The NBA "appears safe, secure, and comfortable in its Walt Disney bubble," as the consensus from players and coaches there is that they are "being well taken care of, even if some of the players aren’t exactly pleased with all of the medical protocols required for the season to resume," according to Gary Washburn of the BOSTON GLOBE. Clippers C Joakim Noah said, "It’s very repetitive, but overall I think the NBA is going a great job. They’re keeping us safe, that’s for sure" (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/28). ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said there is a sense that the NBA "got it right early" with deciding on the bubble concept. He added NBA players and the league are "far different than what you’ve seen in baseball and I think it is at the root of the NBA's ability to put a bubble together." There is a "sense among players and the league that they're in this together and for the future of the league financially, on a lot of levels, they've got to work to make this thing get to October" (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 7/27).
THE NEW NORMAL? In California, Kyle Goon wrote he was "a little cold" on the experience of an exhibition game last week. It was "definitely not the NBA I know, but shoot, it was entertaining." More Goon: "Of course it doesn’t really matter to the NBA how the court feels to me: The impressions of the millions at home are going to determine whether this restart is actually a success." What is going to be "hardest to replicate are those clock-stopping or clock-slowing moments," as the players can "feel distant and somewhat off-rhythm." But as they "adapt more to the environment and the stakes rise, I imagine that they’ll end up feeling more intimate and heated" (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 7/25).
