MLB got off to a rocky start as it started the season and one team, the Miami Marlins, has already been forced to put its games on hold. The NBA and the NHL are almost ready to get their season restarts underway, and both will be operating inside a virtual bubble meant to protect players and staffers. The quickness with which the Marlins saw COVID-19 spread – at least 17 players have now tested positive in less than a week – shows how little control there is over the virus. There exists the possibility that holding sports seasons inside a bubble may extend beyond the current activity, and the executive director of the NBA is more than prepared to see the bubble make a return for the 2020-21 season. 

Michelle Roberts of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) connected with Tim Bontemps of ESPN to talk about what’s going on in the world of sports as the NBA gets ready to restart its season this week. She feels that there is a good chance the entire next season could play out inside a virtual bubble if the coronavirus isn’t conquered by this December, explaining, “If tomorrow looks like today, I don’t know how we say we can do it differently. If tomorrow looks like today, and today we all acknowledge — and this is not Michele talking, this is the league, together with the PA and our respective experts saying, ‘This is the way to do it’ — then that’s going to have to be the way to do it.”

Since the NBA reboot hasn’t started yet, it isn’t possible to say whether or not the bubble strategy works – sports fans will find out starting tomorrow when the Utah Jazz take on the New Orleans Pelicans and the LA Clippers battle it out with the LA Lakers. Give things a couple of days for test results to come back, and the sports world will know how effective the NBA’s strategy is. 

The good news is that no NBA player, since teams descended on Orlando, has tested positive for the coronavirus, which could indicate that the bubble idea is working. However, as the MLB launch showed, it doesn’t take much for a spike to be seen, despite strict health measures being implemented. Since the NBA is working only with a 22-team league for the playoffs, it has been much more manageable, and things could be completely different if the entire season and all 30 teams were to be included. 

Glen Taylor purchased the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves in 1994 from the team’s original owners, Harvey Ratner and Marv Wolfenson. Things had gotten off to a slow start and the duo had begun to look at relocating the team to New Orleans before the league axed the deal. That led to Taylor, a former senator and owner of the Star Tribune media outlet, stepping in and buying the franchise. He is apparently ready to move on, after 26 years, and there is talk of the T-Wolves being sold to someone else. There aren’t many details available yet about a potential sale, except that it could include a former player that put the team on the NBA map.

In 1995, only a year after Taylor took control of the T-Wolves, Kevin Garnett was selected fifth in the first round, right out of high school. Within two years, the power forward was averaging 18.5 points a game and, in 1997, the team logged its first winning season and made its second playoff appearance. While wearing the Timberwolves jersey from 1995-2007 and again from 2015-2016, Garnett would pick up a league MVP award, an All-Star MVP award, several All-Star appearances (seven in a row from 2000 to his departure), the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award and much more.

Now, Garnett, who retired as a player in 2016, could be coming back to his old haunting grounds as its owner. The NBA reports that he is part of a group that is discussing a potential purchase of the team with Taylor, who will reportedly “entertain opportunities” to make a sale. He explained in a tweet, “I was recently approached by the Raine Group to discuss the future of our franchise. From the time I bought the team in 1994, I have always wanted what’s best for our fans and will entertain opportunities on the evolution of the Timberwolves and Lynx ownership structure.” The reference to Lynx is about the female basketball team he owns, and which plays in the WNBA.

One of the conditions of any purchase will be that the team remain in Minnesota, something Garnett is apparently on board with. He said on Twitter yesterday, even before Taylor published his own tweet about the sale, “My passion for the Minnesota Timberwolves to be a championship team is well known but I have a deeper affection for the city of Minneapolis. I once again want to see Minneapolis as the diverse and loving community that I know it is.”

The NBA is ready to finish out the season, operating inside a “bubble” at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The professional basketball league figured out, at the beginning of last month, what was needed to ensure a safe and secure environment for players and staff, and started working on a plan that would see the NBA Finals get going at the end of this month. However, with different areas across the US, and even the league, now witnessing a resurgence in the coronavirus, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is keeping his thumb on the big red button that would bring everything to a grinding halt once again. 

Silver and the rest of the NBA are still optimistic that everything will be able to move forward as projected. However, he told TIME 100 Talks yesterday that the season could be canceled if necessary. He explained, “If cases are isolated, that’s one thing. But if we had a lot of cases, we’re going to stop.” The commissioner’s comments echoed similar remarks he made last week when he asserted, “The level of concern has increased, not just because of the increased levels in Florida, but throughout the country.”

In addition to new waves of COVID-19 seen in Florida, Nevada, California and elsewhere, a number of NBA players have tested positive for the virus. So far, at least 13 players have decided that they don’t want to make the trip to Orlando, although not all of them are backing out due to the coronavirus. Some are dealing with previous injuries or personal preferences, such as wanting to spend time with family. 

Silver adds, “Never full steam ahead no matter what. One thing we are learning about this virus is much [is] unpredictable, and we and our players, together with their union, look at the data on a daily basis. If there were something to change that was outside of the scope of what we are playing for, certainly we would revisit our plans. We are testing daily. We haven’t put a precise number on it, but, if we were to see a large number of cases and see spread in our community, that would, of course, be a cause to stop, as well.”

