Just a few weeks ago, as the NBA and the NBPA were negotiating a restart plan for a “bubble” league at Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort, there was growing concern among some team personnel about the varying quality in hotel accommodations.
The Disney World complex has around 30 hotels, but not every hotel offered the amenities that NBA teams would be used to — especially when players would be expected to live at those hotels for months.
So, here at For The Win, we thought it would have been fair to just assign hotel accommodations to teams based on seeds. The best teams were at the best hotels, and the Knicks were stuck on the campgrounds.
Well, it turns out that the NBA is sort of going in that direction (minus the Knicks) for the Orlando plan.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported Tuesday that the league would assign three hotels to the 22 teams in the bubble and tier those hotel assignments based on team record.
The top tier of the Bucks, Lakers, Raptors, Clippers, Celtics, Nuggets, Jazz and Heat will stay at the Gran Destino Tower at the Coronado Springs Resort. While the Coronado Springs Resort isn’t the nicest Disney hotel, the Gran Destino Tower opened in 2019 and offers luxury amenities like a club lounge level.
The second tier of the Thunder, 76ers, Rockets, Pacers, Mavericks, Nets, Grizzlies and Magic will be at the Grand Floridian — arguably a top 5 Disney hotel. We gave The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian the No. 2 pick on our mock draft. So, not bad for Tier 2.
The bottom tier of the Blazers, Kings, Pelicans, Spurs, Suns and Wizards will reportedly be at Disney’s Yacht Club. It’s not terrible — actually went No. 6 on our mock draft, it’s sorta nice — but it’s still somewhat hilarious that the NBA is going to give the worst teams in the bubble the worst hotel of the three.
There’s no arguing the fairness, though. We love to see it, NBA.
