The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brad Townsend Takes Us Inside The NBA Bubble

Episode Date: July 16, 2020

Brad Townsend Takes Us Inside The NBA Bubble

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There are very few. print journalist that are in the bubble in Orlando, and we are happy to have one of them join us here. He covers the Dallas Mavericks and all things NBA for the Dallas Morning News. You could find him on Twitter at Townsend. Brad Townsend with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Brad, it's Matt. I really appreciate it. I have to start off and asking, how was the drive between Dallas and Orlando?

Long, the longest drive I've ever made. And I don't know. maybe it was silly, maybe it was paranoid on my part, but as I was looking at the steps, once I found out that we had been granted a credential inside the bubble, the most problematic thing that I could think of would be, you know, getting on an airplane, potentially, and, you know, having no control over who was going to be sitting around me. So I made the decision to drive. the morning news agreed to, you know, let me rent a car. And I made it, I actually made it 15 hours the first day.

That was kind of crazy. Left at 6 a.m. I got into Gainesville, Florida, after 10.30 p.m. And so they just left me a short drive the following day. But can answer your question long. That's crazy because, you know, as I travel with the Rockets and you travel cover on the Mavericks, I mean, we're on planes at least once a week, if not more than that. So it kind of was startling when I read your initial column about the decision to make that you thought,

you know what? The plane just isn't what I want to do. And I certainly respect that. And I just know having done the Houston-Orlando drive many times in my life, I would want no part of that. So I applaud you for taking the assignment and then actually driving down there. So right now, you are, help me out. I told the audience about, is there about 10 of you, or is it a little bit more or less that are actually print reporters are able to cover the teams as a, as a whole. I have not been able to put a finger on it. When the NBA sent out the credential

form, they said that no more than 10 and perhaps less print reporters would be allowed in the bubble. So those were the parameters that I was working with, you know, when I wrote my original story. We've been on some Zoom calls, there's been some Zoom calls between the NBA and the NBA and the quote-unquote bubble reporters, just about protocols and goos and don'ts, things like that. But even on the Zoom call, it's kind of hard to, it's kind of hard to, I mean, I know some of the people for sure, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, I know those guys, there's a few people on the call that might be ESPN producers.

It's hard to sit. So there might be as many as 15 print reporters, but I don't, think any more than that. So do you have full access to every team or are they keeping you just to cover the Mavericks? Well, for the time being, I'm quarantined in my room. All of us bubble reporters and the fact that most people flew in, I think that was part of this. We were required to, we're required to stay in our rooms for the first seven days. So I literally got to, when I finished to drive. I dropped off my car to the Orlando at the Orlando airport. The NBA sent a car. You know, a guy was wearing a mask. He, you know, dropped me on. He took me to the hotel

where we're at. And from the time I got a key, somebody met me, handed me the key. I walked into my room and I had not, and this was on Sunday morning, I have not stepped foot outside my room. So once we do clear protocol, once we do clear quarantine, and we have to be tested every day. So each morning I get an email saying whether I, you know, passed the previous days coronavirus tests. So far, not going on four for four. And so at the end of that seven-day period, then we are allowed outside of our current bubbles, which is, in my case, a 314 square foot room, into the rest of the bubble.

And, you know, we'll have to wear special armbands. We have to carry our phones with special apps that show that we have, each morning that we get up, we have to take our temperature. We have to take our pulse ox. We have to do a couple of other things. and all that information along with our daily coronavirus test goes into an app. And so when we get to certain checkpoints around the Disney campus,

we will have to, you know, open our phones and open that app and make sure that we've got the green signal to go in. So it's, you know, and that's just a snippet of how serious the NBA is about protecting this bubble. Yeah. We're visiting of Brad Towns that covers the Mavericks and the NBA for the Dallas Morning News. here on the Matt Thomas show. So I guess now the presumption is if you are able to clear this seven days of quarantine, that you'll be able to, and again, you're not going to be having any one-on-one

conversations with players, but what have you been told? How close will you be able to get to actually watching a practice and watching live games? There may be an occasion where I can have one-on-one conversations, but not within six feet. we will the bubble reporters are allowed to go to you know I guess I'd really didn't answer your question about how much I'll be able to cover I could go to rockets practice if I wanted I've got to let the rockets know a day and a half before okay same thing with the mavericks or any other team so we can go to shootarounds we can go to practices and certainly we're going to be allowed into the scrimmages and the games and so that's what's different in our actual in what's called the group two access, there won't be another group of reporters. They will not be allowed in their practices or scrimmages or shoot-round. They can come to games, but they have to sit in a higher region of the smaller arenas that the games are going to play at.