In a little more than a month, unless something drastically changes between now and then, the NBA will be able to finish out its 2019-20 season. 22 teams are preparing to travel to Orlando, FL to compete in games held at Disney World to determine who will be the season champs. Most players have already started getting ready to make the trip, while others still believe the league should scrap its plans completely. Option B isn’t even on the table, and support for completing the season has been overwhelmingly positive. As the NBA starts to make final preparations to head to Orlando, it has presented a virtual novel of rules, policies and regulations that everyone involved in the games will have to follow if they want the season to end in a slam dunk.

 The NBA distributed a 100-page document to teams and players yesterday, breaking down how it will handle coronavirus testing, who will be exempt from making the trip to Orlando and what happens if a player decides he doesn’t want to risk possible exposure. Players now have one week to review the document and inform the league, no later than June 24, of their intent to play or stay home. If they decide to participate, the new NBA Campus at Disney will be their home until after the completion of the games.

According to ESPN, which had gotten its hands on the document, “The league and union have agreed that any player who chooses not to play in the restarted season will have his compensation reduced by 1/92.6th for each game missed, up to a cap of 14 games. That calculation comes from the formula used if the league were to enact force majeure on the players. It also says that there won’t be further pay reductions if a player chooses not to play.”

Those players, staff and others who decide to participate will have to sign a form acknowledging that they will abide by all protocols and rules. Anyone found violating the guidelines will be punished, with violators facing anything from a fine to a complete ban from the games. A hotline will be created to allow individuals to make anonymous complaints against anyone breaking the rules.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The NBA will resume its season at Disney World in Orlando on July 31 with 22 of the league’s 30 teams: The 16 currently in the playoff field in the Eastern and Western Conference and an additional six within six games of the final postseason spot in each conference. All 22 teams will play eight regular-season games each to set up seeding for the playoffs, which will be the usual format.

There will be a “play-in tournament” if any No. 9 seed is within four games of the No. 8 following the conclusion of the regular season. In that scenario, the ninth seed would have to beat the No. 8 twice in a row to earn the conference’s final playoff spot, while the eighth seed would need just one victory.

There had been rumors that NBA commissioner Adam Silver wanted to do away with a conference-based postseason and simply seed teams 1-16 by their regular-season records. It would have been the ideal season to do that because every playoff team will be in the same location.

Disney World in Orlando, FL might soon find Mickey Mouse and Goofy temporarily replaced by the likes of Clutch the Bear and Pierre the Pelican. The NBA is desperately trying to figure out how to complete the season that was called off in March due to the coronavirus, and the popular theme park is seen as a possible option to host all remaining games. There are still a lot of issues that have to be worked out before anything can happen but, as the country looks to rebound from the global pandemic, sports will help the recovery process on multiple levels. 

The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Sam Amick seem to feel that Walt Disney World Resort is the most likely spot for the pro basketball league to hold its games. Las Vegas has also been considered, and isn’t out of the running, but the plethora of accommodations at Disney are proving to be a stronger enticement. The subject is apparently taking a serious tone, as Yahoo reports that Disney has already begun to prep its hotel spaces ahead of a possible incursion of towering basketball players. 

Among the first issues to iron out, after it is determined whether the season can even continue, is what games will be played. About 75% of the hoops action had been completed when the coronavirus came in, and the league will have to determine, along with players, whether to play the remaining 25% of the regular season, or move directly into the playoffs. As with any sensitive subject, the organization is polarized on how to proceed. 

On one hand, there are players like Chris Paul and LeBron James who support the idea of completing the season, no matter when or where. Provided the adequate health protocols can be guaranteed, they’ll be more than happy to suit up to find a season champ. On the other hand, there are players like Shaquille O’Neal, who believes the best solution at this point is to just scrap the rest of the year and put it in the books as a write-off. It would be an unprecedented move, but these are unprecedented times. 

The NBA’s Giannis Antetokounmpo is an opponent’s worst nightmare. At 6’11”, the Milwaukee Bucks power forward has become one of the best players in the league since his entry in 2013, allowing him to collect a laundry list of accolades – 2019 MVP, four-time NBA All-Star, NBA All-Defensive Team, and much more. He is also the first hoops star to complete a regular season in the top 20 rankings of all five statistical categories, including total points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. Antetokounmpo is now playing defense of a different sort, though, as some strange comments began to be posted by his Twitter account. It didn’t take long to figure out that his account had been hacked, and the damage apparently goes much further than the social media platform.

A series of obscene tweets began appearing on Antetokounmpo’s Twitter account yesterday, some of which attacked other basketball players, such as Stephen Curry and the late Kobe Bryant. Others were more innocuous, such as a tweet that he was on his way to the Golden State Warriors, but were still troublesome. Should the Warriors actually pick him up, which is within the realm of possibility, the result would be an NBA powerhouse led by the Greek national and Curry. It would be the type of move that would have other NBA teams cringing and suddenly creating entirely new playbooks.

Almost as soon as the wayward tweets began to appear, anyone who knows the player would have realized that the comments weren’t coming from him. Still, his brother, Kostas Antetokounmpo of the LA Lakers’ G-League team, was quick to jump in, responding to each tweet with a message of his own to let everyone know that the posts were fake.

The MVP’s girlfriend, Mariah Riddlesprigger, also stepped in to clarify the situation, explaining in a tweet of her own, “Giannis’ twitter, phone, email and bank accounts were hacked! He genuinely apologizes for everything that was tweeted and he will be back as soon as possible! The things that were said by this hacker were extremely inappropriate and disgusting!”