The DALLAS MORNING NEWS' Brad Townsend is one of 10 print reporters credentialed to cover the NBA's '19-20 season restart from inside the bubble at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, and he writes of his early experience, "We are the few, the proud, the soon-to-be-stir-crazy." Townsend writes, "Within 5 minutes of getting my resort 'key,' which actually is a wrist band that unlocks my door, I was in my casita, where I am to remain during seven days of quarantine and daily testing I was given a health-monitoring kit that included an oral thermometer, a fingertip pulse oximeter and a Magic-Band that will monitor our health throughout our stay and serve as a checkpoint for testing efficiency. For the next seven days, all of my meals and drinks will be delivered and left outside my room. The daily tests -- shallow nose swabs and saliva tests -- will be conducted in-room. If my tests are negative for those seven days, I'll be released to the larger bubble, able to cover practices, scrimmages (starting July 22), shootarounds and games (starting July 30)" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 7/13).
STAYING FOCUSED: In Toronto, Doug Smith wrote, "One danger we all have to guard against -- and by 'we' I mean those of us trying to tell stories from down there -- is not getting caught up in minor gripes of no consequence." It is "fair to say the existence being asked of NBA players for the next few months is not anything they are used to." The stories at the start "will need to include some description of the lifestyles they are living and any quirks that might arise because of them, people want to know that and it's newsworthy, at least right off the bat." Smith: "And, sure, any blips that arise -- and there will be blips -- will become news items at least briefly but we can't, and I won't, let minor gripes become legitimate things. No one should really care" (TORONTO STAR, 7/11).
