Transcript

The transcript below has been lightly edited for readability and clarity. Click any starting timestamp to jump to that point in the YouTube video.

[00:00] Don Costante:

Welcome to the Rundown Podcast hosted by Don Costante, a sports and event management expert with over 25 years experience. This unique podcast provides an opportunity to hear from some of the best professionals in the industry. You'll get valuable insight and perspective on what it takes to deliver authentic experiences, activate brands, and most importantly, connect with audiences. All on the Rundown Podcast. Let's get started.

[00:28] Don Costante:

2020 will always be known as the year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption it caused. But despite all of the adversity, there were some sports success stories and maybe none more successful than the NBA's bubble in Orlando, Florida. The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association pulled off an amazing feat. After 107 days, 172 games, and thousands of COVID-19 tests, an NBA champion was crowned. All of this with zero positive tests. With the NBA season now complete, I thought it would be interesting to talk with somebody who is there and tasked with the facilitation of the game presentation. My guest today is Maurice Brazelton, otherwise known as Mo. Mo is Senior Director of Entertainment for the Sacramento Kings and one of nine game directors selected by the NBA to travel to Orlando to produce games. Mo is a 20-year NBA veteran who has worked in addition to the Kings on several major events for the league, including 15 all-star games. In this episode, Mo shares his event presentation philosophy and then takes us inside the NBA bubble, revealing the steps taken by the NBA to ensure proper execution of game operations. In our conversation, we cover the days leading up to the bubble, the NBA's communication process, the comprehensive health and safety protocols, the onsite preparation and the execution of game days, the technology that was utilized, life for the staff inside the bubble, activism, and much more. I'm ready to get started. Let's meet Mo Brazelton. Hi, Mo. It's great to have you on the rundown. Hey, Don. Thanks for having me. Very excited to have a conversation with you today. Man, I am excited. You and I go back a long ways and you've had quite the NBA season, haven't you?

[02:24] Maurice Brazelton:

Yes, indeed. Had a season halted in March. Many things that happened have happened before then, since then. So that's been interesting. All right. Before we get started, I like to ask each guest their career path. So Mo, if you could just tell listeners, what was your path to becoming senior director of entertainment for the Sacramento Kings?

[02:42] Don Costante:

Yeah, thank you. So I just completed season number 20 for the Sacramento Kings. Wow. I started when I was 21. I began when we had our WNBA team, actually, the Sacramento Monarchs. I was hired my senior year of college as a game night assistant, seasonal, literally like throwing out t-shirts, making balloons and picking contestants on the court. I had such a great experience and had a fun time. I was like, you know what? I want to do this. I had no idea what I wanted to do in professional sports. So that was my first start. So I re-interviewed for that same position for the Kings season that following year and was lucky enough to be a member of that team as well for the Kings. And as you know, in a professional sports, a lot of people come and go. So it's all about right place, right timing. I was able to interview for a coordinator position shortly after that season concluded and was hired on as a coordinator with the Kings back in 2001. I have a unique situation. I've been lucky enough to stay here where I'm born and raised in Sacramento, California. I'm from here, went to school here. All my family's here and I'm unique to be able to promote within the company over the years to where I'm currently at now, senior director in season number 20 or 21 starting. Yeah. I've been very blessed to be in a position to be able to stay here in my hometown market. That's incredible. I think most people nowadays in sports move around a number of times. That's a tribute to you though, that you've been able to stay within that organization and a tribute to your organization as well for treating you well. Now that we know a little bit about how you got there, I'm always also fascinated to know about philosophy. What's your overall event presentation philosophy there with the Sacramento Kings?

[04:08] Maurice Brazelton:

