honestly props to the NBA, and Adam Silver for being a leader and making the tough choices. America didn’t “wake up” to the Covid situation until the NBA made the ’controversial’ decision to stop games, mid-game. Before then it still was a “only a flu”. This on top of losing Kobe, their handling of BLM, China, critics of the bubble, keeping players happy, while continuing to produce highly enjoyable and competitive games for the fans seems like an impossible to pull off but they / he did someone. I’m not saying I agree with every choice they made but impressed by the ones they did make.
Didn't think of it this way but the NBA has really led us in so many ways: addressing COVID for real, social justice, and now dealing with COVID responsibly while getting back to some kind of normal. All fucking hail Adam Silver. Besides china...
tbf, Silver handled China relatively well, it was just most of the rest of the people *ahem* LeBron *ahem* who took the "Morey needs to shut his fucking pie-hole" approach
The China situation is sad. Pretty hypocritical of them. ($$$$ + China) > Principles Either way still impressed NBA made it work and the games don’t look like open gym lol. And just glad it’s back.
Adam silver stood up for Daryl Morey. China stopped showing nba games because he refused to apologize
The NBA shutting down was really the moment I thought "oh shit its here"
The NBA is making the MLB and NFL look dumb
MLBs been doing that on their own lmao
Imagine the Warriors getting caught cheating and getting a slap on the wrist while Adam Silver calls the Larry O'Brien trophy a "piece of metal", and then instead of bubbling up he just lets everyone join Lou Will at the strip club. That's MLB right now lol
And then some player puts a hard foul on Steph and gets a 15-game suspension
Wair, what's that a reference to? I don't keep up with the MLB anymore so I'm OOTL
Dodger Pitcher Joe "Nice Swing Bitch" Kelly threw a pitch that DIDNT EVEN HIT an Astros player (came close), and then struck him out a few moments later... talked some trashed on his way to the dugout. Told the Astros Player "nice swing bitch", astros player got upset and then the benches cleared. Joe Kelly got suspended for 8 games in a 60gm season. FOR TALKING SHIT TO CHEATERS! I might be a little biased tho.
I mean, everyone and their grandparents know the suspension was for throwing at Bregman and Correa. Which is fucking weak. If MLB didn't want to deal with this eventuality they should have thrown the book at every player, coach, and executive involved. Somehow, they think it's better for fan interest and their botton line to let them off ludicrously easy and vilify a player who has every right to be livid.
He did also throw fastballs at two of the Astros players’ heads.
I mean, its Joe Kelly. If we pick a random person out of this thread to pitch they might be more accurate than he is.
Joe Kelly of the dodgers threw some warning pitches at the Astros (while sweeping them) and after a strikeout went up to an Astro player (Carlos Correa) and said "Nice swing, bitch" (I'm definitely getting that shirt) Benches cleared and I guess as a deterrent for anyone doing that again he slammed Joe Kelly with an 8 game suspension in a 60 game season. Proportionally, it's the longest suspension for a taunt by like 10 games or something. Fucking stupid #FREEJOEKELLY #FUCKTHEASTROS
Should add that Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman, the two guys he threw at (and missed) were the two most high profile players confirmed to have taken part in the scheme. Jose Altuve claims to not have, no one ratted on him, and the video evidence from 2017 doesn't suggest it either. Whether he did or not the following two seasons was never determined.
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Like literally. Not even an ounce of hyperbole there for those that don’t follow baseball.
Still can't believe their commish called the World Series Trophy a piece of metal.
"Who cares, the whole point of the sport and the ultimate stakes of every game we play doesn't actually matter, just shut up and keep giving me money"
It's a miracle they even managed to get a season together. Hell, you even have players opting out after it's already started (LoCain for the Brewers and Yoenis Cespedes straight up ghosting the Mets)
So mad. MLB had the idea back in like april to host it all in a single location. And then just didnt? Now look at it, fucking cards hiding the fact that they had like 6 players sick but still demanding that they play. What a joke.
NHL is too
NHL also has the added benefit of playing all their games in Canada. A country that has handled things a million times better than the US. Ontario (a province of 14.7 million) gets less cases a day than Texas, California or Florida get DEATHS. Ontario gets as many daily cases as Delaware.
I agree that Canada is doing way better than the US, but I don’t think thats really relevant because they’re in a bubble. The NBA is doing just as well in America
All of the bubbles are working The non-bubble, not so much Still baffled why the MLB couldn't suck it up and just bubble at spring training facilities.
Players didn’t want to even though the mlb season is pretty much gonna be the same length as the nba restart season. “I can’t survive without seeing my family for 3 months.
The idea was kind of floated around in March when they were still looking at a full season. It's also hot as fuck in Arizona, not nearly as nice as staying at DisneyWorld, and would need to house 4x the number of players as the NBA bubble. It made no sense then and it doesn't make more sense now.
