At first, I thought it would be like watching games from a college conference tournament, like the early games between the two teams that are at the bottom of the conference and are playing at noon on a Wednesday while everyone is still at work. The games would have limited crowd noise and it would sound more like a practice than a game. What we are getting is a completely different experience.
After watching several of the games over the weekend, it doesn’t quite feel like normal NBA games but more like the March Madness feeling we all love. Watching the highest level of basketball on neutral courts is very entertaining. The court looks good, and seeing the team logos superimposed onto the court is a cool feature for your favorite team.
Although the gyms are mostly empty, they don’t feel that way. The virtual fans in the virtual stands is somewhat strange but still fun. You can actually win you way in to one of those seats. For the Pacers it is just a simple form on their website that you can find by clicking here.
The sounds pumped in give it the feel of a normal game. You can hear the cheer of the crowd when the designated home team does something that would normally get applause. In some ways it still feels like a home game for some teams. For the Pacers they still have the same sounds you would hear at Bankers Life Fieldhouse like the sound of IndyCars when the Pacers are on offense. Speaking of IndyCar, you still see local ads near the court like for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway or Indiana University.
The benches are spread out and each player has an assigned seat. Your local broadcast team is doing the game from home but besides that watching games from the NBA bubble is a lot of fun. It seems very possible that the NBA could use this model moving forward for an in-season tournament outside of the playoffs and Finals.