Yeah. My philosophy is I like to create a fun and engaging experience for our fans. And I try to stay topical and I try to challenge our staff to stay topical when it comes to that and what we deliver. We challenge ourselves to engage with our fans early on in their show. So shortly after the door is open, we're engaging with our fans by showing them on the big screen and we're providing prizes for them. Our video board director is giving directions to, Hey, you know what? Utilize as many cameras as you can to create an atmosphere where fans want to be seen. And we'll entertain along with us. We do this pretty fun thing called find a chair. And we started early in our pregame, probably like 50 minutes out. And we literally put a camera onto a chair and we frame it with find a chair and we put a t-shirt over it. Oh, that's cool. And who work in find that chair? That t-shirt goes to them. And so at first it started off like slow. People were like, what is this? But man, people come into our games looking for the find a chair camera. We prize them with pretty cool prizes pregame. It's just something that engages our fans early. And instead of putting a logo loop up there until the warmup occur, we're able to show fans as part of our show. On the topical side, we really challenge ourselves. We'll stay in topical throughout the year. A funny thing we do for visitor intro sequences are we try to poke fun at the visiting teams. So a couple of seasons back, we're hosting the Golden State Warriors. And I'm not sure if you remember, but Steph Curry made some comment about he didn't believe in man landing on the moon. And shortly after he made this comment, I hope to say like, maybe two days later, we're like, you know what? Let's have some fun with this. So our mascot came out in a big old moon suit. And we do like a funny video skit during our visitor intros and we kind of picture and picture the team so they can like look up at the video board. And so we played a video of a man landing on the moon and our P announcer got into it, you know, with the starting five. And yeah, the entire team noticed, and specifically Steph noticed, and he actually tweeted something about, you know, kudos to the Kings for making fun of me for not believing a man going to the moon. So this is a little small little story of like how we try to have fun and be topical with our presentation, at least in my philosophy. No, I love that engagement, fun, staying topical all the years that I've known you without question. That's what you're known for. So let's shift gears today. I want to talk about this unique NBA year, specifically the NBA bubble. Right. Yeah. And I think before we dive deep into that, let's give everybody kind of the timeline. And the timeline is this suspension of the season happened on March 11th. Then June 4th, a few months later, the NBA board of governors approved the NBA restart in Orlando at Walt Disney World. July 7th, the teams travel to Disney to begin testing and quarantine. July 30th, the season resumes. October 11th, the NBA finals concludes with the Lakers winning 22 teams were part of the restart with the season come into a halt. No, on March 11th, when were you first contacted by the NBA to assist with the bubble? Yeah. So along those timeframe that you just laid out, we were actually the second game of an ESPN doubleheader on March 11th. Oh my gosh. We're supposed to take on the New Orleans Pelicans on ESPN. Actually our only ESPN game of the season. So you were all ready to go with your game and all of a sudden you're getting a call saying no go. Yes, sir. Yeah, we were all ready to go. And we got a hunch of something seeing that OKC game and seeing what came about that. And as you know, every national game is a TLC. So we had Brian Shreve here in Sacramento that evening. And he's like, Hey, you know, hold on. There's some things going on. You know, there may or may not be a game. So we kind of got like, OK, let's kind of put some messaging together just in case that happens. And the visiting team never showed up on the court, never came out. Referees came out, you know, shortly after. And I think one of the crew chiefs was in contact with the league office. And kind of fast forward through that. He gave the official word that, hey, the game for tonight has been postponed. There will be no game. We had a couple thousand fans in the building actually went more than that. It was probably about 15 minutes till tip off. And we had to make that announcement. And of course, the fans were very disappointed with all that. So that happened that night, March 11th, got through that. About two weeks after Mike Champ, the league office was in contact with us about weekly meetings for like, hey, you know, what are some scenarios we can all kind of start planning in case we do start back up in our individual markets? There wasn't really much talk about going to a bubble then. That was in late March. And that was with all game directors in the league? Yeah. So it was a weekly call. We had all game directors in the league and even some of their number twos. We went through all kinds of scenario planning. We know when we come back, how are we going to recognize the frontline workers and so forth. And shortly after, I would say in May is when Champ reached out to us and said, hey, we're kind of shifting to a possible bubble. Who would be available to commit? Could you commit for one month? Could you commit for two months? Or could you commit, you know, the whole time that we would be down in Orlando?

[08:38] Don Costante:

Right. And so he asked us to get back to him and then we would hear pretty soon. So fast forward on June 19th, I was notified by Champ in the NBA that I would be joining the league for the NBA restart in Orlando. You know, they had to go through our HR departments to get clearance and how long we can stay and so forth. So yeah, I was one of nine game directors, one of I think 21 or 22 total personnel that was selected to go down and be part of the restart. And shortly after, we were on a plane July 10th to get to Orlando. So between June 19th and July 10th, we were on weekly calls amongst all of us game directors to figure out a plan of what we're going to do, how we're going to do it. And then with all of our staff that were going down there and all as well. Outside of just the calls, any other type of preparation that the NBA put you through prior to leaving for the bubble?

[09:24] Maurice Brazelton:

Yes, that's a good question. So immediately after receiving the word that we were going down there, we had to 10 days out, we had to start testing in our individual market. Gotcha. Me specifically, I was able to test here on site with the Kings because the Kings were one of the 22 teams going down there. So I was able to kind of just jump into their rotation and test every day. And then those results would be shifted back to the NBA. Gotcha. Before you left Sacramento, what was your biggest concern going into the bubble?

[09:52] Don Costante:

I guess just the unknown, not knowing exactly what we're going to do and how we're going to produce these games. We knew some of the technology, but we didn't know how it was going to all come together, like in terms of the screen and audio sweetening. And just, we didn't even have a rundown template built yet. So just kind of like that. I knew most of the staff that were going down there as better as we know most of the staff in the league. But again, just the unknown, I think was a little bit was concerning for me personally. So you leave Sacramento, you get to Orlando. What was your immediate, what was your personal reaction when you first arrived and you saw the bubble?

