A Pandemic-Proof Bubble?

<p>When the coronavirus hit the United States, the N.B.A. was faced with a unique challenge. It seemed impossible to impose social distancing in basketball, an indoor sport with players almost constantly jostling one another for more than two hours. However, there was a big financial incentive to keep games going: ending the 2019 season early would have cost the league an estimated $1 billion in television revenue.</p><p>The solution? A sealed campus for players, staff and selected journalists at Disney World in Florida.</p><p>Marc Stein, who covers the N.B.A. for The New York Times, has been living out of a hotel room in the complex for the last 40 days. Today, we speak to him about what life is like inside the bubble.</p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/marc-stein" target="_blank">Marc Stein</a>, a sports reporter for The New York Times. </p><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily" target="_blank">nytimes.com/thedaily </a></p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>Twenty-two of the league’s 30 teams are living in the Disney World complex.<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/sports/basketball/coronavirus-nba-season-bubble-disney-world.html?searchResultPosition=15" target="_blank"> Life on the campus is both strange and mundane</a>.</li><li>The N.B.A.<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/16/sports/basketball/nba-homecourt-advantage-wnba.html?searchResultPosition=7" target="_blank"> has sought to replicate the home-court edge</a> through music, audio cues and graphics from the “home” teams’ arenas. </li></ul>