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So this Thursday the NBA gets its turn as the next major sport to take on the mighty Covid. They probably couldn’t have asked for a better act to follow than MLB. Rob Manfred’s looked so ineffectual that he’s got Roger Goodell sipping tea in his basement. For those that find themselves outside of the “I can’t believe they’re even trying to play sports now,” contingent, the NBA has generally been lauded for having a sophisticated plan set forth. They’re spending a reported $150 million* on the Orlando bubble and despite what Gary Bettman fanboys might say, they were the first major sport to announce a restart plan. They even got Brooklyn point guard and captain of the 1957 Regis High School basketball team, Dr. Anthony Fauci to sign off on their detailed plan.
*Just imagine the amount they were set to lose if they spent this much to resume.
The concern for most involved is and should be health. All involved in the bubble so far - players, team staff, league officials, support services, & media - seem to be taking that pretty seriously. There’s testing every day, at least initially, and strict recourse for those that choose to Rudy Gobert it. The non-serious stuff as always with the NBA is the drama inherent in employing young, famous millionaires that play a game at the highest level humans are capable of. Sure there are rules but do they really apply to you? It’s a volatile mix of talent, privilege, and bravado. The NBA, it’s fantastic.
One of those recent stories involved Lou Williams, the reigning 6th Man of the Year, who was outed for being at Magic City, a popular Atlanta strip club, while on approved leave for personal matters. Although many felt such an illicit excursion was bound to happen, it didn’t look good for the NBA set-up to see players possibly endangering others and the whole season by traveling outside of the bubble. But in Lou Williams’ defense, he went to the funeral of someone that was very important in his life and at some point took a private jet to Magic City in Atlanta (who incidentally is only operating as a restaurant right now) to eat some of his favorite food, a common respite from mourning. I mean the guy’s got a Signature Style named after him there.
Also of note here is how the NBA is responding to William’s possible exposure. He will be quarantined for 10 days inside the bubble, miss the first two Clippers games, and lose $150,000 in salary. That’s a pretty strong message to teams and players that violations can be very costly. If I were the Lakers, I’d want Williams banned for the rest of the season. The NBA restart goes down like this. There are 22 teams that were deemed close enough to a playoff spot that were invited to Orlando. Between July 30th and August 14th, they will each play 8 seeding games to determine their spot in the playoffs. If after all these games, the 8th seed is not more than 4 games ahead of the 9th seed, they will play each other in play in games for the 8th and final playoff spot. Also known as the Get Zion Williamson in the Playoffs corollary.
I’m not changing any of my season preview playoff predictions, that’s kinda amateur and anyway, it looks like I’ll have 13 of the 16 teams correct anyway (brushes shoulders off). Really disrespected the Raptors and I’m sorry for that. My Sixers pick for the Finals isn’t looking good and they may be turning to drastic measures, as Ben Simmons has been playing some at power forward with Shake Milton running point. Shake played point at SMU under Larry Brown and he can play. The move could prove interesting because Philly running on all cylinders has pretty top notch talent. They just haven’t been on the same level as the Bucks, Raptors, and Celtics consistently.
In the West there’s a fight for the 8th seed. Memphis surprised many this year by contending so quickly with a young core but they’re gonna have a fight on their hands with the Blazers and Pelicans hot on their heels, not to mention the usually never grouped together Kings, Spurs, and Suns still with a shot. But I’m gonna stick with the team I originally picked as the 6th seed in the West, and that’s Dame Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers. I think the team that made the Western Conference Finals last year will surge ahead of two teams whose best players are the top two rookies this year.
Hopefully things go well and there are no health issues. That would be something though, if it all worked out. I think we want it to work out. But I guess we’re simply not going to know until we play the games and see what happens. And one thing is for sure, we’ll have never seen anything like this before.