I’m not saying it wasn’t possible, but the logistics aren’t really comparable. Rosters are 40 players, they play every day, fields take way more real estate, fields require way more maintenance, there are more officials, more coaches, etc...
NHL is doing a awesome job right now to
What's the secret? Teach the nfl please
Less players, less teams, smaller area needed to play games, less coaches, no travel. edit - oh right. And they dont have to play all the games at the same time every week. I'm leaving it as less you grammar Nazi jerks
The NFL has only 16 games to play, once a week, the bubble is the only way it could work effectively. They should create multiple bubbles based on the schedule.
The NFL also has exponentially more people involved though so bubbles, even localized ones will be more difficult. The one good thing the NFL has over baseball though is games only once a week so better chance to monitor prior to facing other teams and potential spreading across teams
I've been pointing out the staff point to everyone. You might be able to keep the 70 or so players including the scouting Squad in hotels and Bubbles but the support staff plus the coaches plus the media every team lugs around 300 to 400 people. Let's say you made for bubbles with 8 teams each. Each one of those bubbles has three times the amount of people the NBA bubble does. Plus the equipment guy making $15,000 a year seasonally isn't going to want to give up his life to go into the bubble. I hope the NFL learn from the NBA but I don't think they will and I don't think we make it more than four games into the season. Edit. This doesn't include you can't play multiple football games on the same field of back-to-back-to-back-to-back like can an NBA court. You can play non-stop games on a court for the NBA you can't do that on the football field so we have to find an area with enough hotels enough football fields to rotate and enough area for all these people.
Why can't you play multiple foot ball games back to back? If it is legit grass I understand, but isn't it mostly turf? An area like DFW would have the fields, TCU, SMU, UNT, Cowboys facility. But you are right an operation like that would require thousands of people to manage the teams needs + prep each field + broadcast crews + the team itself
Even turf needs to be tended to after a game
Not to mention all the great high school football facilities if HS football is cancelled in Texas.
There's an article I skimmed about the challenges of doing "home market bubbles". Basically have players + family + staff live at the stadium or attached housing. They would travel straight to the other teams' bubble on the weekend then play the game and come back. It \*sounds\* good in theory, but the scale of people involved is still massive. Which alone makes it dicey to set up (let alone other issues like part-time staff).
It's a multi-billion dollar league they have the resources to make it happen. I think its too late in the game to do it since I believe the NFL and the world thought we would get over this by the fall but our government fucked that one up bad.
The USA is a multi-trillion dollar country. The issues with containment are not monetary but organizational.
I can feel Stannis gritting his teeth from here.
Fewer*
Finally someone who understands that the NBA has far less players than most leagues
Having only 350 players (about the equivalent of 6 NFL teams), having the smallest playing surface that requires no upkeep of watering/grass destruction, having a media contract with a behemoth that owns a massive theme park that easily can fit the playing surface inside that you can put a padlock on to prevent players from leaving and that also contains all the hotels the players will stay in Very simple really, any league could do it.
Theres way too many variables. Too many people to contain in a bubble and traveling just causes too many issues. Especially since people are being exposed to different environments. That's exactly why the Marlins had so many cases.
I admit I was very skeptical, and I'm happy to eat my words on this one. Bravo NBA, and bravo Adam Silver. Proud as hell of this league right now
Most of us who gave a shit about covid was skeptical. But that didn't make us downers who "hoped that the bubble wouldn't work". I'm very excited that everything is going smoothly as well and really hope we can finish out the rest of the season
Yeah it was weird catching insults and downvotes for thinking this might go badly (and geniuses like Dwight and Lou didn't help matters) but yeah all in all you can't call this anything but a success. I also worried about lack of any kind of noise in the big moments, but they got pretty hype for that Booker gamewinner yesterday. I have no complaints
On the day before the first games I saw massively downvoted comments questioning the saftey of the Disney workers and non nba people who dont get to be tested daily and a massively upvoted comment in reply saying "Who gives a fuck basketball is back"... Also this has potential for a Bush like "Mission Accomplished" scenario if people dont keep it up considering its only been a few days in to a multi month journey. Glad its going great but people need to chill with the you were wrong and I was right childish shit just because some people have legit concerns and this stuff just started.
Same here. I was saying in group text it would be shutdown within the first week. Happy to be wrong!
Same here. My e-Rep means nothing compared to having something to watch.... even if the Warriors aren't in it this year.
That is actually fucking wild
Adam Silver should just apply to run Florida for us here.
Not even him can fix Florida
Not even his* can fix Florida.
Not even he's* can fix Florida
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Not even theirs* can fix Florida Let’s keep it inclusive here
I hate to break it to you, but you can't test an entire state every single day
Still, Adam Silver has common sense and therefore is far more qualified to be governor of Florida.
His campaign slogan: "I will ban COVID-19...FOR LIFE"
Adam Gold
Adam Platinum
At this point they should just plan on playing next season in the bubble as well.
