September 5, 2020
When I visited the dining center in the morning for a cold
beverage (I hadn’t eaten breakfast since being released from quarantine) the
tables were filled with family members that had been allowed to enter the
bubble recently. As I meandered amongst them it was clear by their
conversations this was not going to be the Disney vacation they had been
anticipating. It seems that they were a
bit disappointed with the lack of extracurricular activities and the excessive
heat that continued to bear down upon us. I’m not privy to exactly what
activities are available to them but I assume they can’t do a whole heck of a
lot. You can only go to the pool and walk
the grounds so many times. However, if
we are out there playing whiffle ball and they want to join in, they are more
than welcome.
Michael Malone, the head coach of the Denver Nuggets, had some
unkind words to say about the NBA when they allowed family members of the
players to enter the bubble but not those of the coaching staff and others
inside this restricted area.
“This is day number sixty, and the reason I bring that up is
because the players have their families here, which they deserve, which is the
right thing to do. The referees are allowed to bring one guest, which is great
for the referees. But coaches – the coaches are not allowed to bring anybody. I
say shame on you, NBA. This is crazy. I miss my family. And I think I speak for
me. I speak for my coaches and probably all the coaches down here. Sixty days,
and not having access and not being granted the privilege to have my family
come here, to me, is criminal in nature. And that shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be
at all. So, I wanted to get that off my chest.”
The head coach
of the Dallas Mavericks Rick
Carlisle, who is also the NBA’s Coaches Association President, released a
statement shortly after Malone’s remarks about coaches not being allowed to have family
in the bubble and called it a “criminal decision” by the league.
“The challenges of being away
from family for so long can be overwhelming. NBCA discussions with league
office are ongoing. We will continue to work with the NBA as partners to
evaluate the viability of coaches’ families coming to Orlando as more teams
exit,”
You can understand Michael Malone’s frustrations. It must be
hard for the coaches to be away from their families for so long, especially
when they are watching players mingling with their loved ones here in the
bubble. With that being said, hopefully, the NBA addresses this situation.
Coaches should have the right to have their families with them in the bubble.
Now if only we could get a seat at the table when it comes to us folk working
to broadcast the games that would be awesome.
A man can dream, can’t he?
I did speak to a couple of referees regarding them having a
guest join them here. They said they
don’t know any fellow officials that took advantage of the offer because each
referee had to foot the bill of that guest joining them on the inside, to the
tune of about five thousand dollars.
They would have to pay for their quarantine, their room, their food,
their testing, everything. It isn’t a free offer, it’s only a possibility if
they are willing to pay. I am not sure
what the cost is for the player’s families to come and who is responsible for
paying that but it can’t be cheap. At
least I felt comfort in someone saying publicly what it really feels like
sometimes here working for the NBA. We
miss our families, at least I do. I
don’t know how military men and women do it and are able to function properly
under conditions that are thrust upon them but it made me think.
I met a new friend today at the pool. While kicking back, reading my book, a small
lizard crawled upon one of my sandals and decided to make it his resting spot
for a good fifteen minutes. This little
reptile was bold as heck and didn’t scare easily. When I reached to try to touch him, he didn’t
sprint away from me he only moved an inch or two. I figured I may as well leave him alone
because I enjoyed looking at him now and then as he did his little pushups and
extended that red bulge from his neck every so often. I think I am starting to act like Tom Hanks
in “Castaway.”
In between observing my lizard friend and reading the book I got
distracted by the volleyball game taking place in the pool. It was pretty obvious the rules of the game
were being made on the fly as this was not your typical volleyball game. Instead of one net there were two nets that
intersected each other forming four quadrants, one for each player. It reminded me of that old elementary school
game called four-square. Anyway, as the
participants got deeper into their game and rules interpretations, at one point
there was a disputed call. I had no idea
what the call referred to and for that matter neither did the participants
because the rules were ever changing.
One of the players said “Let’s ask one of the refs for an
interpretation.” To that, one of the
other players said loudly enough for those of us nearby to hear “We don’t have
that kind of time. They’ll want to go to
the replay and watch it over and over before they make a decision.” Ouch!
An obvious dig at our friends in the stripes. (They don’t wear striped
shirts in the NBA but you know what I mean.) That drew a great deal of laughter
along with some stern looks but everyone knew it was all in fun…or did they?
I had another late game tonight.
The other TNT crew worked the Raptors Celtics game where Toronto evened
up that series with a convincing victory.
I wonder if that last second defeat the Celtics suffered the game prior
is going to come back to haunt them.
They could have begun tonight’s game with a three nothing cushion and
now the series is tied. Our game with
the Clippers losing to the Nuggets was one of those sloppy games that appeared
like no one wanted to win. After Los
Angeles won handily a couple of days ago I hoped for an easy sweep of the team
from Denver. As our announcers for the
game, Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller pointed out, you never know what team is
going to show up here in the bubble. No
real home court advantage, no fans to cheer you on, no distractions to act as a
positive or a negative, nothing is normal so why would anyone expect each team
to play normally day in and day out? With the series tied at one it means this
series will go at least five games, and there will be no sweeps during this
second round.
I did notice something which I thought was a bit improper while
scanning the families and friends that were there watching the game. Lou
Williams was forced to sit out several games earlier in the restart because he
had left for a family issue. During that
time away from the bubble he made an unplanned trip to a strip club in Atlanta
named Magic City. He claimed he stopped
there to get some wings because they had really good wings. That little detour received quite a bit of
negative publicity for Lou and this late in the restart I had almost forgotten
about it. That was until I saw one of
his people wearing a Magic City facemask in the stands. To me, that was not a good idea.
There was supposed to be party, more or less, in the parking lot
when we got off the bus returning from the game. Earlier, some of the greenies had set up a
big screen television and sound system to watch the games along with a portable
bar and lights, kind of like a makeshift sports bar. By the time we returned all of that had been
torn down and put away. We were only a tem minute bus ride after the game and
we boarded the shuttle twenty minutes after the game so they had to have torn
everything out in less than a half hour.
Dejected we headed for the pool area for a nightcap and I was in bed by
1:30 am. Come to find out three of those
there got to bed at 6:00 am. I cannot
and will not do that to my body. That’s
because my body will make me pay for it for days to come.
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