We welcome Rachel Nichols.

Hello, friends.

So good to see you, Rachel.

Since the MBA made the announcement that they're coming back at the end of July, things have shifted.

What has changed?

Well, we're hearing more from players, and this is a little bit what we expected.

Right?

There's 450 players, and if you remember, when we were in the owner side of things when they were trying to come up with, how should we return?

How many teams should come back?

There was kind of endless discussion about different teams.

Interest teams at the bottom of the standings had one kind of interest.

Bigger markets had another kind of interest.

Teams with big stars had another kind of interest.

And that's only 30 right?

We've got 450 n b A players, and frankly, there are guys with varying levels of interest.

There are guys with health and safety concerns.

There are guys who are concerned about the social protest movement in this country and how that will be affected if they return to basketball.

And even within that group, you have a very different set of opinions about what that effect would be and how that platform could best be used.

You also have guys who feel like we're going to go to the bubble, but we're one of the lower ranked teams in the bubble.

I'm basically going to go through this 67 week isolation and I'm doing it so I can maybe make it into the playoffs and the Milwaukee Bucks or the L A Lakers of the L A Clippers game.

Bash my head and in the first round.

I don't know if I need that, so you're just a little bit of that bubbling forward.

You kind of understand it.

And I do think if I had to put money down in Vegas that we will get to Orlando.

But I'm not surprised.

That is taking a little bit of discussion to get there, and I think that's okay.

I think people deserve to be heard out well, reality is kicking in, and it's difficult to get everyone on the same page.

So behind the scenes do you think LeBron is getting on the phone with Dwight Howard like the Lakers, for example, what do you think is going on.

You know, it's not just Dwight Howard.

You know Avery Bradley there definitely players who have voiced concern on some of the top contending teams he's on.

Lou Williams on the Clippers tweeting out that he was worried about basketball games, taking away from the attention to the protests.

So I think there's a lot of different points of view, and I don't know what phone calls LeBron James has been making.

But I have talked to a decent number of players who want to go, and they have expressed that they're being careful not to pressure their teammates because those health and safety concerns those air valid, those social justice concerns those air valid.

They don't wanna have the history written that they were the guy who tried to trample over their teammates rates.

At the same time.

I have heard players say we kind of have faith that whatever decision we come to is a group as a team, we will all be unified from that point forward, we'll have to see if that happens.

But I understand the strategy well.

I'm assuming they're all having some serious conversations right now.

But how about you on a personal note.

I imagine you're affected personally.

I mean, this is what you cover.

This is what you do just on a travel level, right?

Trying to figure out your life.

How has this affected you?

Yeah.

I mean, I think I'm like everyone else, right.

I see you and your beautiful home there, right?

We're all It's amazing.

You've learned about the inside of people's lives and houses a lot more than you ever intended.

Teoh.

You know, I think all of us, though, are sitting here doing a job on television.

You gotta feel pretty lucky.

So many Americans have lost their jobs.

So many people have had tragic losses, sicknesses, deaths of loved ones.

So in the end, it's just basketball.

I certainly hope it comes back.

But I understand sort of the greater picture here for sure.

Let's do believe that or not.

When it comes to the n b.

A.

Returning the bubble is a bigger issue than the actual torment.

What do you think about that ritual?

I think right now it is right We went through three weeks for the actual tournament was the biggest issue.

Now we're going through a few weeks for the campus and what it's gonna be like and who's gonna be able to do what is the biggest issue.

And then when we get to three weeks from now, probably, who's gonna play, who in the schedule will be the biggest issue in the seeding and isn't getting a fair chance?

I think everyone is focused on what's right in front of them, but I get it.

It's all new.

It's crazy.

All of this is something we've never done before.

I believe that or not, the 2019 2020 playoffs is just a glorified summer league.

Been hearing that a lot lately?

Not not not I don't think so at all.

I think it's gonna be a lot more like Annette elevated athletic survivor.

