Despite early skepticism, NBA deserves praise for bubble strategy

As Coronavirus already threatens the young MLB season, the NBA bubble has surprisingly kicked off without a hitch.

While the morality behind resuming professional sports during a nowhere-near-under-control pandemic is certainly up for debate, the manner in which the NBA bubble has gone about restarting the season has been rather commendable, in my opinion.

I was definitely among the skeptics who didn’t believe in the feasibility of the ‘bubble’ idea, especially as the state hit hardest by the virus was selected to host the games.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, Florida now has more confirmed Covid-19 cases than the previously apocalyptic New York, trails only four other countries in terms of total cases, and has a governor who has been exceptionally hesitant to enact any combative measures against the virus, all while gloating about the state’s low death rate.

And to throw another wrench into the plan, the east coast is entering peak hurricane season.

On paper, it seems that a worse location could not have been chosen.

Despite the non-believers, admittedly myself included, things have gone surprisingly well. I guess if done correctly, it doesn’t really matter where the bubble is.

For those who don’t understand how the bubble works, I suggest getting up to speed with this article.

Essentially, the team players and staff are split between three hotels at Disneyland in Orlando. No one leaves the bubble for any reason. If you break bubble protocol you must enter quarantine for up to 10 days and miss games. It’s also worth mentioning that no players were forced to enter the bubble. They had the option to opt-out and receive a full salary.

The glaring hole in this plan is that the Disney staff is not required to quarantine, but they are to always wear protective gear, not come within six feet of a player, and never be in a hotel room at the same time as a player. (If this plan fails, my guess is that this is where it will begin.)

Also, I can’t leave out my favorite part of the bubble protocol: There is an anonymous snitch hotline if you want to tattle-tale on anyone breaking the rules.

Thus far, through three weeks of the bubble life in Orlando, there have been no positive tests, the season is officially underway, and the NBA has been rewarded with a few exhilarating matchups decided in the final seconds.

I have to tip my hat to the NBA, knowing that they must have been working day and night for the past few months to create and actually implement a plan that could keep the players safe and get everyone paid.

Still, the NBA hasn’t had to do anything particularly great to start to emerge as a success story. That’s because the MLB is currently doing such a fantastically miserable job.

The MLB, which decided to forgo the bubble strategy in lieu of frequent testing and fan-less stadiums, is starting to unravel as a disaster.

The Miami Marlins have had 21 members of the organization contract the virus, including 18 players. For anyone who is keeping track, the Marlins’ roster has 28 players – 64% percent of them currently have Coronavirus and won’t be able to play until they receive negative tests.

After four members of the Cardinals tested positive for the virus – all just over a week into the regular season — the MLB is already starting to manage expectations, floating the idea that the season could be canceled, and rightfully so.

How do you fairly crown a World Series Champion when teams have disproportionately had players miss significant time due to the virus?

To be fair to the MLB, a baseball organization is much larger than those in the NBA, not to mention the fields aren’t as easy to construct, so a bubble would be much more logistically difficult. But still, it seems like the current plan was a crapshoot at best.

As the MLB meltdown begins its downward spiral, the NBA looks like the poster child for how to successfully continue professional sports.

Nonetheless, as the saying goes, it’s not over until the fat lady sings. The fate of the NBA has yet to be determined. One slipup of the protocol could compromise the entire season.

However, where the NBA does deserve credit is that they went all-in on this idea. There is a lot of money on the table for all parties involved and I am sure that it can be easy to get caught up in the bottom lines, but the NBA appears to genuinely have made a plan come to life that has the health of everyone in mind.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has even hinted that the next season could be played in a bubble too.

Let’s keep a close eye on how the season progresses. This could turn out to be a resounding success, a colossal failure, or maybe, more likely, somewhere in between.