The NBA’s return from the COVID-19 hiatus later this month has gathered together hundreds of players across 22 different teams. They are currently confined in the Disney bubble, where everyone can cross paths and interact on a daily basis. As seen in the vlogs and social media posts, it looks fun, and many are calling it a throwback to the guys’ highschool days.

Hovering all around that, however, is one interesting and concerning aspect we should probably be talking about more: tampering.

Yes – the always controversial and equally intriguing player (or coach) tampering, especially since it involves some very confusing rules. Remember when Doc Rivers was fined last season just for praising Kawhi Leonard’s game?

For context, players, coaches, agents, and team executives are not allowed to recruit an opposing player to his team. It’s getting stricter every day as guys are being sly in their wooing ways.

That’s what makes the bubble more interesting than it already is. Everyone is around each other 24/7, and they can fraternize for long periods of time – a handful of teams are even in the same hotel. There’s no escaping the fact that it’s a gateway to a whole lot of recruiting, sweet-talking, and whatnot, and to make it more extreme, the league won’t be able to check on such activities.

Here’s what an unnamed coach told Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports:

“The next super team will come out of this. I believe it’s inevitable. I walk into my hotel, I see [All-Star player] in the lobby … We’re on the elevator, I get off on one floor, he’s on another. If I knew him like that and wanted to meet up with him, I could. We could golf, we could fish. There’s so much to do in the downtime, the league can’t police that stuff.”

Along with all the constant face-to-face interaction are the heightened mental challenges while being in a bubble, where guys are alone with their thoughts for basically every night. Under such circumstance, players could be internalizing the pressure to win way deeper than ever.

If you’re a superstar, the name of the game is championship or bust, and if you fall on the latter, people will most definitely let you know. Every. Single. Day.

It’s among the underlying reason why super teams became prevalent years back, and how player empowerment has given players quite the leverage recently.

We’re realizing more and more that these guys are human too. The non-stop piling of fans and pundits on social media is tough to ignore.

The said coach also touched on it in the interview:

“Guys wanna play in the now, but they’re also looking ahead … “They know it’s a lot of money at stake for the immediate future and for way down the line.”

The truth behind the anonymous coach’s belief is also strong if we base it on the past formations of super teams.

The Miami Heat Big Three from 2010, for one, was born out of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade’s close friendship from the prior international competitions. The two were teammates in four different basketball tournaments before the Heatles were formed – 2004 Olympics, 2006 FIBA World Championships, 2007 Olympic qualifiers, and the 2008 Olympics. In the middle of all that, they were able to entice Chris Bosh as well.

The Golden State Warriors’ super team from 2016-2019 even proved that you don’t need to have a long-running relationship – all it takes is one meeting. ‘The Hamptons 5,’ as they are famously called, was from the Warriors’ one-of-a-kind camaraderie that made Kevin Durant fall in love.

That one, fateful meeting showed Durant that the Dubs had all the tools for a dynastic championship run he so desperately coveted, and that they have a very close-knit squad. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala were all there to show him what they’re all about.

A more recent example also includes Durant. He and Kyrie Irving reportedly bonded during the 2019 All-Star Weekend, something that ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst described as a “middle school couple.”

Months later, they left their respective teams and signed with the Brooklyn Nets. Big man DeAndre Jordan, whom Durant became close with during the 2016 Olympics, was also brought in the circle.

Then, you also have some of the pairings from last off-season – LeBron James and Anthony Davis are from the Klutch Sports agency, James Harden and Russell Westbrook are close buddies from their Oklahoma City Thunder days, and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were apparently close and originally planned to team up in San Antonio.

Who would be heavily recruited?

The list is long – Victor Oladipo, Jayson Tatum, DeMar DeRozan, Anthony Davis, etc. – but the most obvious is easily Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, the league’s possible back-to-back Most Valuable Player.

The tug of war between the Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers has started last year, as evident by each signing an Antetokounmpo brother – Thanasis and Kostas, respectively. Giannis, as you know, is looking to be with both of his siblings in one team.

The Heat are also becoming more and more involved in the chase. Team president Pat Riley has done recruiting wonders in the past, so who’s to say he can’t make it happen again? The city alone is attractive enough, and now they have a solid core that greatly fits Giannis’s style. Heat All-Stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are likely in the shadows, trying to sway ‘The Greek Freak’ to South Beach.

What’s more exciting is that the Bucks, Lakers, and Heat were all assigned in the same hotel.

We’re all pumped about NBA basketball’s return, but we ought to be just as excited as to how the months-long bubble will influence player movements in the future.