These guys obviously will not have to live in the jungle, but I do think it's going to be tough conditions.

I don't think it's gonna be what they're used to.

I think the mental toll and certain toughness you're gonna need to withstand this and then for the teams that advance later as they make it through and like more humans just drop away from around them right cause Teams go home after they lose, and they're wandering around this ghost campus trying to focus on a playoff with no fans in the stands, I think it's going to be hard, so I don't think it's glorified summer league.

There's a lot of gambling, alcohol and other things and summer league.

You're not getting in that Orlando bubble with black lives matter, Corona virus.

Everything going on in the world right now, more opportunity than risk to move forward with the embassies in What do you think it's so hard to say?

I mean, the risk becomes a lot more real of somebody who's on that Orlando campus gets sick and, God forbid, dies.

Right then, everyone's going to say that was the biggest thing I think right now, if you look at the odds, the odds are that this is an opportunity, an opportunity to do something different, an opportunity to have a national platform for a cause, that a lot of players are very committed to an opportunity to maybe reshaped the N B a little bit the league calendar or whether we have playing games for the eighth spot in the playoffs.

But of course, that's all balanced against.

Okay, as long as nobody gets seriously ill and we're just gonna have to wait and see if that's, in fact how it plays out.

They're taking a lot of safety precautions.

We'll see if it works, and none of the top three sport leagues really wants to go first.

Do you believe that or not?

Rachel.

I don't believe it.

I think they would love to all go first, because if you get to go first before anyone else is competing for television ratings, I think that is a win.

Even if the games, all the players are a little rusty or it does feel a little bit like a high school gym environment.

But being first is also scary, and we're also seeing it's complicated.

Baseball kept talking big.

Some big talk about how baseball was gonna go first on Fourth of July weekend.

I don't think that's happening now.

They blew a perfect opportunity to whenever a lot of younger fans, and that's not happening now, Rachel, do you think there is?

Ah, I mean, obviously this major issues that they're serious, that a real things black lives matter.

Like I said, Corona virus.

But is it easier for a player to say I don't want to go back when they are on one of those teams that don't really stand the chance?

Can you look at it that way?

Doesn't mean Mawr when a player on a competing team says I'm not sure.

Well, I mean, we've had two very vocal players say that they don't think the Orlando bubble should go forward who are injured and would not be going anyway.

I would still get paid by the way.

As long as the bubble itself goes forward, they don't cancel the games.

Players who were injured who don't go, I still get paid, whereas someone else who was on one of those teams, he just decides for themselves not to go, they don't get paid.

So I do think it's interesting that we hear from some guys who this is not going to affect them personally either in health, safety or money.

But I don't know, maybe if they do end up getting paid, if the bubble goes on and everything happens, maybe they will donate that money to the movement.

I certainly think this is an opportunity for players who in some cases have real generational wealth already established for them and their families to use some of the NBA's money.

You some of these, in most cases white owners, money to fund a social movement they really believe in.

And Rachel Last question.

Is there anything else the players could learn today?

No, from the 1968 MBA playoffs where they played through the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Look, every situation is different rate.

This moment in our country's history is completely unprecedented.

We've has social protests before.

We've had the summer of 68.

We never had that alongside a global pandemic.

So everything is different.

I do think that players have more of a voice than they've ever had before.

They have their own.

What will television in their pocket because of their phones, they will have to wait for someone else to grant them an interview, are decide how or where they're gonna be presented to the American public.

They could do that themselves.

They have more of an ability with the Internet to create new product platforms, new ideas, new things for people to be attracted to.

So I think it will be different only because there are these new opportunities there where the point of crisis we've never been in before and then often breeds creativity we've never seen before.

And I would bet on the NBA's players to be involved in that.

I really would.

Rachel, thank you so much for your time.

Hey, stay safe and keep.

Keep staying.

Awesome.

Keep keep bringing all the fun.

Hey, guys, it's now or never.

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