And then they cannot take part in the pre-game or post-game interviews in person. They will open their laptop. and tune in by Zoom, just like some reporters are having to do at home. So the access is a lot less, is a lot more limiting. My understanding is that, you know, on kind of a case-by-case basis, if I go to a Mavericks practice and there's someone that I want to talk to and I arrange it through the Mavericks, I can as long as I don't come within six feet. You know, I kind of can interview people from a distance.

And I've got to wear a mask. I'm telling you, Brad, and you and I don't know each other. I think you're in for the assignment of a lifetime. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of I miss home, I miss my family, but just the experience of this, I don't think you'll ever forget. And I'm very curious about how long you're going to be there. And I guess a lot of that has to do with maybe what's going to happen in the Lone Star State. Let's get to a little basketball for a second.

Dallas and Houston, we're supposed to still play two times before the pandemic hit. We will obviously open things up with the Mavericks on the 31st. What's your general census of the team that you cover, and how much could they be a wild card in this very uber-talented Western Conference? Yeah, I think a wild card, X-Factor, whatever you want to call it, I think the Mavericks are definitely in that mix. I do think it's important for them to, in that first game against Houston, it's a great example.

It's a huge game for Dallas, maybe not as much for Houston. Dallas trails Houston and Oklahoma City by a game and a half. And I think anybody should logically look at the standings and say that from the Mavericks standpoint, it's imperative to try to move up the standings. Otherwise, you're looking at a first round series against the Clippers who the Mavericks do not match up well with. As we've seen, of course it was months and months ago,

the Mavericks do match up very well with Houston. Yeah. I think the Mavericks are a team that probably Houston doesn't want to face, given what happened in the regular season. But you know what? Who knows? I mean, everybody got here to Orlando. You know, rockets get here and they don't have Hardin.

I mean, everybody's literally starting from scratch. every coach that I've talked to and heard from, they didn't even start five-on-five workouts until they got here. Some of them didn't even start doing it until a couple of days ago. So you can just imagine going four months without playing any five-on-five. I mean, we're not talking about Rust here. We're talking about virtually starting all over. Well, that's why these three exhibitions, I think, are going to be a huge role in this

because this will give them a chance to actually see where their legs are at this point. I mean, you can have all the individual workout you want, but we're trying to, you know, a 48-minute scrimmage is going to see where these guys are from a cardio standpoint. Because, you know, you're getting right into it. I mean, Dallas-Huston is as sexy as a first-night matchup could be because, again, these two teams obviously played two competitive games earlier in the year.

They're both the Western Conference teams that could, you know, they're kind of the sneaky picks. I'm very curious about how at least the first two weeks when you count the scrimmages in the early games, how both teams kind of fare out. Yeah, me too. I mean, as you said at the outset, this whole thing is fascinating. It's a social, it's fascinating from a social standpoint, medical standpoint.

I think when you look at pro sports in general, this thing has the best chance of working. You know, I just don't like the trend of the way things are going, you know, in general, With the amount of coronavirus cases, especially even here in Florida, I don't like the baseball's chance of pulling this off, going from city to city. Maybe NHL, you know, they've got more of a regionalized approach. The NBA has played two-thirds of its season. It's trying to get any more games as kind of a ramp up to the playoffs. I worry and I strongly suspect that this is going to be it for our fall sports. I mean, maybe we're even, you know, high school football, obviously college football, things like that certainly seem to be in danger.

So I think the world is going to be watching for sure, and it is going to be fascinating. And again, you can find Brad on Twitter at Townsend. He covers the Mavericks for the Dallas Morning News. He'll be doing a lot of, I'm sure, NBA stories generally speaking as well. Thank you, Brad, for the time. It's nice and busy with you on the show. And I would say I look forward to meeting you soon, but it's not going to be soon, probably January when either the Rockets are in Dallas. You guys come back to Toto Center.

But thank you very much for the time this afternoon. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. You got it. Brad Towns that covers the Mavericks for the Dallas Morning News. And he's with us here on his Sports Talk 7 out here.