Fortune - 11.2020

THE NBA BUBBLE — LEADERSHIP

“I DON’T THINK
THERE’S A BRAND

IN AMERICA
THAT IS MORE
CONSISTENT
THAN THE NBA.”

DAVID CARTER,

SPORTS BUSINESS PROFESSOR

AT USC

NATHANIEL S. BUTLER—NBAE/GETTY IMAGES Silver, the NBA commissioner, said at a press $180 N AUG. 26, in the middle of the
conference before the finals series began. MILLION
(Silver gamely tried to persuade people to O playoffs, the Milwaukee Bucks
use the word “campus” rather than “bubble.” TOTAL COSTS chose not to come out of their
Everyone called it a bubble.) He singled out INCURRED BY locker room for their Game 5
Flatow for praise, calling her “in essence the THE NBA TO PUT playoff matchup with the
concierge” for the assembled crew. ON THE BUBBLE Orlando Magic. They made the
decision not to play in order to
She did “everything from making sure the 6,500 protest the shooting of a Black
buses run on time to [assisting] those of you man named Jacob Blake by a police officer
in this room who requested feather pillows. NUMBER OF in Kenosha, Wis. What began as a one-game
I know who you are. I know all the personal WORKERS walkout—some called it a boycott, while
requests that everyone here has made.” NEEDED TO MAKE Silver let it be known he preferred “work
THE BUBBLE stoppage”—quickly cascaded into a full cessa-
More seriously, the NBA also had to invent POSSIBLE tion of play in the NBA as well as other sports
health protocols from scratch. A former corpo- leagues. The next day the remaining players
rate lawyer named David Weiss, the NBA’s se- and coaches in Orlando gathered to decide if
nior vice president for player matters, quickly they would return to the court. The season—
learned enough about infectious diseases and the revenue all parties would reap from
and testing to work with a team of doctors to completing the playoffs—hung in the balance.
design the elaborate health rules that governed Before the meeting, Paul, the players’ union
the bubble. Weiss also regularly briefed the president, spoke with Silver. The directness of
owners. “It was absolutely stunning how fast the exchange is illustrative of the trust that the
some of the league staff came up to speed on two sides have in each other. “I just said, ‘I’ll let
the health issues,” says Ballmer. you know,’” says Paul. “I know it sounds simple.
But that’s real, you know? At the end of the
The league established a daily testing regi- day, obviously we’re partners and it’s all about
men for everyone who stayed on the campus the game. But I’m a player. I know how players
at an expense of more than $100 per test. feel. And this was bigger than the game.”
Everyone not playing, coaching, or officiating The meeting itself was an extraordinary
games were required to wear masks in the moment of mass catharsis for the athletes. “It
presence of others, particularly because sup- was not fun, but it was really astonishing to see
port staff left the bubble after their shifts. 150 men spend hours in this crowded banquet
hall screaming, yelling, laughing, crying, but
But while league officials were able to stay
ahead of the virus, there were other challenges
they didn’t see coming.

100 FORTUNE NOVEMBER 2020 THE NBA BUBBLE — LEADERSHIP

ultimately coming together as brothers,” says STEADY VOICE dends before play even began in the bubble. COURTESY OF MICHAEL PATTON/NBPA
Michele Roberts, executive director of the Michele Roberts, After the killing of George Floyd by police
National Basketball Players Association. “I’ve the executive officers in Minneapolis in late May, and the
never seen anything like it. That’s what democ- director of the surge in social justice demonstrations that
racy looks like. And it was quite stunning.” National Basketball it sparked, many of the league’s stars were
Players Association unsure they should resume the season. They
After more discussion the next day, the and a onetime feared distracting from the national conver-
players agreed to go back to work, encour- public defender, sation about race.
aged by an agreement with team owners that advised the union
stadiums across the country would be used as on how to turn But the players also recognized the plat-
polling stations for the upcoming election. the bubble into a form they would have by returning. “We
platform for social understood the economic ramifications and
Businesses everywhere, especially those with justice advocacy. the financials of not returning,” says Andre
unionized workforces, have had to deal with Iguodala, the Miami Heat forward and first
sensitive labor-relations issues during this time 172 vice president of the players’ union. “But the
of pandemic-induced business shortfalls. But political landscape of the country and what
more than most leagues, the NBA came into NUMBER OF was happening with race relations made it
its difficult year enjoying a history of mutual GAMES PLAYED bigger than money. And I think that’s what
accommodation with its players. “Silver and IN THE NBA’S made it special for a lot of us to say, ‘Let’s do
Roberts have a ton of credibility,” says Joshua BUBBLE AFTER it for a bigger reason than just us going out
Mendelsohn, a labor lawyer and author of The THE RESTART and getting a check.’ ”
Cap, a new history of labor relations at the
NBA centered on the introduction of a salary So they negotiated to have certain ap-
cap in 1983. When the season was suspended proved messages—like “Vote” and “Say Their
and revenue stopped flowing, the owners Names”—associated with the Black Lives
could have ceased paying salaries. They didn’t. Matter movement printed on the backs of
“The owners continued to pay the players,” their jerseys. It’s the kind of compromise that
says Mendelsohn. “The union did a good job Silver and Roberts are experienced at nego-
of negotiating, including upping the liability if tiating. “I have had fights with Adam. It’s not
someone got sick. They listened to the players. hunky-dory all the time,” says Roberts. “But at
Without the players, there is no game.” the end of the day, we do behave like adults.”

