Winderman: Heat staffer working bubble in a bubble at Disney | Commentary
It is a new reality for all involved in the NBA's bubble at Disney World, all the way down to the stats crew.
"It's like I want to apologize, because I think I'm in the penalty box," K.C. Colebrooke laughed, as he spoke by phone from the Coronado Springs Resort, having just completed a morning walk that included crossing paths with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and Heat trainer Jay Sabol.
As part of the NBA's safety protocols amid the league's quarantine setting, the scoring crew is working courtside in a plexiglass-enclosed booth, to further reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
For Colebrooke, a regular on the Heat stats crew at AmericanAirlines Arena, it is like no previous game-night experience, but also one he is relishing.
"It's great," he said of the uniqueness of it all. "It has taken nothing away from our ability to score and staff the game. It is pretty frickin' awesome, I got to tell you."
Like players, coaches, referees and league officials, Colebrooke is fully inside the bubble, including the required daily coronavirus testing and league-mandated social-distancing protocols. He is joined in the specially selected stats crew in the bubble by Heat clock operator David Diggs.
For Colebrooke, the timing, even though it could potentially include a Disney stay throughout mid-October, worked out.
“I do transportation for movies, but obviously movies are shut down right now. So it just happened to work out perfectly for me,” he said, his IMBd credits as transportation director including “The Irishman,” “Ballers,” “Dexter,” “The Sopranos,” among many others. “I had a project that was slated to start in Orlando in April, it’s called “David Makes Man,” and it’s been postponed. So this fit in perfectly.”
But it also has required an adjustment from the crew he works with in South Florida that also handles scoring for the Miami Dolphins, University of Miami and Florida International University.
"There is a standard for the stat program for the NBA," he said, "but everybody, they call differently. So you have to get used to the caller as you input the game into the computer."
Having worked for the Heat since the team's 1988 inception, it has meant collecting three championship rings along the way. And, yet, when he reports for duty at Disney, he still finds himself as low man on the totem pole with his crew.
"In my crew, I have the least amount of championships," he said with a robust laugh. "I got two Laker folks and a Celtics folk. So I can't talk any trash."
As for a championship ring, that only comes out when he works Heat games at Disney, which next comes Monday against the Toronto Raptors.
While working in a plexiglass-enclosed booth would seem to increase the challenge, the 59-year-old Florida State graduate said it's actually the opposite.
"We all love it, because we have no coaches in front of us," he said. "We're elevated. In a regular game, we have coaches in front of us, officials positioned in front of us. We're elevated now. So it's a great view for us, it's awesome."
An added benefit is the partitioning that could reduce some of the griping from players feeling cheated out of a rebound or assist, or charged with a turnover.
"A lot of times, even where we are, we can't see sometimes," Colebrooke acknowledged. "And we do go back to review and we'll look at it. But we're human, and sometime we will miss things. And if two guys are going up for a tip, sometimes you don't have a great vantage point. You might miss it.
"But a lot of times they don't understand about rebounds and assists and turnovers. So that's something statistically that has to be judged that they don't understand."
Mostly, the bubble has created a sense of unity from all involved, as well as increased workload, with doubleheaders part of the scoring-crew workload. For Colebrooke, that is nothing new, having worked up to five games a day during the NBA's Las Vegas Summer League.
For now, the lone hardship has been long-distance dating.
"I have someone," he said. "That's a daily phone call."
Otherwise, it's simply life in a bubble that for this Heat veteran includes a bubble within the bubble, amid his plexiglass reality.
"The NBA is doing it right so far," he said. "So far, everything's working."
IN THE LANE
OUTSIDE VIEW: While the blood clots that ended his NBA career in 2016 likely would have precluded participation, former Heat center Chris Bosh said in his weekly newsletter that he is not sure he would have opted in to the NBA’s bubble if still active and offered the opportunity. “If my career hadn’t ended because of my health, and I were still in the league at 36 years old, I’m not sure if I’d have gone to the Bubble,” he wrote. “I don’t even know how I’d be able to focus on winning games if I did go.” Not, he said, that it is not a worthwhile venture. “Some people are saying this year’s championship is going to have an asterisk next to it,” he continued. “Hell no. It’s legitimate -- if anything, winning a championship during a pandemic will go down as one of the biggest achievements in the history of the game. And the ways teams have been coming together to support Black Lives Matter, on and off the court, not only in the NBA but in the WNBA, too? With this many people watching, you can’t deny how big an influence that will have.”
THEIR CHANCE: With the voting now completed for the NBA's annual awards, Kendrick Nunn and Tyler Herro could put the Heat in limited company if both are named first-team All-Rookie. Since 2007-08 (Kevin Durant, Jeff Green with the Seattle SuperSonics), only one team has had a pair of first-team All-Rookie selections. That was when the Philadelphia 76ers did it in 2016-17, with Joel Embiid and Dario Saric. While Nunn is a lock, the time lost to injury makes Herro more of a longshot. The Heat's most recent first-team All-Rookie selection was Michael Beasley in 2008-09, with Dwyane Wade the team's lone unanimous first-team All-Rookie selection, in 2003-04. (Other Heat first-team All-Rookie selections were Sherman Douglas in 1989-90, Steve Smith in 1991-92 and Caron Butler in 2002-03.)
DION DOES: So there he was, with 11 points in the Los Angeles Lakers' resumption-opening victory, the Lakers outscoring the Los Angeles Clippers by 17 when he was on the court. If nothing else, Dion Waiters has a way of making strong first impressions. And, just as with the Heat, he certain is winning initial support. The game was Waiters' Lakers debut, after as many suspensions as game appearances with the Heat this season (three apiece). "It's been great since I got here. They welcomed me with open arms," said Waiters, who was dealt by the Heat in February. He said he plans to make it work this time with LeBron James, after an uneasy run with the Cleveland Cavaliers at the start of 2014-15 that led to his trade to the Oklahoma City Thunder. "I'm a little more wiser," Waiters said. "I'm a little more older. I understand what's at hand."
ODD MOVE: The Phoenix Suns' decision this past week to opt out of an operating G League team was surprising on dual Heat-related fronts. First, Suns General Manager James Jones, during his playing time with the Heat, personally witnessed the success of the Heat's development program with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. And it was the Suns' G League affiliate that helped launch the career of Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr. Among the bullet points James Jones cited for the Suns withdrawing from the G League was, "The value of daily practice and the competition against NBA players provides significant improvement opportunities for developing players." It leaves the Suns, Portland Trail Blazers and Denver Nuggets as the only NBA teams without G League affiliates. The Detroit Pistons purchased the Sun' affiliate, moving it to Detroit to reduce the travel from the Pistons' previous G League affiliate, in Grand Rapids, Mich. The Heat continue without a short-commute G League affiliate, with theirs in South Dakota.
NUMBER
14. Division titles (including this season) for the Heat since 1996-97, the most in the NBA over that span (one more than the San Antonio Spurs’ 13, with the Los Angeles Lakers and Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder third closest, at eight).
———
©2020 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
