Taking a midsummer trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando might sound like a lovely vacation, but for the players on 22 NBA teams, it will be a work trip in the league’s plan to finish the 2019-20 season. The NBA and its Players Association are still working out the details, and on Tuesday, we learned that there will be some perks to life in the bubble for some players.
Among the things revealed by media reports on Tuesday were a tiered system of determining which teams stay in which hotel while in Orlando, and what players will be allowed to do (and not do) while practicing and playing out the rest of the regular season and playoffs at the Wide World of Sports. One interesting perk, though, might be the chance to see major blockbuster movies before anyone else.
According to Yahoo’s Keith Smith, among the entertainment options like lawn games and DJs may be some movies Disney has delayed until movie theaters reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic, such as Marvel’s Black Widow.
Per Walt Disney World Sources: Disney will make movies available for players and their families (once they join). This is likely to include movies that have not been released to the general public, including Marvel's Black Widow.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) June 16, 2020
The standalone Black Widow movie in Marvel Cinematic Universe starring one of the most popular Avengers was originally scheduled for a May 1 release, but as the world was essentially put on pause in mid-March the movie was pushed back to release on November 6. The film is done, though, and while movie theaters will likely be open in parts of the country once the NBA’s proposed bubble league starts, those players will be unable to actually go to them while they hopefully avoid coronavirus and successfully finish out the season.
Screening Black Widow months before it hits theaters would be an intriguing perk for NBA players, but it also reveals an interesting set of questions about what happens after they see the film. Will players have to sign NDAs about its details? Will LeBron James and the rest of the league essentially agree to an embargo and Disney just hopes they don’t spoil the film for anyone else in the months before it actually gains wide release?
It would be something else if an NBA player were to accidentally spoil one of the most anticipated blockbusters of 2020, especially in what’s been a movie-starved year given the few titles that have come out on demand amid an industry that’s been shuttered for months. Pulling off a bubble league in Orlando is proving to be a lofty challenge even before the games have started. Adding in the potential to play movie spoiler, at this point, is just making things even more complicated.
