Bubbles work.
That’s been proven.
Both the NBA and NHL pulled off successful conclusions to their 2020 seasons by moving the end of their regular seasons and the entirety of their postseasons into a bubble last summer. COVID-19 had brought a halt to everything, including sports. But those sports found a way. A way that worked.
College basketball officials have already decided the entire 2021 NCAA tournament will take place in their version of a bubble. Meanwhile, the regular season is – predictably – being badly damaged by coronavirus postponements and cancellations.
You have to wonder what kind of tournament it will actually be if the regular season becomes the same kind of virus-impacted farce that the 2020 college football season was.
Having decided to start the new NBA season playing in regular home venues (minus fans) the league is already finding out what life outside the bubble means. It hasn’t been pretty…or consistent.
How legitimate is a regular season when a team is forced to try to compete with just seven active players, like the Philadelphia 76ers had too recently in a lopsided home loss to the Denver Nuggets? If they hadn’t dressed an eighth player – injured forward Mike Scott was not going to play regardless – the league would have made them forfeit. Head Coach Doc Rivers was understandably upset about being forced to play with a ridiculously shortened roster, voicing concerns about the effect of the workload on bench players not used to playing big minutes. After losing star players Joel Embid and Ben Simmons to more typical minor injuries, Philly had four players ruled out due to virus testing protocols, leaving them with seven healthy bodies. The league forced them to play the game anyway.
Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics had three consecutive games postponed – apparently to be rescheduled at the end of the season – due to virus infections and contact tracing.
While they appear to have gotten a better deal than their division rivals, what happens if they need to win all three of those games – presumably played in a short time span – in order to determine their playoff seeding? Then it won’t look like such a good deal. Consistency and competitive balance questions about the current NBA season are very legitimate – and the new season isn’t a month old yet.
The NHL season is just now getting started. Even after taking numerous safety precautions, especially in scheduling, that league too, will likely feel the impact of the raging virus during their already shortened regular season. The question is which teams will catch the most breaks and have the less interrupted season.
The hope of course is that by the time the post season rolls around for both leagues, the impact of the COVID-19 vaccines will have taken effect and that returning to a post-season bubble won’t be required.
But they have to get to the post season first.
In the face of more virus difficulties, should the NBA and the NHL consider going back to what worked? At least until all the players are able to get vaccinated?
Then there are the questions surrounding the upcoming Major League Baseball season. Commissioner Rob Manfred has told teams to plan on a typical spring training and regular season. He must know something we don’t regarding the availability of vaccines for players and staff. Conventional wisdom would suggest that players aren’t in a high priority group, and that ensuring their health and safety staring in mid-February won’t be that easy.
Remember, MLB finished their post season in a bubble last year, too…and it worked great up until the very end when Justin Turner of the Dodgers tarnished his team’s first World Series title in more than three decades by ignoring protocols and selfishly going back on the field to celebrate with his teammates after he’d been told he’d tested positive. You just can’t get through to some people.
We don’t know any details, and maybe this is in the plans somewhere, but it’s conceivable – at least it should be – that MLB could create some sort of bubble environment for spring training in Florida and Arizona at the very least – which would certainly include keep media and players separated and communicating only via Zoom or Skype. That was certainly something the players welcomed last summer and wouldn’t mind if becoming permanent. Perhaps by April there will be an opportunity to immunize players, coaches and staff and have a more typical regular season.
Right here, right now in mid-January, it certainly looks like going back into their various bubbles would benefit the NBA and NHL… and college basketball too.
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