Several weeks in a bubble will present unknown challenges as the NBA concludes its season.
THE LENGTH OF time is nearly five weeks.
“Say that again?” CJ McCollum asked, just to be clear.
Forty days is roughly how long, at a minimum, each of the 22 NBA teams in Orlando, Florida, will reside in the Walt Disney World Resort bubble. In a late June call to discuss his latest venture — McCollum Heritage 91, an Oregon pinot noir — the conversation with the Portland Trail Blazers’ star veered toward how he’ll keep busy for the duration of the 2019-20 NBA season.
After hearing again how long the shortest stay is projected to be, there was a long pause from McCollum.
“I don’t think I’ve processed it,” he finally offered.
In trying to describe the unprecedented challenges in the restrictive bubble, a Western Conference NBA general manager said shared activities and camaraderie, especially meals, will take on critical importance. McCollum agreed. He was shipping wine to Orlando, including his own.
Such an element might seem trivial, but the small acts of normalcy that McCollum has leaned on in recent months — video games, music, television, phone calls and Zoom sessions with family, even a glass of wine — are ones he’ll lean on more heavily in the NBA bubble.
“We won’t be able to live the same life we’ve been living pre-quarantine,” he said, “but we’ll still be able to have nice meals together.”
Yet with physical distance encouraged more than ever, there will be untold hours of solitude. Among players, the mental toll has been a key point of discussion upon entry to the Disney campus.
“It’s tough,” San Antonio guard DeMar DeRozan recently told reporters. “You’re taking guys that have been with their families every single day for the last few months and all of sudden, separating everybody into this one confined space and taking away a lot of joyful things we do outside of basketball…. It’ll be something for every single player when it comes to mental health.”
In interviews with several team executives and officials tied to player health, and specifically mental health, that very factor is being declared as the bubble’s most looming unknown. How those inside are able to cope could well determine the bubble’s viability and success.
“Not being able to see your family, being there for three months, playing games with no fans — it’s going to be mental,” Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “You’ve got to push yourself through this.”
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WHEN THE PANDEMIC struck, NBPA director of mental health and wellness Dr. William Parham and other NBPA officials provided players with literature and resources about the physiological adjustment to being confined to their respective living spaces for an unknown length of time.
