This book is a snapshot of a time that is hard to want to revisit. The fear and uncertainty everyone felt was also felt by organizations like the NBA. I will say I enjoyed a glimpse into how the NBA pivoted, but I'm not sure I can recommend now that we are (hopefully) on the other side of COVID. Maybe in 20 years.

Subtitled: Inside the NBA’s Fight to Save a Season

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Ben Golliver covers the NBA for the Washington Post, and while I don’t follow the NBA very closely I couldn’t resist reading about how they handled the end of the 2020 NBA season and playoffs in the Disney bubble.


Golliver blends in a small amount of background about the Covid-19 virus, its rapid spread around the world, and the underestimation and mishandling of the crisis by the Trump administration, but the real story begins when Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for Covid prior to a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The shockwave from that positive test led to the postponement of the NBA season.

Bubbleball details the measures taken by the NBA that resulted in making the Disney complex one of the most secure places on earth with regard to preventing Covid infections – sadly, even more secure than the White House. There is also a lot of material focusing on the actual basketball played in the bubble, with extensive stories about the teams and players who advanced to the latter stages. As I said before, I don’t follow the NBA closely but I enjoyed reading about teams and players that I wasn’t very familiar with.

I gave Bubbleball five stars. Despite Golliver’s tales about the daily grind and pressure of life in the bubble, I couldn’t help but think it might have been a pretty cool place to be anyway.

Bubbleball was an interesting read. As someone who intently followed the bubble, a lot of this book felt frivolous. I watched most of the games recapped here less than one year ago, so to read a hundred or so pages of game recaps that are still fresh in my mind was a big of a slog at times. Ben Golliver is a talented writer and it's great that he got the opportunity to be in the bubble and write this book, I think it's value will grow with distance and time and will be a nice time capsule of one of the weirdest NBA postseasons ever.

Where the book shines the most is in Golliver's writing about the social justice issues and between the games. The nature of the rules in the bubble meant Golliver had little interaction with others, but his keen observations and narrative spin on the activism that the athletes participating in the bubble took up was a strong reminder of the power of sports. Worth the read for anyone who is interested in the NBA and professional sports journalism, but it will definitely feel more special and interesting as the years pass by.

When the NBA shut down operations on March 11, 2020 after Rudy Goebert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus, the entire sports world, as well as the league, was thrown into disarray. Amid all the uncertainty, the NBA was working on a plan to try to salvage the season and crown a legitimate champion. How the league did this is captured in this excellent book by Washington Post NBA writer Ben Golliver.

Usually when an author who is not an athlete or part of the subject inserts themself into a book, I believe that it distracts from the actual topic. That was not the case for this book, as Golliver's experiences in the "bubble" where all personnel associated with the league's restart – players, coaches, officials, media and others – were housed and worked, was not only enlightening but absolutely necessary to illustrate what everyone was going through at the Disney sports complex.

Another excellent aspect of the book was how the players responded to the shooting of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake – the most prominent cases of police shootings of Black people. The social justice messages that were on display on the court, player jerseys and stated by players and coaches were just as much a part of the bubble experience as basketball and virus testing. The section on the atmosphere and discussion in the Milwaukee Bucks dressing room when they learned about the Blake shooting was especially profound. Because the locker rooms were much smaller than those of NBA arenas and the soundproofing was not as effective, Golliver was privy to information that he normally wouldn't be and as a result, it was a moving section about the Bucks' decision to not play the Orlando Magic that night.

Of course, the basketball writing was very good as well. He covered all rounds of the playoffs and the completion of the regular season with just the right amount of detail. He didn't get too bogged down with play-by-play descriptions, but these were more than just brief overviews as well. As well as the prose was written, however, when the Los Angeles Lakers were crowned as the 2020 champions after the Miami Heat surprisingly gave them six tough games in the Finals, much like the players, readers will find themselves glad that the odyssey was coming to end. Basketball aficionados will love this book for the inside look of life in the bubble while more casual fans will appreciate this look at the strange but completed 2019-20 NBA season.

