July 19, 2020


 

I finished my last room delivered meal and anxiously awaited the knock on my door.  Any time after noon, I will hear the tap that will set me free.  I have tested every day, I was negative every day, I reported my health screenings every day, I only ventured from my room to my testing site every day.  I am ready to roam free the confines of the NBA bubble.  My God, you would think I had been imprisoned for years the way I am talking.  I would not survive in prison.  I wouldn’t.  I had all the comforts of home in my hotel cell but I can’t wait to get out.  I need to get out.  Please, knock soon, knock really soon.

Well heck, it’s only 10 am.  I have a while to go.  I get a very urgent text that we are having a Zoom meeting at, what? 10:00 am? It is for all personnel set to be released from quarantine today.  Please log into the Zoom meeting at 10:00am.  Thanks for the head up!  My computer is already turned on so I find the email that was sent out this morning at 9:38 that I didn’t read, click on the link and join the Zoom meeting.  Luckily, it hasn’t started yet, so I’m good.

This Zoom meeting was by far the most informative of all communications I have received since being here in Orlando.  It was well structured, answered most if not all the questions that everybody had, and was attended by 300 greenies.  300 greenies is the maximum amount of people this Zoom meeting could handle, because my phone kept buzzing from some of my other camera operator brethren that were unable to get into the meeting.  I promised I would take copious notes and fill them in if they had any questions. 

We were told where we were to find our meals, where to drop our laundry, where the future COVID tests would be administered, where to catch the shuttles to the playing venue, what information our credentials would provide, where the boundaries of our bubble were.  We received all the information that we felt we needed. 

The meeting had the ability for you to ask live questions via chat.  The presenters were quick to respond to the questions as they came in, either verbally or in written form for all to read.  It was fantastic.  We were told that we could leave the bubble if we wanted to.  The only thing that would happen is if you choose to leave the bubble, you would be required to serve 10 additional days of quarantine in order to be able to go back to work.  So basically, if I were to leave the bubble and serve 10 days of additional quarantine, there would not be a job for me to return to, and I would be sent packing.  Don’t be that guy.  Don’t leave the bubble.

Everything was clearly expressed in this Zoom meeting. Near the end of the meeting, one of the representatives gave a rather stirring speech regarding the significance of what we have been chosen to participate.  I could tell that he was reading it, but that didn’t matter.  It was damn good, and participants were sending in chats thanking him for his great words as he was speaking.  What we are doing has never been attempted.  We are housed in our own little community.  We are operating under conditions that have never been attempted.  This is a once in a lifetime event and we were selected to participate.  It’s an honor and a curse simultaneously.  I have worked more major sporting events than I can remember, but this one is by far the most unique.  Lots of moving parts, more restrictions than ever before, but if everyone follows the plan that has been put in place, we should be crowning an NBA champion in 3 months or less.

I’m lying on my bed, watching hotel personnel walk back and forth.  No NBA officials, only Disney people.  Come on man, somebody with a handful of credentials, please walk by.  A housekeeper strolls by, then someone making late breakfast deliveries, a security guard.  Where is the NBA official?  Then I hear the knock on my door.  Whoever it is didn’t walk past my door, he or she came from the other direction. I excitedly put on my mask, throw open the door, and…my credential is hanging from the doorknob!  I am free!  I am free!  I am free!

It took me a micro=second to tear off my green wristband.  I no longer had to wear that scarlet letter that signified I was is quarantine. I could strut proudly anywhere within the bubble that my credential allowed, providing I had my credential around my neck.  Put on a mask, throw on that credential, and you were good to go.  I couldn’t wait to begin my exploration of the resort I would call home for the next two plus months.

