Greg Miller, staff writer

In a year of uncertainty surrounding the world of sports, creativity may have been the thing that saved it.  

After NBA player Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 last year, the league scrambled to find a safe way to finish the season. They decided on making a bubble in Orlando where they could limit players’ exposure to the outside world in hopes that they could finish the season without spreading the virus. 

The bubble worked like a charm. Players stayed at a Walt Disney Resort Hotel with their teams and allowed them to be “bubbled” from the virus. From the first game until the last game, the NBA recorded zero positive tests from players inside the bubble. There was a lot of player opposition to the bubble, mainly because families were not allowed in until partway through the playoffs, meaning some players would have to spend over a month away from family. 

Regardless of previous success, this season the NBA veered away from the bubble plan, lowering the number of games in a season and creating rules on contact tracing and forcing some players to sit out. Even with these precautions in place, the non-bubble season has seen 15 games postponed to COVID-19 in less than a month according to NBA.com.

With so many issues with the season thus far, it leads fans to wonder if not going into a bubble was a smart decision for this season.