July 31, 2020

 

With the second day of the restart underway, I we able to return to work and broadcast two games back to their respective regional markets. These two games were not nationally televised games.  We provided the signal for the local markets of the teams that were playing.  The first game, the hapless Wizards against the Suns from Phoenix, was, to put it gently, a very ugly game.  Neither of these teams will make it to the playoffs, and if they do, will be eliminated in the first rounds.  Both teams are either injury riddled or young and they don’t possess the talent to compete with the elite teams in the NBA,

 

The second game was quite a bit more competitive.  It was the Sacramento Kings against the San Antonio Spurs.  The Kings are very young as well, but they seemed much more cohesive than the previous teams that played before them.  San Antonio led most of the way yet the Kings had spurts of offense that kept them in the game before the Spurs eventually won.  Greg Popovich, the animated head coach for the Spurs wore a mask throughout the game, only removing it to scream at the referees. After he scolded them numerous times during the contest, he would put his mask back on and continue coaching.

 

Before each game, there was a short Black Lives Matter video that was aired. The video was excellently produced and all the players and coaches watched intently.  Messages of inequality and social injustice rang throughout, presented in a very emotional manner.  My eyes got a little teary as I zoomed in on Becky Hammond being embraced by Patty Mills.  She is the female assistant coach of the Spurs and I think will one day be the first female head coach in the NBA.  He is an Australian player on the Spurs who is black.  She appeared to be affected by the intensity of the video more than he as there were tears on her cheeks as he hugged her for the entirety of the video playback. The playing of the National Anthem followed.  During the Star Spangled Banner, all players were on their knees with their arms interlocked. Whether you agree with this form of protest or not, to me it is very non-violent way of bringing attention to an issue that has gone on for far too long.  They are not disrespecting the military, the police, the nation.  They are using a very visible platform to bring attention to the injustice that has plagued the black community for centuries. 

 

John Carlos and Tommie Smith did the same thing back in 1968 at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City.  They did not kneel, but they had their heads bowed and gloved fists thrust into the air as our National Anthem played after Smith had won the 200 meters and Carlos came in third. That was fifty eight years ago and we are dealing with the same issues today.  Fifty eight years ago.  Fifty eight…

 

But let’s get back to the games.  My director for the games was Howie Singer.  I have been working post season basketball with Howie for the past three seasons with Turner, but he is the full time director for the New York Knicks and has worked for the Knicks for almost four decades.  He also has directed basketball the past four Summer Olympics for NBC.  They guy has been around and I am grateful that I get to work with Howie again during this restart.  But this almost didn’t happen.

 

In March, Howie was stricken with COVID. His symptoms were not mild.  In fact, his symptoms were terrible.  He was hospitalized for eight days, lost fifteen pounds, and at one desperate moment during his sickness, responded to a colleague that he just wanted to die.  That was a moment of desperation he admits, but the pain was relentless and he says that comment was basically a description of how poorly he felt.  He never required a ventilator but the experience left him with an appreciation for life that was apparent in his voice as he told each and every one of us on headsets that day how wonderful it was to hear our voices. He is one of two people that I know personally that have contracted the virus.  The other, another fellow New Yorker, is an editor for “60 Minutes” but his symptoms were nowhere near what Howie endured.

 

When I got back to the resort after the games, a few of the guys were meeting at the pool for a few late night beverages.  It was about 11:30 pm and the pool was packed…with men!  It was another sausage fest.  Not a female in sight, and I was shocked how many guys were downright drunk.  I do not understand the idea of drinking to the point of losing control only to eventually drag one’s self to bed and rise in the morning. 

 

The social distancing patrol was highly active at this hour, but didn’t have much impact as the men were keeping a good distance from one another.  There were several competing speakers blasting a variety of music depending what part of the pool you ventured.  I was sipping on a rum and coke that I made last longer than I wanted.  The sight of a bunch of drunken males was not holding my interest, so I said goodnight and called it a day.

 

However, prior to hitting the sack, I got a notification on my phone that the interview I did with the Arizona Daily Star had been released, at least the on line version, and the print version would go out in the morning.  I opened the link to the story and read it before I went to bed.  I thought it was very well written and Bruce Pascoe made what I was experiencing seem a bit more glamorous and prestigious that it actually was, at least from my perspective.  But then again, I am probably jaded as I have been around professional athletes most of my life.  I need to learn to not take things for granted, especially opportunities like this.

Here is the article:

After seven days of quarantine inside a Disney World hotel room, daily coronavirus tests, mandatory monitor-wearing — and a brief fishing encounter with all-star Paul George — Tucson cameraman Darrin Pierce has reached a conclusion about the restarted NBA season.