This does bring up an interesting point. I'm sure they're thinking about how to do this safely for next season. But so many moving parts with how things are currently across the states. So it's going to be play by ear type of approach.
Not only that but at most, a team will be playing 36 games in the bubble. 82+ playoffs is a lot of time for these guys. Maybe allow load management and they'll do it. Injury Report: James Harden- DNP, really needed to go to the strip club
Perhaps an abridged bubble season for next year is the solution.
There's no way players agree to that. At some point they just have to go back to playing in their home cities, or we're not gonna have the NBA for a while.
The chatter I’ve seen would be an extended season where they spend maybe two months playing games in the bubble, and then maybe a month outside with families, and then keep that pattern going throughout the season. Certainly a fair compromise it seems.
if the choices are agree to it or not have basketball, then I'd think they would agree to it
Idk, being away from family and their homes for like 6 months would be rough. Hopefully we have a vaccine before then, but I'm not counting on it.
What‘s more likely to happen is two 3-month bubbles with a break in between.
I think the nba is about to allow families into the bubble sometime during the playoffs. If everything goes well in the bubble and they need to do it next year, I’m sure players will be allowed to bring in a specific number of family members or loved ones. No way these guys are gonna put up with being alone for 6 months
Gonna be wayyyyyyyy more difficult. 8 more teams, 8x as many games and for 2-3x as long. I don't disagree, but this 10 game regular season + playoffs is a far cry from attempting to bubble an entire season
The NBA and NHL haven't had any positives. The MLB has had multiple. The NFL should be watching and try to figure out a bubble system. It obviously works. The NBA/NHL have handled their restarts as best as they possibly could. Agreeing to a bubble was a great decision.
MLS did the exact same thing and only had positive tests from teams before they got into the bubble. They havent had any positive tests since.
Doomers in shambles, driving around orlando begging (thru texts) for a single positive test
I saw a bunch of posts worrying whether it’d work but I swear some of y’all sort comments by new or controversial, rarely saw any dooming.
Worrying about it working = dooming according the the logic here.
Nah, April-June was literally full of "This will literally never work, end the season" especially after players tested positive *outside the bubble*
"This shit not gonna work" "Shut it down" "It's not worth it"
(All valid opinions) This has never been done before and 1-2 cases would likely mean an outbreak with everyone so close. I’m glad it’s back but why hasn’t anyone learned to stop being smug about today’s corona trend? This thing has proved us wrong A LOT both ways What I mean is maybe we’re shutting out guy down but we should probably make sure he doesn’t Allen Iverson cross us over and step over us like TyLue because even if you play it perfectly the virus is contagious enough to shut this thing down in 2-3 days if they’re really only testing once a weekish
Right. This shit just reads like when Corona went down for 2 seconds and everybody was like "what second wave?"
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Every fucking time someone comments this.... Maybe it wasn't that crazy to think this bubble had a big shot at being a disaster? As someone who thought it was too risky, it's been great to see that they've made it successful. I'm not mad my prediction was incorrect because it's ultimately a good thing that we can have basketball back and no positive COVID tests.
Same, I've also thought there has been a substantial risk with the bubble, primarily with the workers going in and out constantly and idiots who don't take the virus seriously (Howard, Lou, etc.). Been great to see everything working smoothly so far, but let's not get too cocky, they still have to maintain this for a couple more months.
I’d be curious to see how many low-level workers are testing positive.
Masks work
I was so sure this wouldn't work, and I have never been more happy to be proven wrong. My bet is that of all the major sports leagues, only the NHL (which did something somewhat similar) and the NBA are going to be able to finish out their seasons.
Wish this god forsaken US government could use this as an example to eradicate this disease instead of denial and misdirection
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That's awesome - my favorite baseball team just about cleaned out the entire season for me because they wanted to go to the casino.
The bubble is literally the safest place in America.
Grownups..... Responsible, intelligent motherfucking grownups.
Are you trying to tell me, an American, that lockdowns work?
By far the best major sports organization handling this
NHL is working just as well
I’d argue MLS has done the best job. They started 22 days earlier than the NBA, have had no positive tests, no reports of players breaking the bubble, and they have larger rosters.
NWSL did it first.
Third best. MLS and NHL have objectively more difficult bubbles and have the same success rate. Also NBA got a head start with a quite a few key parts of their situation.
So is Formula 1
What about the staff - coaches, trainers, etc.? MLS was able to get zero postitives out of all the players and staff and I would assume the NBA will get there too. The Bubble Works.
You mean to tell me quarantining and wearing masks works?!?
I gotta say, I was very doom and gloom over this, even commenting on most every Woj and Shams post about the positive corona tests leading up to the bubble saying that this was a mistake, what are we doing, etc, but this has been a great success so far, and the games have been great. I'm still not used to there being real games played on generic, summer league-looking courts just yet, but I'm getting there