[10:25] Maurice Brazelton:

Yeah. So left Sacramento on the tent, flew across the country, land, immediately get to the hotel and go right to testing. I'm like, okay, everything's happening so fast. We get tested at night. We actually stayed in a hotel that was outside of the bubble that first night, just in case if a test came back positive that we weren't bringing that to the bubble or any of the traveling party. But what was your impression when you first arrived? Were you like, this is secured or, you know, what was your thoughts?

[10:49] Don Costante:

Yeah, I was impressed. Went off the bat. Even before I even got there, the NBA, like all my workings with them, both domestically and internationally, I'm so impressed by just their attention to detail when it comes to like making sure our travel experience is awesome and we're getting there. I was impressed. I'm like just the hotel on Disney property. It was just crazy huge and just awesome and big. And I felt comfortable with the travel process. I was a little nervous. Get on a plane. I will admit to you, but then, you know, getting on the plane and getting through that was, it was okay. Once I got to Orlando. It's funny. The scariest part is the plane ride versus the bubble. Yeah, exactly. When you got there, Mo, obviously you were impressed. Talk a little bit about the rules, the rules and the protocols that you had to follow on a daily basis. Yeah. Oh my gosh. So this is pretty detailed. So we all got to Orlando on, I think, Saturday and that next day, that Sunday, we all entered a seven day quarantine. Yes. Seven days stuck in your hotel room. The only time we could exit the room was for daily testing. So again, upon arrival, we all checked into our hotel. We were given a thermometer and a oxygen meter along with instructions to download the MB My Health app. And then so every morning in our hotel rooms, we had to log on the app and digitally input our temperature and our oxygen level that would go to the MBA. And then we were given notice on what timeframe we could leave our room for the testing that were right there next to our hotel headquarters. And literally, Don, we can only leave for like 15 minutes to go testing and come back to our room for those first seven days. I was like, oh my gosh, I've never been quarantined like such. So in addition to the app and the oxygen and thermometer, we had these dizzy bands that we were given along with the wristband that we could not take off. So the dizzy bands were activated in such that say we did not take our temperature or oxygen level. Well, the dizzy band wouldn't allow us access to certain parts of the ground. Oh, wow. Shut you out. Yeah, that was really high tech. You would have to show your band or scan your band on a monitor and they would know if you had taken the steps to be in your health app. That was for both. We stayed at where we stayed at on the Disney grounds as well as where we had our games played at the World Wide Sports Disney headquarters. It was all activated together. I was pretty impressed on how they were able to track that. In addition, masks were required at all times. The only exceptions were when we ate or were able to work out. Every other time, you got to have your mask on. We were provided plenty of masks and Clorox cleaners and disinfectants. When we ate, we were encouraged to eat outside when possible. We were no more than two or three at a table. All the safety protocols were very, very thorough. We were texts. If we didn't take our tests by a certain time in the daytime, we would receive a text and say, hey, you know, just heads up. You've been taking your tests. Testing was open from 6 a.m. until midnight every day, so there's no excuses for not being able to take your testing. Social distancing, when we could, was always in place for us, for all staff, even on the bus rides from our hotel to the arena. We were spaced out when we had meetings. We were always encouraged to space out when we can. So yeah, every protocol of safety, I was very comfortable with. They were thorough. We were constantly reminded and everyone really participated and were in agreement with keeping those front and center. Maybe I missed it, but once you were done with quarantine and all of that, how often were you tested for COVID?

[14:02] Maurice Brazelton:

Oh yeah. So every day I was there, we were tested. Every day?

[14:04] Don Costante:

Yes. Even after quarantine, we were tested every day. So both the nose swap and back of your mouth swap were both tested. Wow. Yeah. I've done that. That's not the most enjoyable experience. No, it's not. Some testers were a little bit lenient as far as how far back they would put that Q-tip. You tried to get those people. Yeah. Never got used to it. That's great though. Obviously it worked and it only works when everybody's following the rules and the protocols correctly. All right. So you're on site now. What sort of training with maybe specific equipment was provided to the game directors?