That mutual understanding paid divi- O MATTER how successful the

N NBA was in making the best
of a bad situation this year, the
fact remains that the pandemic
slammed the league’s finances
in the same manner it has hurt
so many businesses around the
world. The league entered last
fall expecting to collect $10 billion for the
season, with about 40% of that figure coming
from so-called game-night revenue: tick-
ets, concessions, merchandise, and the like.
Though the league did complete about 80%
of its season before it was suspended, this
revenue stream went away the moment fans
stopped being able to attend games.
The pandemic exacerbated what already
had been a financially traumatic year. When
Daryl Morey, general manager of the Hous-
ton Rockets, last October tweeted an im-
age showing support for protesters in Hong
Kong, Chinese authorities quickly canceled an
exhibition game in Shanghai and pulled NBA
games from state broadcaster CCTV. Silver

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When the e-learning program Istation launched in 1998, ing that parents are busy with work or other children, it
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remote learning, Istation had already spent more than aspire to make learning easy and enjoyable for everyone—starting, of
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all while ensuring that robust learning continues during this unprec-
“We’ve had a school-to-home connection for over a edented time.” ■
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referring to the at-home portal for parents and students, POWERFUL GROWTH
a feature that was modestly used in the past but is now the
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102 FORTUNE NOVEMBER 2020 THE NBA BUBBLE — LEADERSHIP

“I HAVE HAD 0 declines. Viewership for the NHL’s Stanley
FIGHTS WITH Cup Final was down 61%, Lewis estimates.
ADAM. NUMBER OF And the reworked MLB regular season lost a
IT’S NOT PLAYERS IN THE quarter of its audience from the year before.
HUNKY-DORY BUBBLE WHO
ALL THE TIME.” TESTED POSITIVE Unfortunate timing is partly to blame for
FOR COVID-19 the NBA’s ratings slide. The finals usually
MICHELE ROBERTS, conclude in June rather than October, when
$1.5 it is competing with football and baseball,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR BILLION among other sports. One extraordinary day in
September featured events from 12 top sports,
OF THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL TOTAL HIT including Major League Soccer, the WNBA,
TO REVENUE tennis’s U.S. Open, and college football. The
PLAYERS ASSOCIATION INCURRED BY THE NBA even had to contend with a crazy election
NBA FROM THE season. Game 3 of the finals competed, for ex-
took heat from multiple quarters. The NBA DISRUPTION OF ample, with wall-to-wall coverage of President
initially called Morey’s tweet “regrettable.” But THE SEASON Trump’s surprise COVID-19 diagnosis.
the league quickly backtracked and said that
it would not censor players or team owners. HE END OF THE BUBBLE means
The NBA estimates the China imbroglio cost
$400 million in lost revenue and jeopardized T the beginning of a new, difficult
relations with its fastest-growing market. chapter. There’s plenty of work
ahead—for the players, the
Signs of a thaw appeared just as the season owners, and league officials.
was ending: CCTV aired the last two games of Negotiations to revisit the col-
the finals. “We were only given 12 hours’ notice lective bargaining agreement
that we were returning to CCTV, without a lot already are underway. The de-
of explanation,” says Silver. “Ultimately there layed NBA draft is slated for Nov. 18. And the
was a sense coming out of China that we were league has floated the idea of beginning the
not going to change. We are who we are. We next season in January, with the presence of
are exporting American values.” fans uncertain. Indeed the biggest debate in
the weeks ahead will likely be about the best
Adds Silver: “What came from the NBA and fairest way to share the financial hit the
with those last two finals games on CCTV league is facing. Says Roberts: “It’s no secret
were images of players wearing T-shirts that the conversation will entail how to spread the
say ‘vote’ and ‘equality’ and ‘liberty,’ not neces- loss over a longer period.”
sarily values people have traditionally associ- The NBA’s 1,500 or so league-office em-
ated with China.” ployees, at least, got some post-finals good
news. Silver told them by email that each
Television was challenged in the NBA’s home would receive a one-time $1,000 bonus as
market, too, for very different reasons. The first well as four consecutive Fridays and all of
game of the best-of-seven championship series Thanksgiving week off.
broadcast on Disney-owned ABC, garnered the As for the commissioner himself, he didn’t
smallest television audience ever recorded for fly north when most of the rest of the league
a single game in the NBA Finals—a 4.1 rating staff fled the bubble following the last game.
with 7.41 million viewers, according to analyst “Believe it or not, I’m still in Orlando,” he
Jon “Paulsen” Lewis of Sports Media Watch. told Fortune a couple of days later. “My wife
Lewis estimates that viewership for this year’s and our two daughters came down, and we’re
series was down by at least 40% from last year. going to Disney World for two days. It’s like
that commercial: ‘What are you going to do
The NBA is hardly alone among profes- after the championship? We’re going to Dis-
sional sports leagues in seeing viewership ney World.’ ”
It’s not entirely a fairy tale ending. The
pandemic is still raging, after all. But it’s
about as close as anyone’s going to get to one
in a year like this.

