Staying relevant in pandemic

The term “silver bullet” is used to signify a magical solution to a complicated problem. Back in the ‘50s, the comic/TV Western character The Lone Ranger plugged holes into villains, never to kill but only to wound or disable, with his two guns firing silver bullets. The silver bullet was also the weapon of choice in slaying werewolves, according to folklore.

In the NBA bubble, the silver bullet is commissioner Adam Silver. You couldn’t say he handed the players the chance to finish the season on a silver platter because they’re tested every night to make sure no one is contaminated by COVID-19. Health protocols are stringent and uncompromising. You also couldn’t say that Silver was born with a silver spoon in his mouth although he had a comfortable childhood in New York. He was 10 when his parents Ed, a prominent labor lawyer, and Melba, a teacher, separated. Both his parents died of cancer in 2004.

Silver, a lawyer, worked his way up the ladder in the NBA which he joined in 1992 as a special assistant to the commissioner. He worked eight years as president/COO of NBA Entertainment and another eight years as deputy commissioner/COO before succeeding David Stern at the helm in 2014. Twice, Silver visited Manila. He hasn’t been back since accompanying Stern to witness the preseason game between Houston and Indiana in 2013. Silver, 58, is married to interior designer Maggie Grise and they have two daughters, one born in 2017 and the other only last May.

In his first year as commissioner, Silver made known that he wouldn’t tolerate racial remarks by banning Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life and fining him $2.5 million. He was fair in working out Collective Bargaining Agreements with players, judicious in formulating new rules to make the game more exciting and creative in rolling out growth plans to solidify the NBA as a global product. It’s no wonder that he was once named to Time Magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People and Fortune’s cast of 50 Greatest Leaders.

To restart the season despite the pandemic, Silver had to be both strict and innovative. He took a $170 million budget to Lake Buena Vista, Florida and got the ball rolling. A key protocol is players who leave the bubble must undergo quarantine of up to 10 days upon their return to the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, register two negative tests and take an antibody test before returning to action. Limited guests of players and coaches will be allowed in the bubble starting Aug. 30 with testing and a mandatory seven-day quarantine as protocols. For five straight weeks in the bubble, 341 players have been tested with zero positive results.

The silver lining is in the staging of every game. NBA head of Next Generation Telecasts Sara Zuckett found a way to simulate a home crowd by bringing in 320 fans on a virtual basis, shown on 17-foot tall video walls around the arena. The team with the “homecourt advantage” gets to pick most of the fans and the on-site public address announcer is allowed to hype the home team more than the other. The home team is determined in the usual playoff format of 2-2-1-1-1. Fans use the Microsoft Teams Together Mode app to join the “meeting” which takes them straight to the arena on a virtual basis. Monitors are assigned to make sure the fans are “under control” during a game. Fans may be ejected by the monitors or meeting host at any time and replaced. Additionally, the NBA has elevated the standards of coverage, with rail-cams, free-throw line closeups, overhead angles, robo-cams and other devices to make the game experience even more enthralling on TV. Silver has also allowed the NBA to be a platform to support social issues with coaches wearing badges on their shirts calling for racial justice, players championing causes through words like Justice, Peace, Education Reform and Equality on the back of their jerseys and the court itself declaring Black Lives Matter in bold letters. You couldn’t ask anything more from Silver who deserves recognition for bringing sports back in the media mainstream against the challenge of the pandemic.