That is, whoever wins the championship might not be the team you expect.

“I was out on one of the walkways that goes into the middle of the lagoon with my fishing pole and (George) walks over with his fishing pole,” Pierce said. “Everyone stays apart, and I didn’t ask him any basketball questions, but I did ask him how he was dealing with being in a bubble. He said ‘It’s a mental change.’

“So that’s what I think. I don’t think the best team is gonna win this. I think it’ll be the team that’s the best mentally prepared because the players’ lifestyle has been altered incredibly under these circumstances.”

So have the lifestyles of crewmen such as Pierce, the Tucson-based cameraman who is working for Turner during the NBA restart.

Often seen at McKale Center working a hand-held camera under the south basket near the UA bench, Pierce, 60, is now operating a “slash” camera near the corner of the floor for Turner-produced NBA games in Orlando. That means he’s been put inside the same “green” bubble as NBA players and coaches, and thus is subject to the most restrictions — and the least amount of recreational opportunities.

It’s pretty much the opposite of his normal existence, in which he’s either roaming the country doing freelance sports camera work for ESPN, Fox and Turner or chatting up folks at the Oro Valley brewpub he operates, Growler USA.

“COVID has taken a toll on everybody, but in this particular bubble — which he’s proud and honored to be a part of — the toughest thing for him is not being able to go out and talk to people,” says Pierce’s wife, Deidre. “He’s just such a social guy.”

So even for somebody who filmed air-to-air missile launchings from the backseat of a F-18 fighter jet during a 31-year Raytheon career and recorded exhausting football scenes in triple-digit heat at Sun Devil Stadium for the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire,” life in the NBA bubble been something else completely.

“I would say this is by far the most unique, because it’s never been done on this scale,” Pierce says.

In a phone interview with the Star this week, Pierce detailed life inside the “green” bubble, where his Turner work could last until Sept. 29 before ESPN and ABC carry the NBA Finals.

In off hours, he is free to roam Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort but only after spending one quarantine night at the Waldorf Astoria upon arrival and initial testing, and then spending another seven locked inside his Coronado Springs room.

“For the first three days, they drop the food off at your door. I had an envelope that I had to have mailed, and when the guy came to pick it up, you could have sworn I was handing him nuclear waste. He was in a full (hazmat) suit and he grabbed it with one of those 6-foot-long prong things. I had to make sure I put the envelope in a plastic bag and all kinds of crazy stuff. But those are the rules that they put forth.”

Also during “the first two days, someone comes up and gives you a COVID test in the doorway, then you close the door and go back in there and wait for the next day. After the second or third day, they said, ‘OK, now you can get your COVID test over in one of these two casitas,’ which luckily for me was just around the corner from my room. Well, that day one of our guys decided he was going to break the rules a little bit and not go directly back to his room. Then he had a discussion with one of the NBA security people and he was asked to leave the next day. That’s how we learned that we don’t question anything. We’re gonna do what has been assigned to us. … We feel pretty damn fortunate to be able to do whatever they allow us to do.”

During quarantine, “I was able to do some of the (Growler USA) business. Every morning I’d order beer or do timecards or something related to the business. So that kept me busy. And then I would start watching things on Netflix, because you could stream your tablet to the TV screen in the room, which was a big plus. But then I also realized that this is a very unique situation, so I started chronicling every day. I’m writing five pages a day on my experiences here, not so much on what I’ve done every day, but things that other guys have told me that have happened to some of them.”

Pierce said he had to wear a green bracelet during his short walk to and from the daily testing area, signifying he was still in quarantine, until the seven days were up. Then he traded it for a credential embedded with a proximity sensor and other required equipment.

“We have the same restrictions as the players (inside the green zone). We get tested for COVID every day. We have to do an NBA health app every morning when we wake up, which checks our oxygen levels and our temperatures, and we also wear contact-tracing proximity sensors. It’s inside of our credentials, which we have to wear everywhere we go. It’ll beep if you get too close to somebody, and then it reports out on who you beeped against. So if one of us were to come down with something it knows, ‘OK, well, Darrin was close to Steve and was close to Bob’ and all this information is fed into a wristband that we wear.

“Every so often there’s checkpoints where we go. We have to stick our wristband on this sensor, and if it turns green then we’re good to go. But if it’s a different color, we get pulled aside. It’s a reading that lets NBA officials know you are up to date on your COVID testing, that you haven’t had any positive tests and that all your readings on the NBA heath app are within the boundaries of being satisfactory.”