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FORTUNE NOVEMBER 2020 113

TIME WELL SPENT

COURTESY OF MATT HRANEK Matt Hranek relaxing
at his home in the
Médoc region of
France with his
beloved Fiat Panda.

AUTOS

A Man & Their Cars

Matt Hranek has traveled the world to uncover car owners’ tales of automotive joy. BY DANIEL BENTLEY

114 FORTUNE NOVEMBER 2020

1

ATCHES AND CARS share a that will resonate with any the car that you dreamt of
car lover. in high school that sud-
W common thread. In many denly becomes your own.
ways these trappings of men Fortune spoke with They often mark great
with disposable income have become Hranek about the book events in one’s life.
cliché. A Rolex or a vintage Porsche and why men fall in love
can be the shortcut to cool for with their vehicles. This How did you logistically
well-heeled men of a certain bent. But interview has been edited approach shooting this
beneath that veneer of showboating for length and clarity. book? Obviously watches
are often deeply personal tales. Those are a lot easier to get into
are the stories that photographer, Your first book was about a studio …
magazine writer, and all-round bon men and their watches.
vivant Matt Hranek teased out in his Some of those same men I knew that, like with the
first book, A Man & His Watch are in this book talking watch book, I wanted the
(Artisan, 2017), and now with its about their cars. What’s cars to be seen as they are.
sequel, A Man & His Car (Artisan, the common thread be- Not washed and polished
released Oct. 13). tween “watch guys” and and retouched. I wanted
In the new book, Hranek uses his “car guys”? to show patina and wear.
25 years of experience as a commercial I also thought about how
and editorial photographer to capture I think guys like aestheti- we look at cars and how
the cars—warts and all—and his flair cally pretty machines. And designers intend for the
for conversation to tease out stories I think they’re symboli- cars to be seen—which is
cally heavy. A watch and a front, rear, and side.
“So it was me, the taxi driver, and car, your choices of those
a man with a broken arm moving things—if you’re being Logistically, this project
all these priceless cars out of very conscious about it— was a beast. I knew I
the barn. We pushed at least present yourself in a very was going to be traveling
eight like they were Jenga pieces, specific way to the world. around the world to shoot
and I got the shot.” Both have emotional inti- a bunch of these cars, and
macy, or the potential for I didn’t have a massive
emotional intimacy: the budget to do that. So I had
watch you inherited from to be really smart. I wanted
your father, in my case, or to shoot everything on a