I wish to thank Abrams Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an outstanding look at life in the NBA bubble. The season will always be remembered for the bizarre and shocking dynamic of playing basketball on a stricter campus. From the testing to meals to witnessing players interacting, this book is the perfect look at life inside of the bubble for the 2020 NBA Playoffs.

This book is the first one I've seen about a major sports league trying to make a go of it during the 2020 pandemic. It's a worthy read about the subject.

The initial chapters were a struggle for me. I first thought it was because the book was boring and not for me. But as I read on and reflected, I realized that Golliver was expertly recounting the feelings of aimlessness and general despair most of us had. It is still viscerally uncomfortable for me to think about what was happening in March and April 2020. I wasn't prepared to recount it so soon.

The action in the book picks up once Golliver reaches the bubble. I enjoyed the little details he talked about, like taking pictures of the same egret and seeing different coaches and luminaries while out on his walks. It's this type of atmosphere that takes a reader to a place instead of reading a bunch of bland facts. I can get that information from wire reports from those games. It's the behind the scenes action that I read these types of books for. Golliver certainly delivered in the regard.

The social justice crises around the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, as well as the Jacob Blake shooting were expertly discussed. The anecdotes captured the anger with the Floyd and Blake incidents, as well as the helplessness when Taylor's killers weren't indicted. the discussions about the stoppage of play because of the Milwaukee Bucks was especially enlightening. I didn't feel like there were good or bad guys in that situation, just people processing their grief differently. If only all writing about the horrors of police brutality could be so evocative, perhaps the country could experience the fear and pain of people of color.

I recommend this book to all fans of the NBA, as well as people who want a snapshot of how one group of people dealt with the 2020 pandemic.

I am an avid listener to Ben Golliver's podcast and often read his columns, which makes this book both comforting but fails to provide new information about the NBA Covid-19 bubble in Orlando. These facts aside, this book does a great and thorough job telling the story of both the social experience of living in the bubble and the NBA games that were played there. My biggest critique of the book, and the reason I did not give it 5-stars was is that the audience for the book at its publishing is a little lacking. Diehard NBA fans will find most information common knowledge and casual fans will find much of the information too detailed. However, I am setting a reminder to re-read this book in 5 years because it will likely serve as the definitive first-person history of Covid's impact on the sport most associated with it.

“March 11, 2020, the day that the balls stopped bouncing.” After Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, the 2019-20 NBA season was brought to an abrupt end. For the billion dollar business/league, this led to a frantic period of planning and strategizing to find a way to safely save the season. I love watching and playing basketball, but I would be lying if I said the paused season was at the forefront of my mind in the early days of the pandemic. For Ben Golliver, however, the abrupt end to the NBA season was potentially life-changing: the Washington Post‘s NBA correspondent, it meant his job came to a screeching halt, too. As the NBA maneuvered to save the season, Golliver was approved to attend the whole Bubble-season in Florida. This is his engaging, well-written account of those three months.

In Bubbleball, Golliver first takes readers through the days before the Bubble, as the league and its players were navigating the various health, political, and personal challenges that they faced. The author doesn’t get too into the weeds of the negotiations (it’s not clear, but I don’t think much information was disseminated about specifics of these talks), but rather provides a well-crafted overview of what some were saying, and what decisions were ultimately arrived at, and the cases made for and against bringing the teams together to complete the season. Then, he moves into the story of the Bubble — from the quarantining, to the daily testing, the extensive surveillance and safety measures and protocols. Throughout his account, he quotes players and officials, who spoke with him about their own experiences in the Bubble. He also writes about the guilt he felt, given his daily testing and access to plenty of PPE, etc., while the rest of the country struggled to get what it needed: “COVID-19 tests were in short supply across the country, and the NBA was on the wrong side of the access crisis.”