Pierce says all that makes him feel like he’s never been in a safer environment than he is inside the green zone, although it is still limiting – even more so for camera operators. While players are allowed to bowl and golf, and even referees are also allowed to golf or hit the driving range, TV staffers in the green zone are limited to fishing, pickleball, weightlifting, limited bike rides and a ¾-mile running track.

“We did a little makeshift Wiffle ball baseball game (recently), all of us guys in the green zone. But the players can do more than the referees, who can do more than the rest of us. We are only allowed to stay within the confines of this resort, or get on the bus and go to the Wide World of Sports Complex where the three arenas are. And in those arenas there are pathways where only the green people can walk in, so it keeps us separated from the yellow people, which keeps them separated from the red people.”

Darrin Pierce relaxes — mask on — during his time in the NBA’s Orlando, Florida “bubble.”

Photo courtesy of Darrin Pierce

Yes, there are green people, yellow people and red people. Pierce explained.

“The yellow ones are allowed in the arena but they don’t need to be on the floor, like your cameramen who are up higher and the announcers. And red is not allowed in the complex at all. They’ve got to stay out where the television trucks and stuff are.”

About 10 cameras are used for national broadcasts in Orlando, including robotic cameras underneath and on top of each basket. There are other robotic “beauty” cameras for wide shots of the arena or shots of corridors where players walk in. The fact that Pierce was selected to operate a slash camera near the floor is not only a prestigious post, but also gives him freedom to follow action or emotion that might be happening off the ball — particularly in the unusual setup of the fan-less Disney arenas.

“The crowd shots are something we don’t have to worry about anymore, so we do focus more when there is going to be a great reaction. And players are not sitting on a bench. They’re up off of the floor, separated. So before the game starts, we sit there and analyze, ‘OK, I know LeBron (James) is gonna be sitting there when he’s not playing. I know this guy, that guy, I know where Zion Williamson is gonna be sitting.’ So sometimes as a slash camera operator, you can take chances. You don’t have to follow the ball all the time. If I have a feeling that something’s gonna happen, I can just go sit (the camera) on LeBron on the bench and look for his reaction. And if it doesn’t happen, then I just go back to my regular coverage, because we have enough cameras that are following the ball.”

But the uniquely lighted Disney arenas are also forcing cameramen to make some challenging adjustments.

“Our slash cameras are usually a little further back, a little higher up, so the angles are a little different. It takes a while to get used to that. Same with the game camera (a wide shot following the action on the court) and the tight camera (which typically isolates a ballhandler or key figure). They’re a lot closer than they normally would be. And the fact that they have LED boards all the way around the court, there’s a lot of reflection … a lot of these lights are lower than they normally would be.

“I played basketball in Europe after I got out of college, so I went out there on the court and I was just screwing around shooting 3-pointers from the baseline. And the lights were so low, it was almost like you really had to adjust. … These lights are kind of in your field of view while you’re shooting a baseline jumper.”

Though he can’t focus too much on the ambient noise inside the arena — with directors in one ear of his headset and game announcers in another — Pierce said he can pick up some unique sounds in environments that are customized to accommodate the designated home team.

“If a team was normally the home team, then everything on that court and in any of the signage in that arena will all be about that team. The court markings, which will be done virtually, will also be for that team. Even though the players won’t see it, the viewers will. They’ll also have sound effects and music and that kind of stuff for the home team.”

Darrin Pierce’s job as a cameraman has taken him to many of the country’s top sporting events, including the U.S. Open.

Photo courtesy of Darrin Pierce

 “The Lakers seem to have an event at this restaurant in the middle of the lagoon three times a week, and you see them coming off all together, everyone flocked around LeBron and Anthony Davis. I was sitting in a Jacuzzi and (Toronto’s) Serge Ibaka came by and he was listening to music on his phone. I had a Bluetooth speaker. So we put the music on my speaker. He’s from the Congo, so there’s this kind of different music I never heard before. He told me about that kind of stuff. I see (Lakers assistant coach and former UA star) Miles Simon running around all the time. He’s always on the phone or on a bicycle.

“But again, they really want us to stay away from the players. Even though we have access, the NBA is spending millions of dollars to put this on and they don’t want anybody to become infected whether it’s us or anybody else. So we do our best to distance ourselves.”

As a result, Pierce says he has no worries about his safety within the bubble — and wonders more about what life will be like when he leaves. Already he’s compared notes with his nephew, Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly, and says he’s skeptical of how baseball will do outside of a bubble.

“I have no concerns at all. The NBA is learning as they’re going. I think initially when we first opened up, I thought, ‘My gosh, they thought of everything.’ But they make changes as they go along, realizing certain things should be done this way. They changed our bus pickup to the arenas, away from where the players’ buses were just because they didn’t want us that close to the players. I think they’ve done a fantastic job.”