Bubbleball

Inside the NBA's Fight to Save a Season

De: Ben Golliver

Narrado por: Ben Golliver

When NBA player Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 in March 2020, the league shut down immediately, bringing a shocking, sudden pause to the season. As the pandemic raged, it looked as if it might be the first year in league history with no champion. But four months later, after meticulous planning, 22 teams resumed play in a bub­ble at Disney World - a restricted, single-site locale cut off from the outside world.

Due to health concerns, the league invited only a handful of reporters, who were required to sacrifice medical privacy, live in a hotel room for more than three months, and submit to daily coronavirus test­ing in hopes of keeping the bubble from bursting. In exchange for the constant monitoring and restricted movement, they were allowed into a basketball fan's dream, with a courtside seat at dozens of games in nearly empty arenas.

Ben Golliver, the national NBA writer for The Washington Post, was one of those allowed access. Bubbleball is his account of the season and life inside, telling the story of how basketball bounced back from its shutdown, how players staged headline-grabbing social-justice protests, and how Lakers star LeBron James chased his fourth ring in unconventional and unforgettable circumstances.

Based on months of reporting in the exclusive, confined environment, this is an entertaining record of an extraordinary season.

©2021 Ben Golliver (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC

The GOAT of NBA storytelling

As a long time NBA fan, when I heard that a book was being written about the 2020 NBA “Bubble”, I was interested in what it could look like and how the story of that tumultuous season would be told. Safe to say, Ben Golliver did a phenomenal job! He weaves in and out of hoops talk to politics to describing his walks around the Disney World campus. If your an NBA fan, this is a MUST listen to/read.

GOAT

Goat book. Amazing detail, awesome narration, everything I was hoping it’d be and more. Thanks Ben.

First Person Reporting on NBA during 2020

Ben Golliver gives a detail oriented retelling of the NBA experience from Kobe Bryant's death to COVID-19 shutdowns then takes you inside the NBA Bubble when the league resumed their season. Ben gives his own perspective on 13 months so there is some subjectivity from the author on certain topics, presenting the audience the world thru his own eyes and emotions and thoughts with everything going on in the world. great insights as an NBA reporter inside the Bubble.

Dud. Reads like a history book

One would think it’s tough to make a boring book about such a interesting and unique time in history but Golliver has managed to do it. He spends more time focused on his own neurosis and fear about Covid than any other topic. While I think it’s important to frame the world history events such as the George Floyd murder etc. that were going on at the time, there are literally zero interesting stories and anecdotes. Probably not Golliver’s fault that there was no interaction with players but he had zero stories that were interesting- it was just like a daily diary of a guy who is trapped in a hotel room.
I think it could’ve been a much better book if he would’ve actually interviewed more players about their experience and had the skills to draw out some good stories from them. I learned nothing new