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What It’s Like Playing Basketball Inside the NBA’s COVID Bubble

The NBA and WNBA isolated players so they could continue working through the pandemic.
Fans cheer among cardboard cutouts during the COVID-19 pandemic, before Game 2 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, in Los Angeles.
Fans cheer among cardboard cutouts during the COVID-19 pandemic, before Game 2 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

To salvage their 2020 season during the coronavirus pandemic, the WNBA and NBA create a “bubble” in which players and staff are walled off from the rest of the world. We follow two players, Monique Billings, a starting forward for the Atlanta Dream, and Udonis Haslem, captain of the Miami Heat, during their first months inside the bubble.

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CREDITS: 

This episode was produced by Jesse Alejandro Cottrell.

VICE News Reports is produced by Jesse Alejandro Cottrell, Jen Kinney, Janice Llamoca and Julia Nutter. Our senior producers are Ashley Cleek and Adizah Eghan. Our associate producers are Sam Eagan, Sophie Kazis, and Adreanna Rodriguez. Sound design and music composition by Steve Bone and Kyle Murdock. 

Our executive producer and VP of VICE Audio is Kate Osborn. Janet Lee is senior production manager for VICE Audio. Production coordination by Steph Brown. Fact checking by Nicole Pasulka.