PASSIONS — AUTOS

COURTESY OF A MAN & HIS CAR/MATT HRANEK/ARTISAN BOOKS black background, like the 2 THE STAR CARS to make it and the car he
watches, and so I created a dated his wife in. And now
mobile set. I had a custom 3 [1] Hranek shoots a 1912 it’s all beautifully restored.
ripstop nylon backdrop Hudson Speedster on
made, some water-filled 4 his mobile set. [2] Marc What was the car that
“sandbags,” tent stakes, Newson’s 1933 Bugatti charmed you the most?
and rope, and packed that he was in Greece, and Type 59. [3] Jay Leno’s
into a giant Filson hockey he said, “Listen, the car restored 1955 Buick I love Fiat Pandas. My
bag. After a year and a is outside London being Roadmaster. [4] Hranek’s friend Paolo Tumminelli
half of traveling around stored. You can go anytime own 1987 Porsche 911 teaches about car design
the world with it, I just and shoot it.” So I fly to Carrera Targa. [at the University of
wanted to burn it! London, organize a taxi Cologne] and has owned
service to schlep me out Jenga pieces, and I got the spectacular cars and driven
Which car in the book was to the farm where it was shot. Because there was no some amazing things. But
your “white whale”—the stored … and nobody told way I was leaving without his passion is Fiat Pandas,
one that was the hardest them I was coming. The a photograph of that, ab- the early ones designed by
to track down? owner of the farm had solutely no way. You have Giorgetto Giugiaro, and
broken his arm, and this to go into these things his passion is infectious!
Well, the funniest was Bugatti was buried in the respecting the spontane- You have this little box
Marc Newson, the indus- garage, surrounded by all ity of the situation, you that looks like a toy Land
trial designer, who has these other priceless cars. know? Because something Rover, like a car that a kid
this incredible, all-original I said, “We gotta get the is probably not gonna draws. But the amount of
1933 Bugatti Type 59. Bugatti out of here!” go right. thoughtfulness in the de-
When I interviewed him, sign of that car that most
So it was me, the taxi Some of these men you people probably wouldn’t
driver, and a man with a interview, like Jay Leno even look twice at, I just
broken arm moving all and Ralph Lauren, have think is spectacular.
these priceless cars out of huge collections of hun-
the barn. We pushed at dreds of vehicles. How You chose your own 1987
least eight like they were did they choose which car Porsche 911 Targa to open
to talk about? the book and set the tone.
Why that one, out of the
It came down to one cars you own?
question always, which
was, Which of these cars I was a kid of the ’80s, and
do you have the deepest I loved the Porsche 911. I
emotional connection to? had a poster in my room of
And they weren’t always a Targa. That was the car
the most glamorous cars; that just made my pupils
they were not always the dilate and my heart race.
most expensive cars; they And when I met my wife,
were not always the most this was her ex-boyfriend’s
expected cars. When you car. Yolanda made him
walk into Leno’s garage, buy it at auction because
there are some very im- she thought he wasn’t
pressive machines there, representing hard enough,
but he went to the 1955 in the car situation. Fast-
Buick Roadmaster, which forward, we borrow that
was the first car he bought car to drive from San
after arriving in L.A. in Francisco to Palm Springs,
1972, for 350 bucks. It’s a and we eloped! There are
car he slept in while trying a bunch of juicy details in
between, but I ended up
getting that car in a horse
trade. I think I made out
pretty good in that deal.

116 FORTUNE NOVEMBER 2020 THE CARTOGRAPHER

DIS-UNITED STATES ZERO-EMISSION PLANTS
OF ELECTRICITY
HYDRO
THE FUTURE OF POWER GENERATION is solar. That’s the view
of the International Energy Agency in its new World Energy SOLAR
Outlook report, released in October. The biggest reason: Solar
is now cheaper than coal or gas in most of the world. “I see solar WIND
becoming the new king of the world’s electricity markets,” said
IEA’s executive director Fatih Birol. There’s still a long way to go
before that forecast becomes true in the U.S. Last year, utility-
scale solar produced just 1.8% of U.S. electricity, according to
the Energy Information Administration, despite rapid growth in
recent years. The overall portion of power from zero-emission
sources, meanwhile, edged up to 38%. —BRIAN O’KEEFE

FOSSIL FUEL PLANTS

GAS

PLANT
CAPACITY

(MEGA-
WATTS):

1,000
2,500

COAL 5,000
6,800

U.S. ELECTRICITY GENERATION BY ENERGY SOURCE NUCLEAR

HYDRO OTHER RENEWABLE OTHER RENEWABLE SOURCE: U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
6% 2% 11%

NUCLEAR HYDRO COAL
21% 7% 23%

COAL NUCLEAR
51% 20%
GAS
17% GAS
39%
2001
OTHER OTHER 2019
NON- NON-
RENEWABLE RENEWABLE
4% 1%

INFOGRAPHIC BY NICOLAS RAPP



PATTI POPPE
President and CEO, Consumers Energy

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