Even in advance of the NBA's plan to isolate at the Wide World of Sports complex beginning in July, an argument could be made that Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra already has been quarantining at Disney.
With two young sons and limited in work opportunities amid new coronavirus pandemic, Spoelstra said he will find himself in familiar territory with the league's plan for resumed training and competition at Disney World starting in July.
"We've watched Beauty and the Beast at least 30 to 35 times, Moana, Despicable Me _ 1, 2 and 3 _ all of these multiple times," he said, with Santiago now two years old and Dante six months.
"We all went into it as parents saying, 'OK, we're really going to buckle down and limit the TV time,' for probably the first six weeks of the pandemic, where we had such incredible weather," Spoelstra said of the house rule with wife Nikki, with the NBA shut down since the Heat's March 11 loss to the Charlotte Hornets at AmericanAirlines Arena. "We were in the backyard the entire time.
"But then when it started raining a little but more the last few weeks, we've been watching a few more movies."
Turns out, the Heat's 49-year-old coach is a fan.
"They're really well done, aren't they?" he said.
The family escape with Disney movies (and the Despicable Me series, which are Universal films) precedes what could be more than three months in quarantine at Disney World, depending on how deep the Heat advance in the playoffs.
The NBA's plan is a "bubble" type of campus, to minimize or eliminate exposure to COVID-19.
That also will mean time away from the kid stuff, with Heat players and coaches expected to arrive at Disney in early July and family members not expected to be allowed to visit until after the first round of the postseason is completed in August.
For now, though, there still is Disney (and Despicable) movie time.
"You think they're just going to be kid movies," Spoelstra said. "I thought I'd pull up my laptop or bring a book. And instead I end up watching every minute of them."
