The NBA was shut down back in March because of the outbreak of COVID 19. For four months the league was in limbo on what it would do or if it would even be able to re-start the season. I thought that it would be impossible for them to restart the season because of the obvious, COVID 19.
However, they spent a King’s ransom to figure out how to successfully play the rest of the season and the playoffs. They created the bubble where once you’re in and COVID 19 free you’re staying in unless there are special circumstances.
Fast-forward to Thursday night’s tip off. I, like most people were skeptical of the atmosphere the league could create and the level of play we would see with boyz being down for four months. It was surprisingly off the hook!! First of all, the level of play was NUTS and the intensity was crazy. There were two games that were decided by a total of 4 points.
The Utah Jazz defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 106-104 and the Lakers beat the Clippers 103-101. Most importantly, the atmosphere was incredible!!! Unless you were looking into the stands you couldn’t tell that there weren’t fans in the building. The NBA piped in fan noise over the arena sound system that was relevant to each play.
For example, if a player dunked or hit a long jumper the fan noise would be the appropriate screams etc. It was like being at the game. I’ve covered the NBA for the past 10 seasons and I literally felt like I was at the game. It was incredible.
Now we’re still in the beginning stages of this experiment but it was a success on Night 1. We’ve still got to trust that boyz are going to do right and stay in the bubble. We’ve already seen the Kings’ Richaun Holmes sneak out to get take out and Lou Williams hanging out at Magic City.
If they can keep these duns inside the bubble and safe this could actually work because the atmosphere was OUTSTANDING! Stop me when I start lyin’!
