Bubble Basketball
A writer couldn’t have scripted it better. The same giant Frenchman who brought the NBA to a screeching halt in March, really hammering home the reality of our new reality in the United States, scored the first point in the NBA’s rebooted summer season. The Jazz seemed to look for the defensive specialist more often than normal in the post, forced to adjust their offense without sharpshooter Bojan Bogdanovic, not to mention Mike Conley still not playing like Grit and Grind Mike Conley. Rudy Gobert finished with 14 pts, 12 boards, and 3 blocks as the Utah Jazz prevailed over the New Orleans Pelicans, somehow led by JJ Redick.
I got some major uncanny valley vibes in this first game, feelings which began in the more barebones scrimmages over the past week. I was hopeful those would fade away with actual stakes. But when Trust the Process Zion went up for an early dunk, Ian Eagle reacted with a raw in the moment comment that if there was a crowd, they would’ve gone crazy over that dunk. Dang, Ian, that just reminded me that there weren’t 20,000 screaming fans in the arena.
Similarly, those early social distance coaches corners with Coach Quin Snyder felt straight out of the NBA2K. Impressive for the medium, but still not quite the real deal — something I learned quite painfully in the early days of quarantine, cracking open a cold one (just kidding, I don’t drink beer) and running various hoops simulations on my PS4 in vain. It was especially dissonant given some of the content, “Black Lives Matter,” a theme hammered home throughout the NBA on TNT’s doubleheader. With two intercutting talking heads not making eye contact, I think only a coach like Pop or the Zen Master could’ve pulled off something that impossible.
But in other ways, Jazz-Pelis, Lakers-Clips felt more personal and human. For the record, this had been the longest I had ever been without either holding a ball or watching ball probably since I would walk. But nonetheless, I’ve never felt closer to the players that I stan. I started feeling that way during the NBA2k Tournament, with players chopping it up casually about their families, their pets, and just how they were passing time in quarantine. They were playing the same games I was playing, and raging over 2k cheese in the same way I do.
And last night, between audible cheers from the bench, and player chatter on the court, it felt more like international play, with the voices of our stars rising above everything else. These ballers were front and center, but they also were the crowd. With high fives — pardon me fist bumps— players seemed ready to show out, with social justice messages on their backs.
We also had those virtual fans, looking like the zany faces of a heated Guess Who boardgame battle. Maybe it’s a way to keep players and fans connected during this time of social distance. But what I found interesting is how the bubble complicates our notion of home court advantage and how much fans even matter.
A recent WSJ piece notes that a professor of finance at Yale School of Management found that in NBA games played since 1947 the home team wins 61 percent of the time—a much larger share than in football, hockey and baseball. But the professor’s conclusion was that had to do with how home court crowds influence referees.
I’d argue that the more ardent the fan, the less surprised he/she would be about this conclusion. And yet, speaking as a rabid fan, I’d also like to think I’m the reason Wade showed out in his last game against Lebron, just like Spike is the reason Reggie got mad and went off.
Call me stupidstitious, but I still believe HCA matters, which is why for woeful on the road teams like the Philadelphia 76ers, they’ll be leaving the bubble and going back to the City of Brotherly Love sooner rather than later. It’s also why I’m worried about young teams like the Miami Heat, where you see a totally different Kendrick Nunn at AmericanAirlines Arena vs. anywhere else.
Underneath all the fanfare and optimism though, part of increasingly seeing these players as I see myself also means I’m worried for them. I’m definitely rooting for them. But I’m worried. Things almost felt normal last night and with the world on fire, sometimes sports can be our only outlet to let loose. In the 4th, when AD and Lebron went back and forth with Kawhi and PG, and my Very Serious IG Sports Chat was blowing up, I was almost seduced. But maybe in certain times it’s OK just to sit with the feeling that the world is on fire a bit longer — without distractions.
Anyway, as is his custom, Doc did a good job speaking to this larger moment: