Three Important Storylines from the NBA Bubble
To help mitigate the risks associated with COVID-19, the NBA and the NBPA agreed to complete the 2019-2020 season in isolation at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Inside what is colloquially called the NBA Bubble, players were separated from their families for months, subjected to frequent tests and required to wear contact tracing rings and watches. Despite a few strip club and Postmates-related mishaps, the system that the league put in place has been a resounding success, as there has not been a positive COVID-19 case in the Bubble since July 22nd. Though the walls of virtual fans that surround the court gives each game a dystopian, Fahrenheit 451 feel, the on-court product has been electric and highly competitive, putting to rest any notions that this season’s champions would receive an asterisk. Here are some of the most important storylines and narratives that have emerged from within the NBA Bubble:
Are The Phoenix Suns Actually Good?
Does Lou Williams love Magic City wings? The Phoenix Suns have languished in mediocrity since the halcyon Seven Seconds or Less era came to an end in the early 2010s. Since then, the franchise has checked every single box in terms of franchise ineptitude. They squandered high-value draft picks (remember Dragan Bender and Josh Jackson?), had a revolving door at the head coaching position, and have made abhorrent personnel decisions throughout the decade.The Suns were a surprise invitation to play in the Bubble, considering they finished the regular season with a 26-39 record and miniscule odds of qualifying for postseason contention. Despite everything stacked against them, the Suns defied logic and went undefeated in seeding play.
The height of their run came in a victory over the superstar-laden Los Angeles Clippers, when Devin Booker hit an improbable buzzer beater over Twitter’s favourite target of vitriol, Paul “Playoff/Pandemic P” George. Though the team failed to qualify for the playoffs, they put the league on notice as a burgeoning and formidable force for years to come. Their core is solid and improving, with Booker emerging as a virtually unguardable offensive threat, Deandre Ayton becoming the team’s interior threat on both ends of the floor as an elite rim protector and a pick and roll savant, and the reliable Ricky Rubio markedly improving as a shot creator while playing his characteristic, underrated defence. The Suns’ most admirable gains have come from their younger wing players, particularly Mikal Bridges, a player who fits the Andre Igoudala archetype as a perimeter defender, and Cam Johnson, an automatic three point shooter who can guard multiple positions. With their core intact, youth on their side, and Kelly Oubre Jr. reigning supreme as the NBA fits champ, the Suns will be a team to watch in the Western Conference for years to come.
Is The Simmons-Embiid Era in Philly Over?
Not yet! If you’ve spent quarantine binge-watching Love Island or Selling Sunset and you need something to satiate your drama quotient, look no further than the soap opera that is the Philadelphia 76ers. The 76ers were an abject failure for the majority of the last decade until they stumbled into two generational talents in Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, who serve as a testament to the success of Sam Hinkie’s process. Ben Simmons is equal parts tantalizing and frustrating. He has prodigious court vision and is a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate. However, he has difficulty staying on the court and displays an almost comical unwillingness to shoot from outside. Joel Embiid is a carbon copy of Hakeem Olajuwon, a prolific scorer from the post who’s an opposing center’s nightmare on both ends of the court. He also has trouble staying healthy and has faced scrutiny for his conditioning and his frequent social media antics, including a lengthy public courtship of Rihanna.
The duo’s styles of play have not meshed well together, egos have clashed, and their tenure has amounted to three years of playoff futility. The culprit for this turmoil? The complete incompetence of the Elton Brand-led front office. Critics have hoisted blame onto the recently ousted HC Brett Brown as someone who couldn’t incorporate the duo’s skill-set effectively into his offensive schemes. Though this is an accurate critique, the chef is only as good as his ingredients! The front office has been unable to fill the remaining roster with effective shot creators, mishandled the development of young players, and currently has $289 million invested in Tobias Harris and Al Horford. Due to continuity in the front office, Simmons and Embiid being 24 and 26 respectively, and the exorbitant long term deals the franchise is locked into, it would be unreasonable to expect Elton Brand to make any major moves. However, it is imperative that you replace your Netflix subscription with NBA League Pass to watch television’s best drama unfold in Pennsylvania next season.
Black Lives Matter.
In order for the NBA season to resume in the sociopolitical context created by the Black Lives Matter movement, the players demanded that messaging about anti-Black racism be the focal point of gameplay. The social justice-oriented iconography, from the slogans on the backs of each player’s jersey to the pictures of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor on players’ shoes,
has been a stellar, concerted effort from a predominantly Black player base that is equal parts furious with, and terrified of the cyclical acts of violence that disproportionately target members of the Black community. Even though basketball in the Disney Bubble is entering its third month of action, it’s still surreal to see “Black Lives Matter” plastered on centre court and embraced as the bare minimum when it comes to corporate activism, six years after it became a staple of community activist movements in Ferguson and Baltimore.
Though the NBA has been lauded as the most progressive out of the major sports leagues, their player-led demonstrations were preceded by years of WNBA activism. Dating back to 2016, WNBA players wore Black Lives Matter t-shirts, knelt during the national anthem to bring awareness to police brutality and established a Social Justice Council, an arm of the league’s players’ association devoted to conversations about voting rights, police brutality and LGBTQ+ advocacy. In their respective Bubble, their activism has evolved into direct political action, with members of the Atlanta Dream’s “Vote Warnock” campaign, urging team supporters to vote against the Dream’s co-owner who is a vocal opponent of the social justice initiatives undertaken by the league and is currently running for re-election in the US Senate.
Prior to the league’s restart, there was a strong and vocal contingent of players led by Kyrie Irving and Avery Bradley who saw the NBA’s urgency to return to play as emblematic of self-serving corporate greed. A drive to return to play could represent an opportunity to recoup the money lost during the pandemic, capitalizing on the league’s progressive reputation and undercutting the worldwide grassroots movement in the process.
The decision to play during civil unrest faced its ultimate test when footage of Jacob Blake being shot and ultimately paralyzed by a member of the Kenosha Police department went viral. This became a flashpoint for the NBA’s model of activism, with players like Fred VanVleet openly questioning whether the players’ social justice efforts were hollow, futile acts. Then on August 26th, the Milwaukee Bucks took the first step towards what became a league-wide wildcat strike that had reverberations throughout the sports landscape.
In that moment, the players followed in the footsteps of Lew Alcindor, recognizing their collective power and how their highly specialized skill-set could be used as leverage for actionable change by their wealthy employers. While the strike only lasted for several days, the players were able to attain some concessions, including team owners pledging to use their arenas as voting locations and the formation of a social justice coalition.
Though there is still some concern that the movement has been co-opted by the league’s corporate structure, the past couple of months have demonstrated how powerful the modern athlete can be, and how their agency and platform can translate to ever-changing forms of activism. For years the average viewers could insulate themselves from the social-justice issues taking place around them by watching sports as an “escape.” Today, even the most casual NBA fan no longer has that choice.