Opinion | How the rumblings of raging hormones could completely burst the NBA’s bubble
- High stakes as league returns in truncated form against backdrop of pandemic and social tensions
- The NBA has set up a hotline for players to report their colleagues for infringements
After a 141-day hiatus since the last game was played on March 11, the NBA is back. Sort of. Everything is alien, from the time of year – midsummer – to the empty arena and dizzying list of Covid-19 medical protocols. One thing, though, remains unchanged: these are superior physical specimens, both wildly competitive and full of testosterone. Who knows how they will respond to the hermetically sealed bubble at the Walt Disney World complex in Orlando, Florida, where the league will crown a champion in three months’ time.
Within days of reporting, cracks began to emerge. One player dissatisfied with the internal food options, ordered some chicken wings from a nearby restaurant and briefly left the bubble to meet the delivery man. Oops. He was forced to publicly apologise and endure an additional eight-day quarantine.
But the NBA was allowed a Mulligan or two and could easily seal up a few cracks by making delivery men completely disappear. There was, however, something they can’t make disappear and that is the kid in the man. News that a woman on Instagram was going viral after claiming she was invited by a player into the bubble, had to send shivers through the suited-up corridors of the NBA head office in New York. According to Anna Mya, when the players arrived in Orlando last week, she was quick to get an invitation into the bubble while adding that she doesn’t think there is much chance of it surviving.
