對NBA來說,過去這一年十分艱難。
下坡路始于去年秋天:NBA的前任總裁、也是帶領該聯盟走向輝煌的傳奇經理人大衛?斯特恩在元旦意外去世。僅僅幾個星期后,退役的湖人巨星科比?布萊恩特和他13歲的女兒在一場直升機墜毀事故中去世,更是震驚了整個世界。
然后,就在全明星周末賽后一個月、猶他爵士隊和俄克拉荷馬城雷霆隊即將展開角逐之前,比賽被推遲了:一名爵士隊員檢測出新冠病毒呈陽性。很快,整個聯盟都關閉了。
“如果說2019-2020賽季的前半段,NBA遭遇的只是平流中的大風浪,那么新冠疫情就是把它送到了瀑布關頭。”賴辛基在本周的Reinvent播客節目中說道,感慨在疫情使世界天翻地覆的時候,人們要如何掙扎著求生。
本周的節目將帶領聽眾們走近賴辛基最近發布的專題故事,該故事由《財富》雜志副編輯布萊恩?奧基夫撰寫,內容涉及NBA的“隔離泡”——即該聯盟為球員創建的一個處在保護之下的隔離環境,以確保他們能夠安全地結束這個賽季。
NBA的“隔離泡”是如何起作用的——這不只是一個體育方面的話題,也是領導力和業務運營方面的重要一課。賴辛基在這集節目中說:“ NBA告訴我們,人們首先要關注自己的產品,就NBA而言,它的產品就是籃球比賽。” “這意味著要與球員們保持良好的關系,傾聽他們的顧慮,在執行政策的時候要靈活變通,并根據具體情況調試,盡一切可能維持業務的發展——此外,如果要保證業務運行順暢、品牌完整,還要投入大筆資金。”
賴辛基向我們講述,他們是如何把奧蘭多迪士尼樂園打造成NBA“隔離泡”這一受保護的環境,并解決了300名成年男性、團隊工作人員、聯賽官員和媒體可以在其中安全共事的問題。
賴辛基解釋說:“如果美國其他地方的防疫措施都能夠做得像NBA一樣好,哪怕只是達到其中一小部分成就,那么疫情的走向都可能會有所不同。”
NBA使用了許多高科技工具來進行疫情防控,諸如實時地理位置技術公司Kinexon提供的一項技術,可以跟蹤運動員的活動來監測社交距離。它也采用了一些非技術手段來進行疫情防控,例如禁止球員舔手指、隨地吐痰、擤鼻子或觸摸護齒器。
總體而言,NBA花了1.8億美元用于“隔離泡”相關的開支,而這也取得了巨大的成效——在奧蘭多迪士尼樂園里,包括球員、教練在內的所有人,沒有一個感染。疫情之下,NBA面臨著約15億美元的損失,而如果他們無法舉行這些比賽,這個數字將會高得多。
賴辛基說:“他們之所以這樣做,是為了表明他們不僅可以應對這場危機,還能夠表現得十分出色——這對NBA這個品牌來說,具有相當積極的意義。”(財富中文網)
編譯:陳聰聰
對NBA來說,過去這一年十分艱難。
下坡路始于去年秋天:NBA的前任總裁、也是帶領該聯盟走向輝煌的傳奇經理人大衛?斯特恩在元旦意外去世。僅僅幾個星期后,退役的湖人巨星科比?布萊恩特和他13歲的女兒在一場直升機墜毀事故中去世,更是震驚了整個世界。
然后,就在全明星周末賽后一個月、猶他爵士隊和俄克拉荷馬城雷霆隊即將展開角逐之前,比賽被推遲了:一名爵士隊員檢測出新冠病毒呈陽性。很快,整個聯盟都關閉了。
“如果說2019-2020賽季的前半段,NBA遭遇的只是平流中的大風浪,那么新冠疫情就是把它送到了瀑布關頭。”賴辛基在本周的Reinvent播客節目中說道,感慨在疫情使世界天翻地覆的時候,人們要如何掙扎著求生。
本周的節目將帶領聽眾們走近賴辛基最近發布的專題故事,該故事由《財富》雜志副編輯布萊恩?奧基夫撰寫,內容涉及NBA的“隔離泡”——即該聯盟為球員創建的一個處在保護之下的隔離環境,以確保他們能夠安全地結束這個賽季。
NBA的“隔離泡”是如何起作用的——這不只是一個體育方面的話題,也是領導力和業務運營方面的重要一課。賴辛基在這集節目中說:“ NBA告訴我們,人們首先要關注自己的產品,就NBA而言,它的產品就是籃球比賽。” “這意味著要與球員們保持良好的關系,傾聽他們的顧慮,在執行政策的時候要靈活變通,并根據具體情況調試,盡一切可能維持業務的發展——此外,如果要保證業務運行順暢、品牌完整,還要投入大筆資金。”
賴辛基向我們講述,他們是如何把奧蘭多迪士尼樂園打造成NBA“隔離泡”這一受保護的環境,并解決了300名成年男性、團隊工作人員、聯賽官員和媒體可以在其中安全共事的問題。
賴辛基解釋說:“如果美國其他地方的防疫措施都能夠做得像NBA一樣好,哪怕只是達到其中一小部分成就,那么疫情的走向都可能會有所不同。”
NBA使用了許多高科技工具來進行疫情防控,諸如實時地理位置技術公司Kinexon提供的一項技術,可以跟蹤運動員的活動來監測社交距離。它也采用了一些非技術手段來進行疫情防控,例如禁止球員舔手指、隨地吐痰、擤鼻子或觸摸護齒器。
總體而言,NBA花了1.8億美元用于“隔離泡”相關的開支,而這也取得了巨大的成效——在奧蘭多迪士尼樂園里,包括球員、教練在內的所有人,沒有一個感染。疫情之下,NBA面臨著約15億美元的損失,而如果他們無法舉行這些比賽,這個數字將會高得多。
賴辛基說:“他們之所以這樣做,是為了表明他們不僅可以應對這場危機,還能夠表現得十分出色——這對NBA這個品牌來說,具有相當積極的意義。”(財富中文網)
編譯:陳聰聰
It had already been a tough year for the NBA.
It started last fall when the general manager of the Houston Rockets sent out a tweet that was sympathetic to the protestors in Hong Kong, which got the NBA taken off of broadcast television in China and cost the league millions. Then David Stern, the legendary former NBA commissioner, died unexpectedly on New Year’s Day. Just a few weeks later, the death of retired Laker superstar Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter in a helicopter crash rocked the world.