[14:37] Maurice Brazelton:

I'm sure there was a member from the league that kind of, once you guys were there for the first time, gave you a walkthrough of inside the bubble where the games were going to be played. Talk about that process right there. Yeah. Let me just say the NBA did an amazing job preparing us and all the preparation that went into it. All the NBA projects, both domestically and internationally, I've had the opportunity to work. They have a production department that oversees all the communication with the staff and the vendors. So the production department, you know, coordinates all the logistics of the venue, the staffing, the scheduling, the communication, the resources. A special and quick shout out to Adrian and India and Katie and Mara and Chad and Malik, and they're all like the best in the business of what they do. So everything from the travel, you know, the pickup arrangements to the credentials, to the medical and safety protocols, the testing, the detailed campus maps of where we can go or we can't go for both the Disney grounds, as well as where the arenas were located, the ground transportation, you know, how to catch the bus, when the buses were running, the meals, the food, the dress code, the things we can do on our off time. All that was very clearly communicated to us. It was constantly updated. You know, we received multiple emails throughout the day of, you know, all our schedules and rehearsals and plans. So the first day of quarantine, we had a complete walkthrough. All 22 of us with Carlton and Darber and Chan and AJ and all the NBA producers, we took the time to walk through all three venues. We literally went front of house, back of house. So real quick, the NBA had two different zones. There was a green zone in the yellow zone and the players and coaches, medical staff, game personnel, like myself, NBA staff were all in the green zone and we had access to the green zone only. And folks who were in the yellow zone were more of like vendors for the NBA, like your lighting engineers and your audio folks in your back of the house folks and your security. They had access to the yellow zone only and said no time can the greens on yellow zone crossover. Really strict communication and security that would enforce that just because the folks in the yellow zone weren't necessarily tested every day. They were, you know, like Disney employees and they were like on a voluntary testing protocol versus us in the green zone. We were, you know, mandatory testing or socially distanced and we had a certain rules that we had to follow. So that was clearly communicated to us when we did our walkthrough of all the venues and, you know, waxes we had area too. So that was very thorough and I felt very comfortable with the unsight preparation that they gave us when it came to that. Wow. Doesn't surprise me being very thorough. So I know the NBA made a conscious decision when they started back up. They wanted to maintain that home and away structure of a traditional NBA season. So talk about what steps were taken to accomplish that. Yeah. So as you mentioned, they were a home and away for each of the games, each of the 22 teams, each team had four guaranteed home games before the playoff started up. We restarted back on July 30th. So with respect to our jobs, we were tasked with creating that home court advantage. All the content that you saw, whether it's a blowoff video or intro video, in-game video, all the music, all the scenarios on when to play the music, the walk-in graphics, the messaging that teams had for their look and feel. They were all created with the idea of, you know, creating that home court advantage and giving as much of a look and feel for the players that they could when they play the game. In the weeks leading up to getting us to Orlando, we had several calls with our colleagues of all the 22 teams that were playing in the bubble. And the NBA, they sent a comprehensive document out to the teams that gave them instructions of how many files they can send in, what those files should be, what format, and all the due dates. And that was a huge process that we were involved with working with the NBA on that. And then while in quarantine, we didn't just sit in our rooms and do nothing. We had calls every day with all 22 teams that we were able to essentially walk them through what content that they have sent in so far. We were able to even show them what it looked like on the screens that we had out there in Orlando. So we had the company who provided the screens for us. He was able to show via Zoom the intro video, the ribbons, the look and feel of all the content they sent in. And then there were a ton of back and forth re-edits and refiles based off of what teams had and were sending in. So it was a really, really thorough, thorough process to get us to having that home court feel for the teams. I really love the fact that you guys consulted with all of the other game directors who weren't there to make sure that the assets that they were providing were going to be incorporated the right way or the way that they traditionally do to create that home court advantage. That's awesome. It was cool to be able to like, hey, so what are you using in LA or what are you using in Phoenix?

[19:02] Don Costante:

We were kind of just getting ideas so we all had a shared conversation on some stuff that were a baseline best practice that we can use. Because again, this is new to all of us. So when you had those teams that you were directing and having their home games, you're going back to your notes to make sure that you're putting these assets in at the right time and having the right feel that they would traditionally have maybe in LA or wherever. Yeah. So early on, a couple of us got together and created a master Google document that we used with our basic Bible for communicating with all the teams. And we gave the game directors access to this Google doc and that doc lived like rundown templates that we wanted and script templates that we wanted for them to fill in. So we walked them through how we wanted to be submitted to it. And then we had constant communication with respect. Okay, your document's uploaded and it's updated, ready to go. And then we were able to use that. We had a processing plan that really made it really easy for us to communicate with them all. Yeah. They were creating your rundown for you. Yeah. Just had to actually implement it, which is fantastic. I also love how the NBA, the game feed had that augmented real-time graphic of the home court logo, as well as the venue's name for on the courts. I thought that was pretty cool in giving each team their identity when they were home court. That was really cool that they did that. That was one of the ideas I brought back to Sacramento, like how we can like maybe use opportunities on the court to enhance opportunities for revenue generation. So that was one of the ideas I thought was impressive that the league did. So you talked about the number of people, what staff did you have and what was the communication process with them prior to game days?

