Shortly before Joe Vardon started covering last year’s NBA playoffs, the sports journalist took his family to Walt Disney World.
„The rooms are meant for you to get a comfortable night’s sleep and then go to the [theme] park,“ Vardon told CNN Business. „They are not built to spend seven full days in them.“
This is life for a reporter inside the „NBA Bubble,“ the quarantine zone inside Disney World designed to keep NBA players and staff from getting sick during what remains of the season and the following playoffs. The bubble houses 20 reporters, 22 teams and will last through October — a massive undertaking that reportedly cost the league more than $150 million.
The campus, with its multiple hotels and complexes such as Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports, is like a chapter out of a dystopian novel. Players, staff, and reporters like Vardon are under the watchful eye of the NBA, which has instituted firm rules to keep everyone safe. That includes daily testing and even wearing proximity alarms to make sure you are maintaining social distance.
For the NBA reporters on the inside, the bubble comes with challenges both professional and emotional. They are isolated from family and friends for months, every day feels the same, and let’s not forget the well documented lackluster food.
Yet, the bubble also offers reporters an opportunity to be part of a historic moment — one that comes at a time when the world desperately needs a win.
„There’s a ‚Groundhog Day‘ element to it“
NBA players inside the bubble have had their fair share of fun fishing and shotgunning beers, much of which is documented in a Twitter account aptly called „NBA Bubble Life.“
For reporters on the ground, however, life is much different.
Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix typically works from about 6:30 a.m. to midnight. His day starts with a workout and a coronavirus test. Then he does TV hits from his hotel room until back-to-back practices or scrimmages begin. Then Mannix writes up the day’s events and goes to bed. Next morning, he does it all over again.
„There’s a ‚Groundhog Day‘ element to it,“ Mannix, who arrived on July 12, told CNN Business. „It’s like rise, wash, repeat, like every single day. There’s not a lot of differences in each day. It’s just going to different practices or different games, but your days start early, and they end late.“
News outlets shell out about $550 a day for each reporter they send to the bubble, which covers the hotel, food and transportation. The league also allows outlets to swap out reporters. Mannix said he might trade places with a colleague from Sports Illustrated in early September before the season wraps up.
Despite having different restrictions than reporters who are closer to the players, announcers calling the games in the bubble also face a unique set of challenges in the age of coronavirus.
Kevin Harlan, a longtime NBA announcer for Turner Sports, told CNN Business that the league and Turner are „doing everything they can to make this sound like a regular broadcast,“ but it’s hard since there won’t be any fans in attendance.
