The Bubble Experiment Worked
With the Lakers winning the 2020 NBA Championship last night, bubble basketball is surely over. It was quite the experience, and here are my thoughts.
When the NBA started talks of an NBA Bubble, I was originally opposed to the idea. America was in a rough place with Covid and Racial Inequality. It seemed unlikely that the NBA season would return.
Then bubble basketball was invented. It would be in Orlando, Florida and 16 teams would compete. Although everybody was happy, questions still remained. How would the players stay safe? What would the quality of basketball look like? How would the NBA address Black Lives Matter? There was so much uncertainty and things to be known, and we all just kind of waited.
And while the players entered the bubble, things were pretty shaky. There was the Lou Williams wings fiasco, lots of players getting Covid, and players not going to the bubble in general for reasons such as family. Things were still up in the air. That all changed when basketball was finally starting to be played.
The first big game of the bubble was the Battle of LA, a hopeful preview of the Western Conference Finals (it didn’t happen). The game was great, and bubble basketball was looked like normal basketball. It was the beginning of something truly special.
As we went on through the seeding games, lots of story lines emerged. The 8-0 Suns, Dame Dolla being the best player in the world, Lakers, Bucks, and Clippers struggling, Cancun on 3, lots of things happened in a short span. It was a lot of fun to watch all that was happening, because it was new to all of us.
When the dust settled, the Blazers got into the playoffs and the Bubble playoffs were set. It was a continuation of something special. The first round featured some great moments, here’s a few to refresh your memory:
Magic and Blazers beat #1 seeds in Game 1
Luka Doncic Destroys Clippers
Rockets vs Thunder Epic Game 7
Nuggets 3-1 Comeback; Murray vs Mitchell Duel
The Process Failed
It really felt like playoffs, and we were all amazed at how effective the bubble was. The bubble was the safest place in America, and the basketball coming from it was top-tier. And the hits kept on coming as in the 2nd round, the Celtics and Raptors had an epic 7 game series. The Nuggets again came back from a 3-1 series deficit. The Lakers dominated and the Heat continued their magical run by upsetting the #1 seeded Milwaukee Bucks and two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Conference Finals gave us the Lakers again dominating, by defeating the Nuggets 4-1. The Heat continued their amazing playoff run by defeating the Celtics, advancing to the NBA Finals. This set up quite an interesting Finals, the powerhouse Lakers vs the magical Heat. It seemed like quite the mismatch, but the series was much closer than you might expect.
But the Lakers prevailed and they won the 2020 ‘Bubble’ Championship, led by 4x Finals MVP Lebron James. But this championship was a lot more than just basketball for once.
It signified that the NBA truly cared about Racial Equality. They really made an effort, while other sports honestly didn’t care. And while people blamed the ratings being down because of these so called ‘politics,’ they were wrong. The NBA did the right thing, no matter how the ratings showed.
The NBA truly put on quite a show, and it was one for the ages. The bubble was perfect, everybody was safe and a NBA Champion was crowned. Now we go into another period of uncertainty. When will the 2020-21 Season Start? This offseason will already be weird, so it’ll be interesting to see how the next season plays out.
One thing is for sure, the Bubble experiment was a success, and it might come back for next season.
What Are Your Thoughts On Bubble Basketball? Leave A Comment Down Below!
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