NBA players are arriving in Orlando ahead of the league’s planned restart and posting about the experience on social media. The long-awaited bubble finally seems a little more real and a little more achievable. If the NBA pulls this off, during a pandemic that shows little sign of slowing down, it will be quite a feat. The level of accomplishment is, of course, indivisible from the risks inherent to the venture. Commissioner Adam Silver and company are tiptoeing through a minefield. They’ve evinced confidence the whole way through, but confidence alone cannot ensure success. Like so many sports fans, I am rooting for it to go well, with minimal adverse health consequences. Not only would success be of obvious monetary benefit to myself and my company, but damn it, I miss sports.
And yet I, like so many people charged with planning this, I fear disaster. Confidence is espoused publicly, but fear is palpable privately. To quote an NBA executive in Tom…