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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