Elephant in the room: How will NBA players cope with no sex for 2 months?

Lou Williams poses with his two girlfriends. Neither will be allowed until August 31st



This week the Celtics finally reunite and in just 17 short days they will have their first game action as they are set to scrimmage the Thunder. A week later they will reboot their 2019-20 season with a match-up vs the Bucks. NBA teams will be alone in the bubble all the way until the 31st of August when family members are first permitted to join the bubble for the 2nd round.

How will NBA players cope with eight weeks of being in the NBA bubble alone? Obviously they will  have their own teammates, other teams' teammates (Let the tampering begin!) and other team personnel. But no wives. No significant others. No side pieces. This is uncharted territory for athletes.



It's been over forty years, since Micky told us that "Women weaken legs," so maybe this will bring out the best basketball ever seen. Who knows? My guess is that most NBA players aren't all too keen on abstinence for two months.

There's a reason that there are no openly gay or bisexual players in the NBA; It's still not accepted by a large portion of the players. Yes they'll wear rainbow colored shirts, but trust me this is still a major issue. With that said, you'd be very very naive to think that some percentage of the league's players are gay or bisexual. So for those players, options will be aplenty inside the bubble. For heterosexual players, options will be extremely limited.

One would hope that players wouldn't cheat on their wives or significant others, but let's be realistic here. It happens on the road. And they are essentially on the road now through the summer.

My hope was/is that the NBA won't allow many media members if any in the Disney bubble. They aren't essential. They can watch from their homes and ask questions remotely (The Celtics beat writer clique probably won't like this opinion, but we should be more worried about health right now than not pissing people off). My guess is there will be media in Orlando and more than just a few. In that media there are quite a lot of female members, most notably team sideline reporters. And while I know that player/media relations is frowned upon if not prohibited by most agencies, stuff happens.

Families will not be permitted to join the NBA bubble until August 31st

So will it be super uncomfortable for the women in the NBA bubble who will be a very sought after minority? Will sneaking out to meet with women outside the NBA bubble and/or sneaking them in be a major issue? Technically if the NBA catches any violations of the bubble guidelines, players won't be able to play for an extended period as they self quarantine again. Will the NBA actually punish players in order to keep everyone else in the bubble safe or turn a blind eye to these infractions and just hope it doesn't lead to positive COVID 19 test results?

I can't be the only one that has thought about this right? It must just be that it's 2020 and people are scared to write about controversial things that could be taken wrong correct? I suppose this is where one should leave a disclaimer that many of the NBA players are faithful to their wives and significant others and we should expect only the best of them. Also probably should add another disclaimer that some players might be waiting til marriage to have sex and thus this will be nothing new.

But let's also be real here, professional athletes are able to be surrounded by women much more than your average male. And many of them enjoy this fact. Two months of abstinence for hundreds of young males used to having sex whenever they want it. I'm sure it will have no effect right?

The Mavs young trio was reportedly broken up due to a Toni Braxton love triangle
Since you didn't ask asked me, here are my guesses:

You'll see better play due to players just focussing on basketball. This will be offset some though by the long layoff where many players didn't even touch a ball. Then again the rest from the layoff will do others well. Basically I'm saying, there will be no way to evaluate player performance due to the lack of "women weakening legs."

Regarding infractions, I have no idea how this bubble is set up security wise, but yes some players will sneak in women or sneak out to be with women. My guess is also the NBA won't be completely transparent with this and despite their rules, will initially risk others' health inside the bubble by giving players warnings for initial infractions.



With that said, I expect most players to not break the rules. But you have 22 teams to start and 16 through August. 15 players per team. You do the math. Even if just a small percentage of players break the rules for libido reasons, you'd still be talking about dozens.

Notable Dates:
July 7-9 -- Teams travel to Orlando

July 9-29 -- Team training camps and scrimmages

July 30 -- Season resumes with Seeding Games

August 15-16 -- Play-In Games (if necessary)

August 17 -- NBA Playoffs 2020 begin

August 31 -- Conference Semifinals begin

September 15 -- Conference Finals begin

September 30 -- NBA Finals 2020 begin

October 13 -- The Finals 2020 latest possible date

Wonder how Wilt Chamberlain, who famously claimed to have slept
with 20,000 women, would have fared in this NBA quarantine bubble
I also wouldn't be surprised if more players aren't sexually active with each other during this time. I'm not talking like some prison life, I'm talking about some players who may have a sexual attraction to men and normally don't act on it, but without many women around might become more likely to find similar minded players. Again I'm talking about "down low" activity. Not "gay for the stay."

The biggest issue I think will be players vying for the interests of the minority of women in the bubble. And I expect some romantic relationships to develop, whether sexual or not. Hopefully their won't be too many Jason Kidd, Jimmy Jackson, Toni Braxton like love triangles.


So there are my thoughts on a topic that no one seems to want to mention, but I'm sure down the road will make for some interesting scoops, tell all books etc. Like you'll hear it on some Bill Simmons, Jaylen Rose, Stephen Jackson, Matt Barnes, Quentin Richardson, Darius Miles podcast in the future. "Oh let me tell you, sex was definitely happening in that bubble. The stories I could tell."

What are your thoughts?


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