When NBA players first arrived at Walt Disney World for the NBA restart, they all had to go through a two day quarantine in their hotel rooms to clear two negative tests before being allowed into the bubble environment and begin practicing.
During that period, we saw lots of pictures on social media of the less than stellar food they were receiving at their door and some players not thrilled about their accommodations. That, naturally, led to some pushback from fans and the general public, as they didn’t really want to see pro athletes complaining about life in a Disney resort in the midst of a pandemic.
There is undoubtedly a toll on the players, particularly mentally and emotionally, in being in the bubble and being away from their families, which should be acknowledged and understood. However, complaints of the environment they’re in physically rang a bit hollow and Thunder center Steven Adams made note of that when he was asked on Monday morning about life in the bubble and any difficulties he was facing.
Birthday boy Steven Adams, on life inside the Orlando bubble: "Let's be clear, mate. This is not Syria, mate. It's not that hard…We're living in a bloody resort." pic.twitter.com/THgZZOOIaO
— Luke Slabaugh (@LukeSlabaugh) July 20, 2020
“We’re living in a bloody resort,” is just about the perfect Steven Adams response. He notes there’s some adjustment and there’s occasionally “dry food,” but also seems to be enjoying the opportunity to hang out with guys from other teams in an environment that isn’t ever really available to NBA players otherwise. While it’s more than understandable why there would be some frustrations from players about bubble life, it’s also not exactly something the general public is particularly interested in hearing right now given, well, everything going on.
Adams taking a glass half full approach is nice to see and now that players have seemingly found a rhythm to life at Disney (and are no longer eating delivered food, but what appears to be much fresher food in dining areas), I’d expect — at least for a while — the complaints to be at a minimum.