If confinement in the world of NBA has been to recall the passion for the figure of Michael Jordan. The Netflix documentary The Last Dance , who travels through his entire career, has served to further elevate an irreducible champion, who left an entire generation without glory to feed an overwhelming ego in the 1990s.
Tonight the NBA returns and the main focus is on LeBron James and his shocking Lakers. But if Akron’s wants to get closer to the status of the legendary Jordan, it is imperative that he win the ring again as soon as possible. In his career as the best player in history, this season is presented as a great opportunity thanks to the team that has managed to reunite with the Lakers. All the rivals know the urgencies of the king of the competition and will try again to oppose their wishes to regain the crown.
The main focus of the competition is on LeBron James and his shocking Lakers
The regular season stopped five months ago with the Milwaukee Bucks as the best team in the league, thanks to an increasingly formidable Giannis Antetokounmpo, the number one candidate for the regular season MVP. The Greek is again the rival to beat individually. In addition, he seems to have recovered from the hard blow that he conceded last season against Toronto, ultimately the winner, in the Conference finals. Marc Gasol’s will again be his great rivals in the East, although this time they will not have Kawhi Leonard, this year in the Clippers. In the battle will have to be the Boston Celtics, who expect Jayson Tatum to take the definitive leap of quality that will guide them to the finals.
In the West the situation has been much more even. In the absence of knowing the states of form after this long inactivity, the Lakers have dominated the Conference with solvency, and after them up to six teams remain at a distance of four games. The Clippers of Leonard and Paul George are the most serious aspirants to complicate LeBron James’ life, although it will be necessary to closely follow the Houston Rockets of Harden and Westbrook, the Denver Nuggets of Jokic and, why not, the Dallas Mavericks by Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis.
Disney World, from theme park to perfect bubble
The best basketball in the world returns to the scene this Thursday and does so in a unique setting where everything seems possible. Disney World welcomes the 22 teams that will fight for the ring until October 12. A pharaonic project designed by Adam Silver to avoid infections despite being in one of the states, Florida, most affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The great stars have been confined to the gigantic amusement park for almost a month. They now have eight games of the regular season ahead of them before facing a playoff that will surely be unforgettable again.
The lives of NBA players have changed completely since they’ve been ‘locked up’ since the beginning of July at the Disney World resort in Orlando. The measures have been very strict so that everything goes well, the organization even asking that the players report against each other in the event that someone breaks the rules. To the usual tests, which are carried out every two days, the use of a mask and the safety distance, the so-called ‘proximity alarm’ has been introduced, which will warn the wearer when it remains more than five seconds at less than 1.8 meters away from another player. Instead, and this has caused some stupefaction, the organization has been more lax when it comes to making controls on recreational drugs, such as marijuana. It will do surprise checks to detect doping substances.
Players’ lives have changed completely since they’ve been “locked up” since early July at the Orlando complex
The food will be served by the Disney World complex itself, where the 22 teams will live spread across three hotels. From this morning on, the players’ families will be able to enter, since the organization allows each team to reserve between 15 and 17 rooms for the guests. These must undergo 3 days of isolation and pass the corresponding tests. The matches, in three stadiums adapted for the occasion, will be held behind closed doors, although team executives, league personnel and even accredited people from some sponsors may attend.
The competition resumes on July 31 and will end on October 12 at the latest before a theoretical seventh match in the final. The 22 teams chosen to fight for the title on the ESPN World Wide of Sports are the 16 that were qualified for the playoffs on March 11, when the competition for the coronavirus was suspended, and six more that were less than six games from the eighth place At the conclusion of the regular phase, of which there are eight games to play, the eighth classified in each Conference must have four games ahead of the ninth to be able to fight for the title. In the event of a call, a tiebreaker will be played between them. Then the playoffs will come, with the usual format of seven games to decide the champion