The book is not only about basketball, however. Golliver does an excellent job of placing the NBA bubble in the context of the wider situation in the United States — not only the pandemic, which was a constant psychological presence while in Florida; but also ongoing social justice issues and protests that arose during 2019-20, and how these affected the players and organization. He provides plenty of details about the debates around how the players can, should, and would protest in support of ongoing social justice issues and debates happening outside of the bubble — and some of the players’ frustration at not being able to be out there, protesting alongside their neighbours, families, etc. There is also some mention of the clashes between the NBA and Republicans, around the comments regarding Hong Kong and China early in 2020, and also Trump’s verbal/Twitter attacks on the league for showing their support for social justice and other progressive issues.

When it comes to the games and playoffs, Golliver provides just the right amount of detail. Often, authors provide long, play-by-play accounts of pivotal games that seem to take almost as long as the games did to play. Golliver does not do this. Rather, he takes the far better approach of providing a more general overview of single games or, after the action enters the playoffs, each series. Key moments are described, and put into context. Each of the teams that made it to the playoffs gets some attention, and Golliver gives readers a nice, short overview of their road to the playoffs. Succinct, but not rushed, it was a nice reminder for me (having followed most of the season), but will also serve as a good catch-up for those who maybe didn’t follow certain teams. By keeping his reporting tight and focused, he avoids tripping up the story’s momentum, and kept it interesting.

It’s clear that Golliver is a West Coaster, and is interested in the LA basketball rivalry between the Lakers and the Clippers. LeBron James gets a lot of attention, which shouldn’t be surprising — he’s the biggest basketball star in the world, so of course he does. He’s quoted frequently throughout the book, on topics ranging from the shutdown, the pandemic, and also politics and his leadership role on social justice issues. The Lakers, too, get plenty of attention — not only because they ultimately won the season, but also due to the loss of Kobe Bryant early in the year. Golliver has plenty to say about the Clippers, now led by former-rapper and reigning Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard — their performance suggested that “the Clippers thought more highly of themselves” than others did, and they ultimately

… lived down to every mocking stereotype that haunted them for years. Fragile. Splintered. Cursed. Chokers.

… They went out of their way to talk trash and play rough in the playoffs, and they fell on their faces. They were, in the end, all bark and no bite. Worst of all, they quit on each other during the toughest moments.

As a Raptors fan, I was pleased that Golliver wrote quite glowingly of the team, despite its obvious struggles in the Bubble: like many reporters and NBA fans, even if they don’t root for the Raptors to win over their own teams, everyone seems to accept that they are one of the most fun teams to watch — not only because of their style of play (endlessly evolving and unpredictable), but also because of the personalities involved. Nick Nurse, the “mischievous” coach “could be counted on to push buttons with his team now facing elimination” and keep opponents on their toes; Kyle Lowry, “delighting in his younger teammates’ successes” while also offering moments of braggadocio; OG Anunoby as the taciturn, silent-assassin shooter and defender. The team exhibited “the feistiness that the Sixers, Bucks, and Clippers lacked.”

The author writes about the mental health toll of the pandemic and specifically the Bubble. There are frequent mentions of players getting a tad stir-crazy, missing family, and struggling to stay engaged in the contest.

“I’ve had numerous nights and days thinking about leaving the bubble,” [LeBron] James said in late August, when the entire experiment nearly imploded amid tension and exhaustion. “I think everyone has, including you [media] guys. I don’t think there’s one person that hasn’t had a mind to say, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get the hell out of here.’”

I could go on at much greater length about this book. I really enjoyed it, and I think Golliver has done a wonderful job of writing not only a great basketball book, but one that reveals and explains the wider context of the pandemic and American politics in 2020. Whether or not you followed the 2019-20 NBA season and stories from the Bubble, Bubbleball is an engaging, well-written and well-balanced account of a summer marked by COVID-19, politics, protest, and basketball. A must for basketball fans, and also recommended for anyone interested in reading a snapshot of a tumultuous time.

An interesting time capsule artifact but mediocre as a book in it of itself. Really hard to take seriously any author who not only does not understand the difference between a boycott and a strike but then doubles down on it.