I headed out of my room in no particular direction.  I figured I would walk around the lagoon that I had been staring at for the past week.  Suddenly there was a flurry of activity outdoors as everyone that had been locked up since last Monday was now released to do what I was doing.  You couldn’t tell because of the masks, but everyone was beaming behind those cloth barriers.  “Hello, great to be out,“ “Nice to see you,”  “This is awesome.” General phrases of greetings and acknowledgement were everywhere.  It was like a Hallmark Christmas movie, you know, where all the citizens of the perfect little holiday village know everyone and greet them with sincerity as they walk past.  Like that.  It was great.  Everyone was so happy to be out of their hole and their joy was apparent.

Having the sun beat down on my face was wonderful. The air was thick and humid, and I began to sweat almost immediately, but I didn’t care.  I felt like I was alive again.  The grounds are clean and pristine, just like you expect a Disney resort to be.  Music played from the disguised speakers throughout the grounds, there are bikes that you can take to ride within the boundaries, several pools amongst the casitas and cabanas and hotel rooms.  That bridge that beckoned me from my room was actually three bridges and I crossed them all.  I happened upon the “Dig Site” which is a huge pool with a water slide, a Jacuzzi pool, snack bar, and arcade.  Donavan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz made a wisecrack regarding the tee shirt I was wearing.  “Hey, who’s the most famous basketball player to come out of Rice?”  I said I didn’t know.  “Nobody!”  He made himself laugh.  But what I thought was funnier than that was I was strolling the grounds in my Rice basketball shirt and shorts and sweating my ass off and he was in sweatpants, a hooded sweatshirt, and a towel around his neck, and he appeared to be perfectly comfortable.

About my attire, I collect NCAA Division 1 basketball gear from locations where I have worked.  If you don’t know about Rice University, it is a small college in Houston that I visited during the NCAA Final Four a couple of years back.  I like wearing the more obscure school’s clothing because it tends to draw comments like I received from Donavan Mitchell.  Or, an alumnus will approach me in the airport and start talking about his alma mater.  I always have to cut them off mid-sentence and let them know I didn’t go to school there.  Then the conversation usually ends.

Our credentials were supposed to have proximity sensors.  Mine did not have one.  After contacting my manager, I was informed that I could pick up my sensor in the Veracruz Ballroom in the convention center. I began my quest to retrieve it.

As I entered the hallway that housed said ballroom, I came upon a world that I did not know existed within our confines.  Keep in mind that while quarantined, I didn’t get fed a lot of information.  I was provided with a lot of food, just not a lot of information.  The convention center is huge, really huge.  Within that convention center are a great number of very large ballrooms.  The NBA had converted all the ballrooms into either full sized practice courts, recreation centers, media interview locations, team lounges, weight rooms, and team dining areas.  And within this newfound area, are most, if not all, of the 22 NBA teams that make up the restart.  It is here where they can practice, hold team meetings, do everything they would normally do at their home facilities.  Oh look, there is the Celtics lounge, the Rockets lounge, the Lakers lounge is down that hall, OKC it right there, Clippers over in that corner?  Is that Doc Rivers?  Why yes it is.  Anthony Davis is rapidly approaching.  James Harden is kicking back listening to music.  He appears to be in his own little world.  Within this bubble, we are closer to the men that play this game than we are at any time during a regular season.  And everyone, everyone, is wearing a mask.  No questions asked, no push back, everyone is following protocol to insure we get this thing done.  Wouldn’t it be crazy if we had this type of teamwork outside this containment?  Just sayin’…

Where was I going?  Oh yeah, to get my proximity sensor.  I kept my head on a swivel as I continued down the endless hallway, but it was fun to try to identify the players that had half their faces covered in linen.  No comments about my Rice shirt in here though.

Once I picked up my sensor, I attached it to my credential and tested it by standing within six feet of another employee that had activated his sensor.  Beep, beep, beep.  It works.  Now I have all my COVID equipment to keep me in line, to keep me safe, to minimize the risk of attracting  this virus that has brought the nation to its knees, but spawned a once in a lifetime event.

