Scottie Pippen, a Hall of Fame inductee and a 6x NBA Champion doesn’t consider the Bubble as real NBA Basketball.
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The NBA is having a historic season this time around. Never before have all the competitors been in the same place and NBA games been played without fans. The NBA shut down as soon as the report of Rudy Gobert of the Jazz tested positive for COVID-19.
After months of careful planning and deliberation, the NBA decided to resume the season in the Walt Disney World in Orlando.
Till now, the league’s efforts have been pretty successful. There have been no positive cases in the Bubble ever since it’s inception. The quality of basketball has been phenomenal as well. We got to see 4 series in the playoffs extend till game 7. Now, we’re all set for the grand finish to this unusual season, with the Heat matching up with the Lakers in the Finals.
“It’s not NBA basketball”: Scottie Pippen on his thoughts about the Bubble
In his interview with Business Insider, Scottie Pippen reveals what he feels about the Bubble. He feels the Bubble basketball has more similarities to pickup basketball as compared to NBA basketball.
The former Bulls star pointed out how the lack of fans and real pressure is helping players who generally don’t perform well with a few thousand fans screaming at them.
He pointed out how Rajon Rondo has been hitting 3s in the Bubble, when he hasn’t done so ever in his life before.
“Well, I’m going to be honest. It’s not NBA basketball. It’s not the hard grind. It’s not the travel. It’s not the fans. It’s not the distractions. Really, to me, it’s pickup basketball. It’s going to the gym. Yeah, you already got your team. Y’all practicing together. But it’s a more of a pickup type of basketball game, because there’s no fans in the stands. So there is no distraction.” Scottie Pippen said.
“Well, I’m going to be honest. It’s not NBA basketball. It’s not the hard grind. It’s not the travel. It’s not the fans. It’s not the distractions. Really, to me, it’s pickup basketball.”
– Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen on the NBA bubble(Via @johnperrylynch)
— Daniel Greenberg (@ChiSportUpdates) September 29, 2020
“There’s no real noise. There’s no pressure on the players, you know. Prime example: I looked at Rondo. Rondo ain’t made three pointers in his whole NBA career. Now, all of a sudden, he’s in a bubble, he’s probably a 50% three point shooter. I haven’t even checked the stats.” he added.
Pippen calls out Lakers’ Rajon Rondo
Pippen emphasised on how the travel is also aiding the players, as they get to sleep in the same bed and don’t really have to adjust to different surrounding on an everyday basis.
He once again went on a rant about Rondo, claiming that he couldn’t see Rondo making these many shots in an arena with fans, where he’d have to adjust to the depth perception.
“But that’s just something that I consider making the game so easy, because Rondo can’t score inside of an arena, when you got depth perception. Like, there’s a whole lot of things that make the NBA hard. The bubble makes the NBA easy to me. There’s no travel. That’s the killer itself.” the former Bulls star said.
“So you’re sleeping in the same bed every night. You’re walking to the gym. You’re not having to go with a 25 to 50 minute bus ride to an arena. You’re not having to probably even sit in the arena for two hours before the game, talk to the media, deal with all the outside stuff that they’re trying to pull you in to make some distraction and, you know, throw the team in a loop. So it’s a different game, but it’s very entertaining.” he concluded.
Bubble enters its final stage
With the NBA season entering its final stage, so does the Bubble. The NBA Finals commence tonight, and they’re going to be full of excitement. While the players would miss playing in front of their fans and the home court experience, they would have to settle for getting a chance to play.
