Even after Jayson Tatum has very eloquently detailed his apprehensions about getting into the bubble, there are some who keep rolling their eyes every time a player expresses even the slightest concern about resuming the game.
Listening to the Boston Celtics players explains their various problems over the past week, I found it refreshing. I found it human. These players are leaving their families and are risking their safety to bring us a small slice of normalcy with the return of professional sports.
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Yes, most are rewarded handsomely, but they are also pushed into an unprecedented situation with restrictions they never subscribed to, all largely for our entertainment.
In addition, many recognize it. Tatum has admitted that it would be insensitive on his part to abandon the recovery just for fear of compromising future earnings at a time when the number of unemployed is so outrageously high.
But if players want to express their concerns, big and small, they are all ears. There is no playbook for what the players are going to endure within this bubble and the way they manage everything is an important part of the story.
When Tatum complains of being separated from his 2 and a half year old son for three months, I understand him. FaceTime and Zoom make the world smaller but do not replace the daily interaction between child and parent. When Gordon Hayward is adamant, he will leave the bubble and face the obstacles of returning, to be there for the birth of his first child, I understand that.
Life events, especially those that could not reasonably be expected to interfere with one’s work schedule, should not be ignored because they could temporarily hinder a team’s search for a trophy.
At a time when all our lives have already been changed, players are asked to sacrifice even more their typical freedoms.
It is right that they are skeptical. It is only fair that they express concerns, even if others do not believe they are as big an obstacle as that player might suggest. We would do everything possible to suggest that it would be strange if the players had no worries about how this will work, or would offer emotional reactions to their childhood on the bubble.
We are guessing many of the anxieties and inconveniences will likely dissolve as players settle in the bubble. In the end, the return of games and competition should offer a shock of normalcy necessary in an otherwise bizarre life situation.
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If a player who expresses his concern somehow lessens your excitement about what lies ahead, I’m not sure what to tell you. Expecting the robot-like enthusiasm from athletes is misleading. Fearing that players can vocalize a genuine human emotion instead of simply reciting boring flies of sporting clichés in contrast to what our athletes constantly crave.
There is a delicate line to walk. And players who complain about 5-star hotels and prepackaged meals won’t be well in all corners. But I don’t mind the look it offers if a player wants to share his instinctive reaction.
The hypothesis here is that when Celtics players wear their uniforms and see the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo on the other side of the floor, the competition will be at the center of the stage and the NBA will provide a product very similar to what we wanted from always paused in March.
Of course, it’s fair to ask what the first scrimmages and seeding games will look like, as each team will have different motivations in chasing the postseason, but the playoffs should have much of the excitement we’re used to from those games. Let the famous Dream Team scrimmage be an excellent example of how the absence of crowds does not always affect the intensity on the pitch.
This is all incredibly unique. If staying away from her son affects Tatum’s game, I want to hear it. If Jaylen Brown fears that the return of the games is struggling with the momentum of the social justice movement, I want to hear him vocalize it.
The human element is an important plot for this wild experience.
