When it comes to organizational response to COVID-19, The National Basketball Association was the true MVP

When The New York Post published speculation that Governor Andrew Cuomo had “fetched a seven-figure advance” for his book “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” I told friends and colleagues who inquired about my thoughts, that I wasn’t the least bit surprised, but publishing such a tome when the world was still in the middle of the crisis with no end in sight was presumptuous, egotistical and short-sighted (With the recent events surrounding the governor, you can be the judge if I was wrong or right). But at that time, Andrew Cuomo was a symbol of hope. Hope always sells in America, and in the age of COVID where people are hungry for successful case studies, it gets a premium.

But alas, hope is not lost. Neither are examples of successful responses to COVID in 2020. As a crisis communications expert, I’m constantly on the lookout for case studies to highlight negative and positive lessons. And when it comes to last year, the pickings were all over the board, but my colleagues and I all agree on one shining example: The NBA Bubble.

As with most successful crisis responses, the groundwork was laid -- and the necessary relationships were established -- long before any of us were talking about a novel coronavirus being detected in China. The success of the NBA’s COVID response in 2020 can be directly traced to the Daryl Morey scandal in October of 2019. With games televised in over 215 countries and territories, the NBA has established a worldwide operation that includes a 200-person office in Shanghai. When the Houston Rockets General Manager’s tweet of support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong resulted in a one-year ban of NBA games on China Central Television, the NBA kept their people in China, they remained the most popular sports league, and their relationship building efforts with public officials went into overdrive as 2019 came to a close. They had no way of knowing how valuable those relationships would quickly prove to be.

 Many regard March 11th of 2020 -- when the World Health Organization deemed COVID-19 a global pandemic and the NBA suspended its season -- as the turning point. That was the day it finally sunk in that the world was dealing with a health tsunami not seen since the Spanish Flu in 1918. But the NBA had sharply pivoted in early January thanks to guidance from local public health officials and medical experts directly tied to the situation in Wu Han. This information made COVID a top priority within the league prior to March 11th and played a key role as NBA staff members counseled teams and prepared for COVID to become an issue back in The States. Unlike other leagues with a “my way or the highway” mentality, the NBA is known for collaboration and a culture built on mutual respect, that results in collective action between the league, the players, the owners, and their partners throughout the globe.

Safety protocols such as mask wearing were established, and then enforced by superstars like Seth Curry and LeBron James. The NBA’S long standing practice of encouraging individual brand building paid off as players took to social media with education efforts, and a culture of safety was born. That culture was then easily and naturally inserted into the parameters of the bubble at Disney in Orlando, where the personnel of 22 teams, league officials, broadcast partners and others lasted more than 100 days without a single positive case.

Nothing succeeds like success…except when you can’t let go of it. As we look back through a different lens at those daily press conferences that were so brilliantly produced by the Cuomo Administration, it’s important to give credit where credit is due. In the first half of 2020, the Governor did an excellent job commanding the center stage on a daily basis, his failure came in taking an early victory lap before the proverbial final chapter was written in the tale of Covid-19.

During my time in crisis management, I’ve seen first hand how addiction to one specific solution can tank an organization’s future. Since each crisis is a living breathing animal with its own set of unique challenges, what worked while mitigating a crisis in one moment of time will often fail in the future. The NBA Bubble was, for its time, a perfect solution with all the unknowns, but a committed desire by the players, teams and league to provide some semblance of normalcy for everyone’s sanity. The outcome -- the season resumed and was a success, but players, personnel, leagues officials, etc., overwhelmingly felt extremely isolated and missed being home to support their family as they were suffering through this ordeal. When the NBA was approaching the new season, there was discussion of returning to the original crisis solution -- the pandemic bubble strategy, but thankfully the collaborative forces in charge were way too smart for that. Time and circumstances changed, dictating a need for a different approach to the 2021 season. After the NFL and other leagues applied lessons learned from the NBA bubble and mixed in new technologies developed to contend with the virus (i,e., location monitoring used to ensure social distancing among players), the result was completion of their successful seasons during Covid. And with that the NBA had a slew of new solutions with which they could apply to tackle the new upcoming season. The need and desire for another bubble was not necessary. The NBA has a well established history of treating their players and staff with respect, and the idea of the return to the bubble and emotional toll such a move would take on their players, staff, and families took that option off the table. Months into the National Basketball Association’s 2021 season, we have seen the ravages of COVID-19 reaching new heights and now (hopefully) peaking. While there have been some issues, overall the season has experienced pretty smooth sailing to date. The only thing that impressed me more than the plan the NBA put together in 2020 was their willingness to let it go in 2021.