Then one month after the All-Star weekend, just before the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder were about to tip off, the game was postponed. A Jazz player had tested positive for COVID. Soon, the entire league shut down.
“If the NBA had spent the first part of the 2019-2020 season swimming through some big rapids, COVID just sent it over the waterfall,” says Adam Lashinsky in this week’s episode of Reinvent, a podcast about fighting to thrive in a world turned upside down by COVID-19.
This week’s episode takes listeners inside Lashinsky’s recently published feature story, written with Fortune deputy editor, Brian O’Keefe, about the NBA bubble—the protected environment the league created to keep players safe in order to finish out its season.
How the NBA bubble came to be is far more than a sports story; it’s also a lesson in leadership and business. “The NBA taught us that you pay attention to your product first and foremost, and in the NBA’s case, its product is the game of basketball,” Lashinsky says during the episode. “That means having a good relationship with its players, listening to the their concerns, being flexible and adaptable, and doing everything you can to stay in business—including, by the way, spending a whole bunch of money if that’s what it takes to get it done and keep the brand intact.”
Lashinsky breaks down how the bubble worked with 300 grown men, the team staffs, league officials, and the media all in this protected environment on a campus at Disney World in Orlando.
“If the rest of the country had even done a fraction of what the NBA had done, the virus might have taken a different course,” Lashinsky explains.
The NBA used high-tech tools like technology from Kinexon, a real-time geolocation technology company, that tracks athletes’ performance to monitor social distancing. It also embraced low-tech solutions like discouraging players from licking their fingers, spitting, clearing their noses, or touching their mouth guards.
In all, the NBA spent $180 million dollars on bubble-related expenses that resulted in not a single positive test of a player, coach, or any of the people living on the campus in Orlando. The NBA faced a revenue shortfall of $1.5 billion associated with the pandemic, but that number would have been much higher if they hadn’t been able to play those games.
“They came out of this having shown that they could respond to a crisis, and still do pretty darn well," Lashinsky says, "which is pretty good for the brand of the NBA."