18 • July 17 - 18, 2020 SPORTS bransonglobe.com Inside the bubble, NBA players have plenty of options LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Every team in the NBA bubble has played golf. Most have had at least a few players go fishing. Some have taken boats out. Bowling is available for a few hours most nights. The barbers arrive for the first time later this week. And the walking trail is pretty much always occupied by coaches or players. On occasion at Walt Disney World, basketball even gets played. This is the NBA’s home away from home for the foreseeable future — and efforts are being made to make the time here fun. The so-called bubble in Central Florida is where 22 teams have settled for about a week now, where they all will remain for another month and where teams that make the playoffs will be for considerably longer. “We’re trying to just live our life,” Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “Have our best Disney life.” This summer away from home isn’t ideal, for obvious reasons. Players and coaches are away from their families, many teams are missing players or other personnel because of the coronavirus, and there are daily reminders that even this well-isolated world was created during a pandemic. Medical personnel — wearing gowns, masks, gloves and plastic visors — are arriving to place a swab in everyone’s mouth and two more in their nasal passages for the next COVID-19 test. But the league is trying to make the days at Disney go a little faster, with activities available almost around the clock. And players are making the best of things; Denver even turned an off day into time for a full-team pool workout this week. “I don’t think you can ever build enough ‘we,’ enough togetherness,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. Golf has been the free-time hit so far; a new private driving range just for NBA player use is scheduled to open Saturday, just to keep up with their demand. A few players — including some who don’t even play golf regularly, like Miami’s Goran Dragic — figured they might as well try to learn the game. “It’ll be good for me mentally to have something else to think SEE BUBBLE, PAGE 19
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