Credit: Yahoo Sports

It’s like the Hunger Games of basketball, but with less dying.

When it was announced that the NBA would be hosting its entire season at the Wide World of Sports complex at Disney World, the same question that’s been plaguing every other professional sport was raised: how do we keep the players safe in the middle of a pandemic? Turns out the answer is “put ’em in a bubble.” A metaphorical bubble, not a literal one.

From now until the end of the season, all NBA players will live, practice, and play right next to the Wide World of Sports complex. Teams are put up in nearby luxury hotels, with the best-performing teams getting to stay in the nicest, newest rooms, and the low-ballers having to stay to stay in the older ones (which are still pretty nice). The important part, though, is the efforts being undertaken to keep the players isolated from the outside world. Players are monitored and chaperoned just about everywhere they go, with biometric monitors giving staff a constant feed of their vital signs. Entry into the “bubble” is strictly regulated as well; anyone who needs to see the players in person needs to quarantine for 48 hours prior and read negative on two coronavirus tests, and they have to do this every single time.

Credit: Associated Press

The NBA created this mildly wacky system with the help of an expert panel of epidemiologists. All strategies employed by the world at large to fight the pandemic, from masks to contact tracing, are being employed to bring the season to a safe, satisfying conclusion. At the moment, it seems to be working; all players are hale and hearty, and the season looks like it’ll get going without a hitch. Will it remain that way? I guess it depends on whether or not things go all Big Brother on us.