The good news is, the NBA is returning! After being in suspension since March 11, the league has found a way to safely resume the season at Disney World in Orlando.
The bad news is, the world is still dealing with a global pandemic and it can be tough playing under such conditions and Joel Embiid already expressed that he hated this idea. The Philadelphia 76ers will be one of the 22 teams heading down to Orlando on Thursday to resume the season and it can be tough to play this way, but in the current circumstances, this is probably the best way they can handle things.
“I don’t think we should be playing, but I think the NBA is doing all that they can to make the environment safe as possible,” said Shake Milton. “So, my teammates want to play. We’re going down there to try and get a win.”
Glenn Robinson III agreed with Milton that this is probably the best idea the NBA could come up with to keep everybody safe at the moment.
“Obviously, you see all of the stuff on social media and hear all of the talks about it, but honestly, it’s as good of a job as they can do right now,” he echoed. “We see all of the money they’re spending. Just seeing the plan, hearing the action, I don’t know if we could get better than this right now for something that we’ve never done, but it should be interesting. It’s just the unknown, if someone gets it what happens? I think all of us are just thinking like that, but in terms of the NBA, I think it’s as good a job as they can do.”
Shake Milton: “I don’t think that we should be playing.” He did add that he thinks the NBA is doing the best job it can to keep everybody safe. #Sixers
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) July 7, 2020
A few members of the Sixers roster are fathers and they will be leaving their children for a while to go play basketball in the middle of a pandemic and a huge Civil Rights movement at the moment. All of that can be tough and draining for anybody.
“We’re just going off of ‘we’ll see’,” said Mike Scott “We just can only go off of what people are saying, explaining what it’s going to be like down there, and giving us an idea of what’s to come, but we don’t really know. We’re really just going off of ‘we’ll see what happens when we get down there’. Hopefully, they’ll try and make everybody safe, but that’s how I feel. We’ll see. I don’t know anything until I get down there and see.”
The Sixers will be staying at a hotel at Disney World for weeks and possibly months depending on how far they go into the playoffs. That can be really tough for a lot of guys to stay away from their family like that.
“I think the hardest thing will be just being away from the people we love and being away from our friends and family,” said guard Raul Neto. “I think that’s the thing I’m most concerned about and I think it’s going to be the hardest for me personally, because I think the NBA is doing a great job just setting the bubble the way they did with a lot of entertainment for us, with a lot of things that we can do besides basketball, protecting us.”
It is difficult for anybody to be away from their family and friends for this long time and try to focus on doing their job and playing basketball. None of this is going to be easy for anybody in the Orlando bubble.
“It’s pretty difficult,” Josh Richardson added. “I’m not excited to be in that situation, but I’m excited to play. I’m excited to go to war with my teammates so it’s a silver lining to everything so I’m excited for it.”
Even for a veteran like Al Horford, this is all so entirely new to him. He has been in the NBA for 13 years now and his mindset is so focused on just being prepared for any challenge thrown at him while in Orlando.
“The reality is that the world has changed for all of us,” he explained. “These are things that are unexpected and you can’t predict. Now, the way that I look at it we have another opportunity. We have a reset type of button and we’re healthy as a team. For me, it’s just about being as prepared as I can.”
Philadelphia begins their biggest challenge on August 1 against the Indiana Pacers. [lawrence-related id=34358,34321,34335]