“Living with LeBron James in the bubble was a once-in-a-lifetime experience!”: Sports analyst Omar Raja shares his view on how different life was in the Orlando bubble

The Bubble was the most dreadful thing according to LeBron James – but sports analyst Omar Raja says otherwise

There was something oddly hilarious about putting multi-millionaires in a Disney resort to play basketball – it defeated the whole purpose of the resort. But that is what the NBA came up with, in 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic. It was an unprecedented time for humankind – and the NBA was no different.

With Rudy Gobert single-handedly shutting down the league with his shenanigans, an alternate plan was to be devised quickly and with care. Despite the massive number of cases in Florida, the resort was picked because it was big enough to host 400 athletes and the other staff while maintaining the levels of an NBA court. It was safe, sanitized, and away from distractions. All the players had to do was practice, play, and retire to their rooms.

For a man like LeBron James who was so used to being with his family, 3 months away from them at a stretch seemed like quite a pain. But for the viewer, it was pure entertainment. It was straight-up basketball, at its purest. No adulterations of any sort, all the players were on a level playing field. It was a contest of the wits, as well as skill level. Omar Raja captured that feeling perfectly, and any normal spectator would have geeked out to see basketball played that way.

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A courtside view of LeBron James and the other athletes puts into perspective the difference in skill level

The bubble represented a professional version of an inter-high school basketball tournament, where once you were done with the matches, you would run into the opposition outside the school on the street or while you were getting pizza. Plus the trash talk was there for everybody to see. The Lakers bench was known to be a jovial bunch, but in the bubble, a lot of their talk could be heard since there were no fan interruptions.

Despite being just an above-average shooter, King James was caught hitting 30 straight shots. Tyler Herro, whose career average was only 38.9% at that time from the 3 did not miss a single three for three minutes straight. If there was any place to show how athletes in a neutral playing ground would do, the bubble was the best place to be.

TJ Warren was the best possible example of being a bubble bully. Turning into prime Michael Jordan, he averaged 26.6, -6.3,-2.4 in 10 games. He even had his career-high 53 points behind closed doors. A stark comparison to the 19 points he averaged outside with fans.

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The only reason people discredit the Lakers’ win is due to injuries to Kevin Durant and the absence of Steph Curry. While that may be true, that doesn’t change the fact that everybody who went there had an equal chance of winning. In the end, James went home with a 4th ring.