[20:33] Maurice Brazelton:

Yeah. So staffing, there were four groups, A, B, C, and D. I was a group D. And each group, we had a game director, we had a backup game director, we had a screens producer, we had a public address announcer, and a DJ. And so we're all teamed up together in those respective roles. And prior to us arriving in Orlando, we had several calls within our groups. You know, first of all, just to kind of introduce each other. So the groups were identified before you ever left Sacramento?

[20:56] Don Costante:

Yeah, those were identified before we left our respective markets. And we had the opportunity to get on a couple calls before we left to kind of just meet each other, talk about some strategies and philosophies and like, you know, what we're going to be doing and so forth. The MB did a really good job of kind of getting us together and communicating with each other and kind of facilitating those conversations with us. So kudos to Chant for kind of driving that and, you know, the work he did, keeping us all in the know in the loop and all the details. There were so many like changing details daily. Oh, I can imagine. Both from the league level and then obviously from the teams of what they wanted to include. He was able to facilitate that and keep us all on point within each of our groups. So that was a big undertaking just on that part of it. Maybe talk a little bit more about that communication process from the NBA to you guys on a daily basis, specifically to game presentation execution. What was the communication process on a regular basis?

[21:46] Maurice Brazelton:

It was a plus job on a communication, both from Chant and his side, as well as the production side. As I previously mentioned, Adrian Cordero was the head of production. So every morning we'll wake up and we have a couple of documents in our inbox of the court rehearsals. You know, going into before we got there, it was mostly like the court building, the court layout. What would be involved with that on the production side, when we would have the court, you know, when meetings were scheduled for us, when we had the opportunity to meet together. That was the production side. But then on the entertainment side, the chant oversaw, he was really good on kind of getting us all together and looping us in with the details, facilitating our calls. And then he would lean on the game directors and nine of us and the head of each of our groups to really take on a meeting with our individual groups and creating those rundowns and those scripts and communicating that with each of our teams. So we had a constant communication before we even got there. Then obviously daily conversations and meetings with our individual groups, you know, upon arriving. Quick shout out to my group. I had a chance of working with Carly from Boston, Rad from the Spurs, Chris from the LA Lakers. Congrats, Chris for a championship. Andrew, our DJ from the Clippers. Awesome. And then my main man, Tim out in Indiana. So, you know, shout out to those guys. I had an amazing time teaming up with. Let's talk a little bit about media production. Were you involved or were the game directors involved with conversations with the broadcast partners regarding their look and feel for how they wanted the game presentation to be?

[23:07] Don Costante:

And if you did, what was the strategy that they wanted for televising the games?

[23:12] Maurice Brazelton:

And what direction did they give you, the game directors, in terms of utilizing game presentation resources to assist with that strategy?

[23:18] Don Costante:

Yeah, we were in contact with ESPN, ABC, and TNT, especially those first opening week of games. Nearly all the games were on some sort of a national TV network in addition to the RSN. As for the national TV games, with all national TV games, the league provides a TLC that essentially cues us from blow-off through tip-off. As you know, we had that special social justice movement prior to Anthem that first week of games that every game we had that two-and-a-half-minute video that preceded the Anthem. And that was a very important moment for the league and also the networks, which took it live. So a lot of coordination with those TLCs and networks and on the timing of that. And then depending on what home team it was, they took some of the home team's intro sequences live, which was pretty cool for those teams. I guess some other behind-the-scenes things. As you know, the scores table was enclosed with that plexiglass. So the referees, in fact, all three referees had a microphone on their belt where they were able to speak with specifically on replays. So there was like a special camera that they would come over and notify the official book of the TLC and the P announcer and then look into that special camera. So we had to make sure that we had that space clear and that the referees were communicating to us via that camera. Some other kind of interesting things that happened at all the national TV games were the coach walk-offs at both quarter breaks. They were dedicated to making sure that they spoke to the media at those breaks. So we had to bring our audio levels down to near nothing when those occurred. We just worked clearly with the TLC to make sure that was in place. I would say another one, maybe the McClough Ultra court site bands was a PE hit that we had to get in prior to every tip-off. So prior to us getting the ball in the air, we had to recognize the fans who were in attendance with that partnership. And then again, post-game, we had to give a shout-out as well. So those are a few times that we were able to have to coordinate with the TLCs for those specific hits when working with the broadcast team. But overall, the setup was for, in terms of the arenas, they were set up for a broadcast and how they shot it tight using multiple cameras. A camera on a robot. There were tons of cameras that I'd never even seen before in an NBA arena. On the scores table, by both home and away benches, multiple extra cameras were added to the court site stanchions, both below and top. Yeah, I love the new angle they did with the rail cam. The rail cam, yeah. And the free throw line cameras. That was very impressive, the setup that they had for that. Let's talk game days. You started to mention a few things. Let's say your group D is the group coming in to do the game. How early, prior to the start of the game, did you all have to arrive at the venue and start preparation?

