Starting Tuesday (and through Thursday), players began arriving in Orlando to enter the NBA bubble and restart of the season.
Immediately, some took to social media to document the experience.
What’s life in the bubble like? For the first 24-48 hours, it looks like a hotel room — players get a coronavirus test soon after arrival, then have to quarantined in their hotel room until they pass that and a second test at least 24 hours later and are cleared. What are the rooms like? Orlando’s Evan Fournier gave us a glimpse.
Early look at one of the hotel rooms in Orlando 👀
(via @EvanFourmizz) pic.twitter.com/rANcCyefKB
— Bleacher Report NBA (@BR_NBA) July 8, 2020
Stuck in their rooms, the players are watching TV and eating the room-service meals provided — and food became an NBA Twitter topic.
Troy Daniels' dinner from night one inside the Orlando bubble.
(via @troydaniels) pic.twitter.com/AbuOGNm2ba
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 8, 2020
Brooklyn’s Chris Chiozza had a meal that looked a little better.
First look at the NBA’s dinner in the Orlando Bubble pic.twitter.com/0EAdn0nkDt
— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) July 8, 2020
Players will eat a lot better in the NBA bubble once they can go to the restaurants in the hotels, it’s just for the first couple days of quarantine they have to eat room service meals.
“During the required quarantine period when teams first arrive to the NBA Campus at Orlando, meals are delivered directly to hotel rooms,” a league spokesperson told NBC Sports. “Each of the 22 NBA teams were paired with a Disney culinary team, who meets with each NBA team’s nutritionists regularly to create menus to support specific team needs. After clearing quarantine, players will also have access to various restaurants on campus and delivery options to choose from. Players will receive three meals a day and four meals on gamedays. There is never a shortage of food options – players can always request additional food by speaking with their team nutritionists.”
Food is actually a lot better than what I expected #DisneyLife
— Evan Fournier (@EvanFourmizz) July 7, 2020
No matter the food, no matter how nice the room is, being stuck in a hotel room for a couple of days straight is not a lot of fun — which is why CJ McCollum had his own wine shipped to him at the hotel, just for this moment. At least he’s got a good glass.
Utah’s Jordan Clarkson summed up the mood of a lot of players those first couple of quarantine days in Orlando.
— Jordan Clarkson (@JordanClarksons) July 8, 2020
Things will look a lot better in a few days when players are out of their rooms and out on the practice courts.