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A Pandemic-Proof Bubble?
When the coronavirus hit the United States, the N.B.A. was faced with a unique challenge. It seemed impossible to impose social distancing in basketball, an indoor sport with players almost constantly jostling one another for more than two hours. However, there was a big financial incentive to keep games going: ending the 2019 season early would have cost the league an estimated $1 billion in television revenue.
The solution? A sealed campus for players, staff and selected journalists at Disney World in Florida.
Marc Stein, who covers the N.B.A. for The New York Times, has been living out of a hotel room in the complex for the last 40 days. Today, we speak to him about what life is like inside the bubble.
Guest: Marc Stein, a sports reporter for The New York Times.
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily
Background reading:
- Twenty-two of the league’s 30 teams are living in the Disney World complex. Life on the campus is both strange and mundane.
- The N.B.A. has sought to replicate the home-court edge through music, audio cues and graphics from the “home” teams’ arenas.