Updates about Snitching and Food inside the NBA Bubble at Walt Disney World
My goal is not for this site to become a day-to-day tracker of what’s going on with the NBA at Disney World (you can follow the NBA Bubble Life twitter account for that). Still, the topic is at such an intersection of my different interests that I end up running into different stories in all of my news sources.
Today’s find is this column from Jay Busbee about the NBA’s “Snitch Line.”. Yes, there is a phone number that players can use to rat out other players who have broken the safety protocols. Yahoo reports that the line has already received multiple calls. In a (slightly ridiculous) hypothetical, Busbee points out how the line could be abused as we move toward to the playoffs:
What happens if, say, the night before Team X plays Team Y in a deciding Game 7, the tip line gets a call reporting that Team X’s star player was seen drinking out of everyone’s beer mug at a Kissimmee Applebee’s? Or that Team Y’s star was spotted, shall we say, entertaining some visitors who did not clear quarantine? How will the NBA ferret out real calls from false ones?
So far, the league has only handed out warnings. But how many warnings does it take to earn a fine? How many fines does it take to earn a suspension?
Joe Vardon from The Athletic also provided an update on the food situation in an article entitled Food scandal was overblown, though not all made up. The article starts with some quotes about how players prepared for their quarantine:
The Lakers’ Kyle Kuzma, seeing the carnage on his phone from colleagues who’d reached the Bubble before his team, bought a panini machine for the trip. “I just wanted to eat comfortably here,” he said. The Thunder’s Steve Adams said his wife baked a couple batches of lasagna for him to take “because I’d seen a photo of the food they were giving us online.”
But goes on to explain that part of the reason for the poor food photos is the method of the food’s delivery and subsequent presentation:
The Disney service workers delivering the food do not operate under some of the same protections, so the food being served must be carried in packaging that ensures sterility.
That means tightly sealed plastic and wrapping, plastic cutlery, and packaged fruit. Entrees must come in cartons. The workers, wearing not only masks and gloves, but plastic shields over their masks, can deliver the food in paper bags, with thin handles pinched together, carrying the bags between two fingers with those handles. They stop at your door, drop the food on the ground, knock once or twice on the door, and then walk away.
This type of procedure does not exactly lead to the artistic plating of entrees.
Vardon also points out that the players can order full-on room service or delivery from other local restaurants, as long as they do not walk too far to get it.
At least all of this down time is giving the players a chance to learn how to fish:
trez teaching pat beverly & lou will how to fish 🎣 pic.twitter.com/ha0Drwx1W2
— NBA Bubble Life (@NBABubbleLife) July 14, 2020
.@Gary11_Clark with 𝘩𝘪𝘴 catch of the day 🐟 pic.twitter.com/5IHStdy3vx
— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) July 14, 2020
Also, I am sure the food situation will improve once this initial quarantine is over and the players can sit out and enjoy a drink at Three Bridges.
