The most unpredictable NBA playoff scenario in history has a single opponent most capable of removing the championships from favorites such as the Lakers, Clippers and Bucks.
The bubble itself.
That fact sent Tuesday night forward – via Giannis Antetokounmpo’s forehead. In one moment of anger, the Greek Freak revealed another challenge from the Orlando bubble, one that has nothing to do with the absence of COVID-19, one that sent the reigning MVP spiral wildly out of character. Giannis’ UFC turn was a marked shift for an NBA star who until that moment had treated his rise to greatness with dignity, calm and humor.
The Wizards’ Moe Wagner found himself at the receiving end of the headbutt. Giannis called the moment a “terrible action.” His head coach, Mike Budenholzer, said after the game multiple mounting problems in-game had led to that loss of control. Unfortunately for Milwaukee, it also allowed Giannis to be suspended for her final tune-up game before the start of the NBA playoffs.
Yet there was more to play here than missed conversations and wandering whistles.
Giannis loses his cool marking the third time that one of the three NBA teams more likely to lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy in October, found himself calm and cheering for drama and contempt. Several CBS sources told CBS Sports that the grinding of being cooped up in Orlando away from family, wives, children, girlfriends, friends – one’s life – has played a role in some of these eruptions.
We saw this with criticism from LeBron James, and for Lakers fans problematic, comments last week: “It’s just some things you can not control, that’s here, that I really do not want to talk about, that’s of the floor. “
We saw the Clippers’ Paul George and Patrick Beverley, who should focus on the fan’s no-drama, keep-it-to-yourself mantra that comes close to the postseason, instead of deciding that it’s a good idea was to mock Damian Lillard for missing two important free throws.
First, Dame told the limited media there that he had sent these guys home earlier in previous playoff series, and that must have been the reason they got a little chatty.
Then this wonderful, angry Instagram exchange broke out:
George: “And you’ll be sent home this year.”
“Beverley:” Cancun at 3…. “
Lillard: “keep changing teams … run from grinding. Your boys are chumps”
Chumps or not, we have certainly seen that tensions on top of what is normal are the private music of players who may not always like each other but tend not to air their grievances so openly.
Then came the most shocking of all Giannis – Giannis! – headbutting a player.
“I don’t think I was frustrated with Wagner,” he explained afterward. “I think it was just the whole thing, like building up dirty plays in my mind. Men tripping me, boys falling at my feet, holding me, hitting me. It was not just – I do not have anything against Wagner, it was not just him. “
It’s more than just the structure of the game. It’s building life away from normal life, sticking together, stretching nerves, growing annoyances, building problems outside the bubble often, and players finding themselves less and less able or willing to control their mounting visitors and frustrations.
LeBron also struck after his own private spending had become vaguely public.
“This is a completely different situation than any other situation I’ve been in in my career, so I have zero experience with having the No. 1 seed inside a bubble when sowing games that play in August,” he said. “This is all a learning experience for all of us and we will take it day by day and continue to work on our habits, whether on the floor, during the film session, if we can get on the floor as well. But this is a completely different season, a completely different drastic situation for all of us, myself included. “
LeBron snaps out in close fashion at his teammates as the playoffs grow closer. PG shows his claws – and pointed out his own shortcomings from the past, because, yes, he was indeed sent home and in fact avoided “the gravel” of remains – in an unnecessary mess with Lillard. Lillard called two boys on one of the NBA’s best teams “chumps.” Giannis headbutting a random player in a winless bubble team.
Focus on just one of these mist the forest for the trees. Think about taking your office mates – the ones you like and coffee with you during normal times, and the ones you can not stand – and together in quarantine in a bubble you can not let go. Away from your life, from your friends, from your habits, from your privacy, from your distractions, from your pleasures, the things that keep you from resolving or avoiding stress or forgetting how much you can not stand up to anyone which you work every day. Then throw in a Disney hellscape for good measure.
The bubble is the highest obstacle on the way to this year’s NBA Championship. Giannis said it to his team, yes, but also to all the applicants a few weeks ago: Each team is its own biggest threat.
And here’s a Catch-22: The more you win, the more you’re caught in Orlando.
Because how you react to the bubble – off the court, and on – will have a weighty impact on who stood two months off.
The interesting thing, and the unanswered one, is who will flourish and who will shrink under this unique stress. Dame seems at his best in the turmoil, at least so far, following that bad-blooded Clippers showdown with 51- and 61-point appearances.
For LeBron James’ teams, at least in the past, there has been a correlation between his unhappiness and their cravings. And so far, the Lakers have at least seemed balanced, out of rhythm and strangely vulnerable. And he has so far been clearly less than happy in his Disney bubble.
Then it was Tuesday night.
Giannis beating an opponent is just the kind of crazy thing you can expect from 2020. It’s also the most gripping sign yet that life in the bubble is far from worrying, and managing its unique stress will be a be important factor in this year’s NBA playoffs.
