Introducing VICE News Reports: Ep 2. The Bubble

October 21, 2020·31 min·2 clips

An Oklahoma City arena full of fans watched players walk off the court without explanation — moments before the NBA announced it was suspending the entire season due to COVID-19.

The handoff starts simply. Jesse Alejandro Cottrell tells Chapo listeners that Vice News Reports follows stories as they unfold, including wildfires and Mexico's drug war. Then basketball takes over. The tape moves to a shared video of a March Thunder-Jazz game in Oklahoma City, just before tip-off, when a normal arena scene starts to turn weird. The bubble becomes the room everyone is stuck in. The report feels close because it leans on recordings from players inside that closed world, not on a polished league statement. One player says he has three boys, including Josiah and Elijah, and admits his family is having a hard time without him at home. The window gets to him. Asked what it feels like to stare at the same view for months, he turns confinement into a question about the person he wants to be when he leaves. Basketball is not enough. He wants to come out a better father, husband, man, and businessman, which gives the isolation a practical, almost homey purpose. So he buys a coffee machine. The joke works because it is so normal: after all that distance, he pictures making his wife a real morning latte. Another voice brings in romance. A player talks about Emmanuel from the Ivory Coast, the boyfriend she met shortly before entering the bubble. Their beginning was competitive. She remembers beating guys at the gym, then meeting someone who challenged her, came back the next day, and became part of her new life. The schedule bends time. Playing every other day feels unreal to her, even as she says that NBA-level rhythm can make someone improve quickly. The credits pull the curtain back with producers, sound designers, fact checking, legal review, and security, a reminder that this kind of intimacy takes a lot of work.

As heard by us

A close, character-driven bubble story about family, distance, and daily life.

The episode goes into the NBA and WNBA bubbles and keeps its focus on the daily grind: routines, game prep, and the distance from home. The best part is how the speakers come through as people before they come through as subjects.

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Why you'd press play

You want the bubble to feel human, not just historic.

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