The lockdowns that stemmed from the COVID-19 pandemic introduced a different way of life to everyone — including NBA athletes. After the 2019-20 season was infamously halted in March, the league resumed and finished the campaign in an isolated bubble at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Players were away from their families and outside friends, leaving their fellow NBA hoopers as the lone source of face-to-face interaction. Even LeBron James struggled to adjust, but The King had a plan to survive in the bubble.
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Some players only had to spend a couple of weeks in the bubble if their team failed to make it past the NBA’s first-ever Play-In Tournament. But no one had to deal with the isolation longer than James and his Los Angeles Lakers, who eventually exited the bubble with the franchise’s 17th NBA championship.
Steve Nash wondered what LeBron had to do to keep himself sane throughout this three-month getaway. That was quite a long time to keep himself entertained, but James said he went prepared for the journey. Not everyone can be Jimmy Butler with his Big Face Coffee, after all.
“I took books with me. I took my video game with me. But one thing I did ship in. I ordered a wine freezer. Wine fridge. And I ordered a bunch of f***ing wine,” LeBron told his cohost on Mind the Game. “I promise you. Yes, that kept me sane.” James didn’t just drink the wine, though. He decided he needed to get more entertainment value out of each bottle.
“After I drank the wine, I would just sit ’em and line them up on the floor of my room, side by side,” the four-time MVP continued. “Keep the cork in a little container. That was my priority. I would get up every single day. I would play my video game. I would stretch in my room. I would go down and practice … And then at night, I would open a bottle of wine. That was it.”
LeBron would also read or talk with his family on video call, but until they were finally able to visit him halfway through the bubble’s lifetime, the future Hall of Famer was mostly on his own. That is, until he and other players started hanging out in each other’s rooms, which was against league policy at the time.
“At one point, you were really only supposed to have one or two guests in your room, like your teammates,” LeBron explained. “We kind of broke the rule one time. We just squatted in everybody’s room and like played cards. One thing about it, it was really a crazy bonding experience because it was just us.”
While the pandemic experience was certainly a challenge for everyone it affected, it gave people a clear view of what really matters. No NBA player, including James, wanted to spend three months in isolation without his loved ones. But LeBron and his fellow hoopers were able to engage in a once-in-a-lifetime bonding experience that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