[25:43] Maurice Brazelton:

Yeah. So as I mentioned, I was group D. There was four groups. There was three arenas. So each group had an arena dedicated to them. In my group, we were like a roaming team. So we would be able to come in and give group A a break and they would take that day off or take that game off. So we had to know about the functions of all three arenas, which was pretty cool. And we had a good time doing that. So typical game day, we would arrive to the arena two and a half hours prior. The buses ran like literally every 15 minutes. So we had probably a 10-minute bus ride over from our hotel over to the Worldwide Sports, Disney, ESPN area, where we would go through our security checks and then get to the arena. Upon arriving, similar to our home markets, everyone in our group would briefly put their backpacks down and we would come together and meet up. We already had the rundowns printed and the scripts printed out. Thank you to the production team. So we would take the rundowns and like just talk it through. In addition to the folks I mentioned that were in our group, we also had a lighting engineer at each of the arenas. We had an A1 that we would have communication with and also another video engineer that the video company supplied. So we would come together and before we jumped on headset, we would pass out the rundowns and talk to the show. We then shortly after that got on headset and we would use that first half an hour to 45 minutes to walk through and run our videos. So we wanted to see all the content, specifically me, I did, and all the levels of the video. So we run through all the intro videos, the ballroom videos. We sat and put all our eyes on our graphics. Any messaging that teams have specific for them, we will walk through and look at all that. Okay. So you guys get there about two and a half hours before you end up having your meetings. You take a look at videos. Are you running any sort of, I don't know what rehearsals you would need, but if there were any rehearsals, did you do any at that point as well?

[27:27] Don Costante:

Yeah. So we were very thorough, at least for those first couple of weeks, because we're learning every team's presentation still. Okay. So we were very thorough in terms of going top to bottom on the show. It wasn't really too much once we got into the game. So it was a lot of it like, okay, let's see the anthem. Look and feel with the light. Gotcha. So you were rehearsing like light movements and just running through audio clips, running through video clips. You were going through the motions to make sure everybody was on the same page. Absolutely. Yeah. We have the immediate, amazing job of allowing ample time for us to get through. Like, I think an hour is dedicated for that. So we had more than enough time to kind of get through all that and making sure we're comfortable. If we need to run something again or run a video again or whatever, we had all eyes on those for those rehearsals. So Mo, I think it'd be interesting as you got to your courtside location with the director calls the game. Talk a little bit about what equipment was provided, what safety measures. I think you talked about plexiglass a little bit earlier, but. Describe your location, your workstation to the listeners. Yes. We sat courtside, front row, close to the home bench specifically. As you know, yeah, we sat behind a plexiglass that sometimes prevented us from hearing some audio, but more on that later. We had room for our laptop and we had a comm system. And interesting on the comm systems, Don, there was a UV light that the company that provided the comms had over the system. So when you were done speaking or not using that system, I think 10 minutes after it not being in use, the UV light would self-clean like the button that you would press. That's pretty cool. We had a preview monitor that we had that we normally have in our home markets. And we also had a stat feed and we were spaced out. It was no joke. So six feet, six feet away from me was my p announcer. Six feet from him was the TLC. Six feet away from him was the official scorebook and so on. So we had two rows, that front row and then we had a back row. So that's what I was going to ask you right now is once you put that headset on, who are you communicating with?

[29:13] Maurice Brazelton:

Yeah. So once I put that headset on, we had communication to our video producer. We had communication to our public address announcer, even though he was next to me. I was able to speak into his ear. TLC, back and forth communication to the TLC. The NBA producer who sat right behind me to the left, he was able to communicate to me and so forth. Our audio, our DJ, our lighting position, our audio sweeteners who sat in a separate room. And then our video producer who sat next to our video coordinator that we had on each of our teams. Gotcha. So I want to talk about player introductions and the execution of that. You talked about some were custom to the team, some were general, or were they all custom to the team?

[29:50] Don Costante:

Yeah, introductions were all custom to each team. Gotcha. So each team, upon knowing that they're going to be going down to the bubble, they were given the platform of being able to create up to a two-minute intro video that was unique to their market. So most teams took advantage of that and created a pretty cool video board presentation that incorporated all the LED screens that you would see that surrounded the court, as well as a ribbon. So most teams incorporated what we call a full takeover. So they incorporated the boards that sat behind both benches and scorers table, as well as both hoops. And then the ribbons that were on top of those boards. A handful of teams did not do a full takeover. And they just incorporated, I would say, six of the ten boards that they had available. A handful of teams used a prerecorded PA for their player introductions. Yeah, I was going to ask you. I was wondering if they were doing that. Yeah, so we had the opportunity of sending a prerecorded PA calls for our home players. A handful of teams did that, but some teams like not to do that and elected for us to use our live PA to voice those over. Because they'd have to work through their ops department to make sure they knew who was going to be starting to get that recorded and then upload it to the system so that you have the MP3 file to put up, right?

