Get ready for an NBA bubble for 2020-21 season too

Get used to the idea of an NBA bubble for the 2020-21 campaign.

Though the seeding games have yet to start, the NBA‘s bubble experiment in Orlando has been a success so far. With 22 teams entering the Walt Disney Resort bubble, the league enforcing strict protocol and regulations for all its players and zero positive coronavirus tests, to this point, professional basketball has set the standard for other sports leagues to aspire to as they plan their own returns to play.

However, none of this changes the fact that Florida — and the United States in general — remains a hotbed for COVID-19, with the number of cases surpassing 4.4 million cases and 152,000 deaths as of Tuesday. Despite this complete failure to contain the virus by simply wearing masks and maintaining social distancing, the U.S. is now approaching another potential catastrophe with schools attempting to reopen in the fall.

Bearing that in mind, National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts is already speaking an idea into existence that might be a no-brainer if things remain the same over the next few months. According to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Roberts says the NBA might need a bubble for the entire 2020-21 season too.

“If tomorrow looks like today, I don’t know how we say we can do it differently,” she told ESPN.

Roberts is making a factual statement about the NBA, which feels obvious the more you think about it.

While some Americans are finally waking up as to the safety of wearing masks and the severity of this virus, many still believe their rights are being infringed upon, that this is no more deadly than the seasonal flu and that the low mortality rate is no reason to shut down the country. If that mindset holds, and the number of nationwide cases fails to decline, the NBA will be forced to forego a ton of revenue that comes from home games in favor of a bubble that can hold all 30 teams.

Just because the league has had success with its bubble experiment so far doesn’t make this an acceptable outcome. MLB (and likely the NFL soon) has already shown how easily a lack of planning can backfire on a restart for sports, but having an entire NBA season in a bubble would be unprecedented and extremely difficult to facilitate.

Gathering 22 NBA teams for eight seeding games and then the playoffs over a 1-3 month period to finish a season is one thing, but finding a way to do so for 82 regular-season games and another postseason, all while accommodating these players to have family, friends and adequate entertainment around in order to stave off boredom? That would be another matter entirely.

Playing games without fans is already weird enough, but asking these players to forego their social lives and commit to a full season in a bubble is going to be a tough, albeit potentially necessary sell. If everyone in America wore a mask, the coronavirus situation would be under control within 2-3 months. Here’s hoping that unlikely scenario actually materializes between now and the start of the 2020-21 campaign in December.