NBA players have been adjusting to life inside the Disney World bubble in Orlando, where several players have already had their isolation periods extended for breaking quarantine. The NBA has laid out extensive guidelines for players to follow in the coming weeks and months inside the bubble, but as Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard warned a few weeks ago, not every player follows the rules even in the best of times.
To disincentive players from disregarding the rules, and to help reduce the chance of infection, the NBA is operating an anonymous tip line that players can call into whenever they witness someone else doing something they shouldn’t be doing. There’s just one problem – some players aren’t willing to snitch, even when it’s in their best interest to do so.
Jazz big man Rudy Gobert, who triggered the widespread sports shutdown earlier this year after testing positive for coronavirus, said the hotline was “sort of petty,” per ESPN, and argued that it won’t help anyway. Milwaukee’s Donte DiVincenzo said he wouldn’t use the hotline because he’s “not worried about anything else going on but ourselves and our team.”
Unfortunately for DiVincenzo, every one of his teammates can follow the rules perfectly and still be adversely affected. In a worst-case scenario where an outbreak occurs inside the bubble and the league is forced to either delay or cancel the season entirely, it won’t matter that DiVincenzo or Gobert did everything they were supposed to be doing.
At this point, these teams aren’t separate entities, they’re a collective inside a bubble, and any single positive test is bad news for all 22 teams. No matter how petty it may seem, it’s to the benefit of all that you dial the hotline if you see a competitor breaking the rules. Plus, if you can get a star knocked out of a series for halfheartedly rocking a mask like a chinstrap, wouldn’t you be letting your team down by not making the call?
Thursday’s biggest winner: Ryan Depaulo
The annual World Series of Poker has been moved out of the casino in Vegas and into the virtual world due to the coronavirus pandemic, and one player livetweeted his run to a first career World Series bracelet… from the parking lot of a Whole Foods. Ryan Depaulo, a New York native, drove to a parking lot in New Jersey to comply with tournament regulations, and proceeded to win the whole damn event, banking $159,000 in the process.
Quick hits: Elena Delle Donne’s fight with the WNBA, LeBron’s missing chef, Paul Pierce gets roasted
— Washington Mystics star Elena Delle Donne, who led her team to a title last year, revealed in an essay for The Players’ Tribune that she takes 64 (!) pills per day to deal with Lyme disease. Delle Donne applied for a medical exemption for the 2020 season, but was denied by the league’s panel of physicians.
— LeBron James wasn’t able to bring his personal chef or masseuse into the NBA’s bubble due to a league restriction on the amount of personnel each team is allowed to travel with. Hopefully that quarantine food isn’t too bad.
— NBA Twitter loves nothing more than roasting former Celtics great Paul Pierce, but The Truth was being unfairly criticized online for a completely valid take on Mavs star Luka Doncic.