[30:56] Maurice Brazelton:

Yeah, that was a whole nightmare too, Don. Those were all like individual MP3s for each player. So having to coordinate, okay, or who are starting five today is going to be, you know, De'Aaron Fox, Buddy Hill, and so forth. So that was a little bit more of a headache for some of our audio guys. They weren't recording it as an intro. They were doing it as individual players, and then you had to play those individual files?

[31:16] Don Costante:

Yeah, exactly. Oh, that's crazy. That's crazy. That was crazy. What about activations that took place during pregame, not including the player intro?

[31:26] Maurice Brazelton:

And as well as in-game, like during timeouts and halftime, what was happening?

[31:30] Don Costante:

Was it just music?

[31:31] Maurice Brazelton:

You talked about at one point, I think, during quarter breaks, you had to bring the music down for television interviews. But what's happening during pregame and in-game?

[31:39] Don Costante:

Yeah, I'll start with pregame first. Very general, for the most part. There was no outside of player warm-up. As the guys took the court, there was music that they selected that some teams had certain songs that they wanted to play for their player warm-up. So that was a part of the pregame. But there was no, like, presentations. There was no access to the court for anyone outside of the team. So pregame is very, very general outside of blow-off into anthem into intros. For timeouts, they consisted mostly of team logo loots and a DJ playing music. We did have a pretty cool, awesome stat system that we display, you know, team stats, player stats, shot charge, player percentages from a certain part of the court. I will have to give a special shout-out to Christina Nixon for providing that. She does that for All-Star Weekend as well. And that system was pretty cool. As we started getting play, we would do scores around the bubble. We were able to show scores from other arenas because a lot of teams were playing at the same time. So that was pretty cool. And I remember watching LeBron. He would always look up to see the stats, whether it's his stat line or whatever. I was really intrigued by how much he would look up at that video board to look at the stats. So, but yeah, timeouts. Some teams at first, Don, they submitted some videos, including myself. I had a couple videos, social justice videos that I wanted to run early on in game. Yeah. And so did the Lakers. The Lakers had a couple, like, funny, like, player videos. But after, like, a week, we went back to just all just going to, like, Team Logo Loop and DJ music. And there were a long timeouts, like three minutes of that. But we got through them. Speaking of DJ music, was all the music that they were playing for the home team from the teams around the league, were they just playing music on their own?

[33:14] Maurice Brazelton:

For the most part, yes. So in our communication to the game directors, we talked to them. We gave them the opportunity to send in situational music. So everything from music that they wanted for their introduction sequence to the blow-on to the pre-tip. If they wanted certain, like, first-half pump-up songs, like if a team are on a run in the first half versus fourth-quarter pump-up songs, all the offensive beds and defensive bed pumps. Was all that identified in the Google Docs in the run of show for the DJs so they knew what track to play?

[33:43] Don Costante:

Yep, it certainly was. So all that was identified in, like, a cheat sheet we made up for each of the teams. So in addition to the rundown, we made a two-page cheat sheet doc that we identified all these different situations. So what song do you want going into a hot timeout?

[33:56] Maurice Brazelton:

What song do you want come out of a hot timeout?

[33:57] Don Costante:

You know, what are your early pump-up songs?

[33:59] Maurice Brazelton:

So all that was identified and clearly a mark for them to fill in. A majority of the teams took advantage of that. A couple here and there was like, okay, you know what, we'll lean on you guys. I'm kind of figuring it out, what to play in those scenarios. So obviously all our guys, all our DJs were team DJs and they had a ton of experience to be able to play songs in all those situations. So they were able to have situations for, like, offense and defensive beds on standby. So that was pretty cool. Also speaking about DJs and resources, a lot of the teams sent in playlists for warm-up music. You would be surprised how many of these, you probably know with your experience, how many of these guys want certain songs in certain situations even for their warm-ups. I will have to identify one team in particular, Luka, Luka Doncic with the Dallas Mavs. He had a special playlist for when he even took the court for pre-game warm-up. Even before the teams came out, like, you know, the teams would come out early. He had like a special, like, 25-minute playlist that specific to his hometown that he wanted us to play. And, dude, he got into it. He would be out there dancing and it was so fun to see. A couple other teams had certain ball and video music like the Clippers and then OKC. They were big into the Thunderstruck, being an OKC. So they had a couple of situations of music that we kept in. We took that and played it. What about crowd noise?

[35:12] Don Costante:

What did you guys do for crowd noise?

[35:13] Maurice Brazelton:

And how was that implemented?

