On the night of March 11th, 2020, the National Basketball Association was shut down due to some players getting infected by COVID-19. 7 months later, in October, the NBA has returned with the bubble and now the finals are on their way. 

When the NBA was first shut down, there was much uncertainty around whether it would return or not. After numerous rumors and much speculation, Adam Silver, the Commissioner of the NBA, announced that the NBA would return on June 30th, 2020. The only catch was that the NBA players would all be in an enclosed area called “The Bubble” that was located in Orlando, Florida, more specifically, in Walt Disney World. 

When Adam Silver announced that the NBA would return, basketball fans were exhilarated for the season to resume. The 4 month drought had basketball fans being restless to watch some NBA basketball.  “It felt amazing and I thought it was very safe for players to play in that environment in the bubble,” 9th grader, Cole Dryak said.

Another difference was the fact that only 24 out of the 30 teams, 12 from each conference, would go to the Bubble. This was because the six other teams basically had no chance at all at making the playoffs. Most people liked this idea. “ I liked it because there were a lot of teams that had no chance of getting to the playoffs, so unfortunately for them there really wasn’t a point of them being invited. I actually thought that they should have jumped straight to the playoffs, but looking back I like how they did it better.” 10th grader, Kyler Evans said.

Each team would play eight games to determine their seedings for the playoffs. 16 of the 24 would go to the playoffs, 8 out of each conference, the other 8 would get sent home. The playoffs consist of multiple seven game series, first to win four proceeds to the next round and the loser gets sent home. They do this up until there are two remaining teams. This year, the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers are the two finalists. The Los Angeles Lakers representing the Western Conference, and the Miami Heat representing the Eastern Conference. 

Star player for the Lakers, LeBron James, is facing his former team he played for from 2010 to 2014. This leads to high tensions between the players, as if the finals weren’t competitive enough. The competitiveness has fans on the edges of their seats. If the Lakers win, they will tie the Boston Celtics for the most NBA Championship wins at 17. While the Miami Heat are looking for their 4th NBA Championship. “I want the Lakers to win, because they lost Kobe Bryant and LeBron James was really close to him.” 10th grader, Ryan Harrahill said.

Although the Lakers are in favor to win, the Miami Heat are not backing down without a fight. Both veteran Jimmy Butler and rookie Tyler Herro have been stepping their game up in hopes of winning the championship. These two have been lighting it up; Herro has been averaging 16.4 points a game in the playoffs as a rookie while Butler has been averaging 22.1 points a game. Most Miami Heat fans have been surprised by Herro’s performance because of him being a rookie. “Tyler Herro has surprised me the most because he’s been doing very well and has really been shining.” 11th grader, Zach Morsette said.

Commissioner Adam Silver has really delivered. NBA basketball is back and we’re in the finals. A couple months ago, the thought of the NBA wasn’t even guaranteed, NBA basketball has been a rollercoaster this 2020 season but they came back and now they’re almost done.