Operating Without a Blueprint in a Pandemic: a Conversation With Kelly Flatow

As Executive Vice President of Global Events for the NBA, Kelly Flatow has years to plan All-Star Games, Drafts, and other NBA events. However, the NBA’s suspension of play on March 11th due to COVID-19 provided Flatow and her colleagues with mere months to plan the NBA’s restart to the 2019-2020 season. The result was one of the most well-organized and successful initiatives taken during the COVID-19 pandemic: the NBA Bubble at Walt Disney World. As a result of Flatow’s expertise, planning, and collaboration with players, the NBA maintained its high level of basketball without accruing any positive COVID-19 tests during the NBA Bubble’s nearly four-month duration.

Dickson Bowman (BT):  How did you keep a positive mindset when the NBA shut down in March? Were you optimistic about the NBA’s chances of finishing the season?

Kelly Flatow (KF): From day one when the league shut down, we followed the science. We’re still doing that today. Every day, we followed what our experts were telling us. We had an incredible opportunity to pull together a panel of experts in their fields–from infectious disease doctors, industrial hygienists, epidemiologists, and virologists–to really understand what was happening with the virus and what impact it would have in the near term on our ability to gather groups of people. They then ultimately helped us make the decision that the only way we could return to finish the season was, in fact, by doing it in a campus environment where everyone was secluded to be able to play at the highest level possible and also follow our number one priority and our beacon every step of the way with health and safety.

BT: What was the initial reaction to the idea of creating a Bubble from the governors, players, and NBA executives?

KF: Everyone was incredibly supportive and provided input from day one. I think that it’s one of the things that made the experience really work. Everyone was invested from the get-go. We talked regularly with an executive committee of players and got input for what was important for them. We got input from the strength and conditioning coaches, we worked with the general managers, we worked with the governors of each team and the team presidents, and we had a business committee, which included team presidents to represent what was really important from a business perspective. 

“Collaboration was really one of the keys to ensuring that we could put together a plan to make everyone comfortable, both from a health and safety and business perspective.”

Collaboration was really one of the keys to ensuring that we could put together a plan to make everyone comfortable, both from a health and safety and business perspective. We made sure that we could deliver an experience that was for everyone–one that would allow all of our teams to operate at the highest level and fulfill our commercial obligations to our business partners as well.

BT: How did the NBA’s strong relationship with its players factor into the success of the NBA Bubble?

KF: Collaboration was hugely important to work with the players and to understand what was important to them, both on and off the court. On the court, it was important to understand what type of practice facilities, training rooms, and other resources they would need.  It was also important to ensure that they could train at a standard that was as close as possible to being in their home practice facilities. We also sought to create an environment and a broadcast court that they were comfortable with and one that also adhered to all of our high standards. We wanted to put them in a position, even without fans, to play in an environment that still had energy and still brought our fans to the experience digitally. 

When they weren’t playing, some players would be living in the Bubble for a minimum of six weeks and some for twelve weeks; it was important to ensure that they had the amenities and experiences that were important to them so that when they were off the court, they had downtime to be comfortable. The players told us how important it was to have barbers, access to the golf courses, and other activities to blow off steam. These factors were important to us when choosing the location for the Bubble to make sure that we could build in amenities and extracurricular activities for the players.

BT: How did your role change for the NBA Bubble as compared to other events, such as the All-Star Game?

KF: When we plan the All-Star Game, Global Games, the Draft, or any of the events we do on an annual basis, we have years to plan. Typically it takes two years to plan an All-Star Game. We’re already working on the All-Star Game in 2023. In this instance, when the league stopped on March 11th, we very quickly began tracking the environment and what it would take for us to get back to finishing the season.

“We had very little time to pull everything together, but we also had very little margin for error because our number one priority was health and safety.”

We had very little time to pull everything together, but we also had very little margin for error because our number one priority was health and safety. We had to make sure that we were not only protecting everyone from the virus, but we also had to ensure that we were providing players with the training and facilities that worked for them. 

There was not a blueprint to operate from in a pandemic. That was very different. We’ve been doing All-Star Games for years and years, so while the All-Star Game may change cities, we have a fairly good framework which can be used to plan these events. We had very few pillars for the Bubble other than the fact that we would be playing games. We then had to put together a blueprint with input from a lot of people. Everyone at the league contributed to the blueprint cross-departmentally, including our governors, our trainers, our coaches, our GMs, and most importantly our players.

BT: Which players or teams do you think made the most of the Bubble? Obviously there was a lot of really impactful social justice work, but you also had people like Jimmy Butler, who started his own coffee business. 

KF: Every team did an incredible job of really making an incredible impact on issues that were important to them, whether it was social justice or getting to know one another in an environment without any distractions. It was fun to see the players and teams really enjoy one another’s company, collaborate, and learn from one another along the way, like Jimmy Butler’s coffee company, which I’m told he’s going to make into a long-term venture. I have to say though that his team’s equipment manager and manager decided that $20 was too expensive for coffee, so they started Little Face Coffee to compete with Jimmy Butler’s Big Face Coffee. Little Face Coffee delivered and was $5 a cup. I had both, and they were both pretty good!

BT: If you could re-do the Bubble, is there anything that you would change?

KF: Every day we look to improve things and over the 110 days that I was in the Bubble, we tried to view things through a fresh set of eyes, and we made improvements. Every time I do an event, I look back and make a list of notes of things to start, stop, and continue, things I would do differently, and things I would definitely continue doing. There are lots of things big and small in each of those categories.

BT: What has been your biggest takeaway from the Bubble?

KF: One of the biggest headlines is what an incredible community I have to work in. In a pandemic in which we spent several months doing Zoom calls and one where we were only able to communicate with each other through technology, to have everyone together in one place and to be able to interact with one another was a unique experience. The community that teams and players created for each other was really special. The players and teams used the platform of the Bubble to amplify their voices both collectively and individually, which was impressive. The camaraderie was also impressive–how much they competed on the court, how high the level of play was, how they worked together off of the court on issues which were important to them, and how they enjoyed each other’s company while fishing, boating, or riding bikes around the Bubble.

BT: Given the NBA Bubble’s success and your part in organizing the Bubble, what advice would you give to colleges who are deciding whether or not to bring students back to campus and are trying to create bubbles of their own?

“...the most important advice is to create protocols and then be able to adhere to them. ”

KF: I think the most important advice is to create protocols and then be able to adhere to them. I think that our ability to execute the remainder of the season was only possible because everybody adhered to these very defined protocols. Everyone wore masks, everyone practiced hand hygiene, and everyone practiced physical distancing. They were tested daily. Those things made all the difference.

If everyone who was in the Bubble hadn’t done all of those things, we wouldn’t have been able to remain in the Bubble. From day one, everyone bought into what was required to make completing the season possible by ensuring that everyone could stay healthy from start to finish. That’s the advice that I would give to students and administrators on campus–follow protocols and trust in the plan.

BT: How will the NBA’s experience with the Bubble factor into the future? Do you think that the NBA will be changed at all by the Bubble experience or will things revert back to normal post COVID-19? 

KF: I know that we will take our learnings from the restart to the 1920 season, and we’ll apply those learnings to everything we do going forward as we plan the 2020-2021 season. We’re relying on our panel of experts and looking at all of the protocols and processes from our time in Orlando to translate our learnings into home arenas to provide teams guidelines on how to create a healthy and safe environment. We will take things one day at a time and continue to follow the science. We will continue to make improvements and not take anything for granted. Every day, we know that we will have to pay attention to the latest information and use the technology available to us–we will take what the doctors are saying and make changes as we go along.