Let’s see, I have my credential, my proximity sensor, my facemasks, my NBA health app, my daily COVID tests, my thermometer, my pulse-ox reader, and my wristband.  I haven’t said much about the wristband, but this baby can do everything.

When I was given the wristband at check in, I thought it was only for access to my room, instead of a key card.  I hold it up to the sensor on the door, it unlocks the lock, and I enter.  But this wristband does so much more.  All of my test results are fed into the software that controls my wristband. All of the data that I input into my NBA health app is loaded into that same software.  My credit card information is fed into that wristband so I can buy anything I want within the Disney confines simply by waving my wristband in front of a sensor.  Except Disney doesn’t have my credit card information.  No one asked for my credit card for incidentals when I checked in.  So I won’t be using that function.

Anyway, regarding the wristband…every time you enter a restricted area, you must wave your wristband in front of a sensor.  If the light flashes green, you are good to go.  If it is blue, there is an issue with your test results, meaning you may have missed a test, a daily evaluation, something is amiss.  The representative manning the station will take down your information and someone will investigate what the issue is and contact your directly.  If it flashes red, well, you don’t want it to flash red.  Red is not good.  Red means there is a major issue with your tests and you are whisked away to medical.  So far, we have not observed any red flashes.

These sensor stations are everywhere around the Coronado Springs Resort and at the Wide World of Sports complex.  The NBA has done a spectacular job providing us with a safe work environment and their hard work and attention to detail is pretty amazing. 

I decided to catch the shuttle over to the WWOS complex to check out where I will be working for the next two and half months.  I had hoped that we would be able to walk to work each day but that is prohibited.  Being as our resort and the WWOS complex are not adjacent to one another, the only allowable way to get there is via one of the private Disney shuttles that runs every 30 minutes between the two venues.  We were given explicit instructions on how to load the bus.  Load back to front, and exit front to back.  This minimizes our sweaty bodies passing one another, just one more protocol trying to reduce the spread of infection.

It’s a 3.3 mile trip to the complex from our resort.  I don’t know if it is east, or north, or west, or south.  I lose all sense of direction when I am here in Orlando.  There are no mountains for reference, and the clouds block the sun, so I can never figure out which way I am going.  The bus I am on only goes to the green entrance of the complex.  Remember, we cannot mix with those red and yellow folks.  This is a segregated community, but in a good way.

After we disembark properly from the bus, we must register our sensors prior to entering the WWOS complex.  There are numerous barricades throughout the area that separate the green people from the yellow people.  The red people aren’t allowed on inside the complex.  Those which are red that work at the WWOS complex remain outside the perimeter of the park.  All the walkways within the park are for green or yellow.  There are no chartreuse lanes. Get it?  Mix green and yellow and you get chartreuse?  Clever!

There are three arenas where all the games will be played, the Arena, the HP Fieldhouse, and the Visa Athletic Center. All the arenas must be connected to the various mobile television trucks that are parked outside the complex in a very large parking lot.  There are literally miles of cable that is neatly dressed that runs from one arena to the other, to the other, and out to the television compound.  From there all the signals coming from these cables are split to the various trucks. ESPN and Turner are responsible for the production of the games.  Some games will be carried by regional sports networks, but all will be provided by either of these two sports networks giants.  The two networks have been collaborating for months when this idea was hatched and the end result of that collaboration is evident in the neatness of the way everything is laid out.  Each network will be covering games in all three arenas, and there has to be the ability to have one game produced by ESPN, then the next by Turner, with minimal interference.  The two networks do not share all the cameras on each court, but when they do, the signal must be able to be easily switched from one truck to the other.  There have been personnel here on site long before I went into quarantine setting all of this equipment in place and insuring that it operates properly.  Everything is labeled and dressed and tucked out of the way so none of the behind the scenes stuff appears on the scene.  Nobody truly appreciates all the work that these early birds have done until you get here and see all the work those early birds have done!

 

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