[35:14] Don Costante:

Man, crowd noise. I can go on and on about this one. It was very, very important for the NBA to make sure this was done right. To give players and not only the players, but just the broadcast audience at home that realistic feel when it came to the audio. Right, right. Kudos to Carlton and Dauber and crew spent tons of time in preparing for this. When we got the nod of going down to the bubble, they worked with a number of audio companies, I believe, in obtaining sound files from all-star games, concerts, and 2K games. In addition to reaching out to all 22 teams and getting sound bites and audio clips from them and putting together this comprehensive audio sweetening that we had the opportunity of using at all three venues. The company that we used not only provided our A1 in the back of house and speakers and all that, but they also provided this unique and comprehensive audio sweetening system that was pretty unique to the experience that we had in each venue, but also, I believe, for just the broadcast and the fans watching at home. There were certain sounds that were isolated that we had the opportunity of using, like, cheers and yells and boos and grunts. And they were all coordinated by a set of audio sweeteners in each venue. So with those audio sweeteners with two positions, the backup game director that wasn't calling the game that day would sit with those two audio sweeteners. Because audio sweeteners, they didn't really come from a really big background of knowing sports, specifically basketball. They do concerts year-round across the country. But they did learn. They learned the game. The job of the backup game director was to sit in the audio sweetening room with these two sweeteners and to have a feel for the game. He or she had an iPad in front of them as well that they could hit based on the intensity of the game. So let me just start from the top of the show. Player introduction. We want the crowd to really get into it. Lots of cheers when the names of the players are being called so they have a cheer button that they can push. And then the audio sweeteners would be able to adjust and augment and layer over those sounds with their buttons and their programming. It was a very sophisticated program that they had. Again, thousands of layers of cheers that they relied on for this particular part of the element of the show. Big game moments. The game directors would be in there cueing the audio sweeteners. Give me level five or give me a level four or whatever that may be. Again, with the whole idea of each home game is unique to that market. Clippers versus Pacers, Clippers versus home game. We would have a sweetener that would have to focus on what that fan would want to hear in those moments. It was very complicated. I think the name audio sweeteners is interesting. Yeah, exactly. I wasn't sure in the beginning what you were talking about. The sweeteners. Yeah. But now I understand the positions. Okay. So you had two people doing that. I know that in baseball, that was a big thing. I mean, we had our game director actually on an iPad that was a league wide system. And we actually ran past games just to get a familiar, you know, just get used to the flow of the game. So I can only imagine those two people, those sweeteners being put in that situation. I'm sure that they probably did some rehearsals prior to the NBA restart, but that's still a pressured position. Because if you imagine hitting the big cheers at the wrong moment or for the wrong team, obviously there's not live fans in the stands, but you can certainly hear it on the broadcast. Yeah, it was very intense. We were in an off room, so we weren't actually in the bowl. We were in an isolated room that we had a couple lock-off monitors that we had 10 speakers inside that room. Each of the arenas had a 360-degree speaker system that were unique. So you could isolate sounds to a certain part of the court. And so we had that sound pumped into our rooms that we can hear every part of the court. And so it was pretty unique. Every possession was a chance to be able to enhance that experience. In addition, teams, as you know, were able to send in certain audio bids. For example, like I use the Pacers, they have a race car bed that they use when they're on offense. And so we would play that like as we bring the ball to court. Or the Heat have like dos minutos at the two-minute mark that we would have to punch up. And so we would put those in as well. So it was very coordinated. Like all the clipping, that was a huge part of the DJs and the audio folks that we had to coordinate. Mo, what was the overall take from the players?

[39:16] Maurice Brazelton:

I mean, their feeling towards the game presentation, did they give you any feedback?

[39:19] Don Costante:

Overall, I thought it was good for them. I know they recognized the introduction sequence and when teams had their home market PAs to make the call. As the games got intense and the music levels raised, I'm sure they felt it. Because again, like they had a certain level pipe onto the court that made it feel like they were actually in an arena with like 18, 19, 20,000 fans. So I'm sure they felt it. I'm sure like the overall presentation was something that they noticed in some way. But they didn't say anything to you specifically, though. No, nothing specifically other than like giving us the sign for replays. Which they do back at home. Now, the NBA is known for technology and there was a lot said and written about the 17 foot, the 5.2 millimeter screens around the court that displayed virtual fans using Microsoft Teams together mode. And that was really cool. It used artificial intelligence segmentation that brought a group together in a shared background, which I thought was really neat. Can you maybe talk about that setup and how fans were able to participate and just your overall impression of that technology?

[40:18] Maurice Brazelton:

Yeah, as you mentioned, the court was enclosed by the 17 foot screens that we activated our video footage onto, as well as being able to show the fans via the Microsoft Teams. So each participating team that was in the bubble was tasked with inviting fans and maintaining the room. Most of this was tasked with the marketing department and they would have certain promotions. Some teams had fun with it. For example, the Clippers, they started putting pets in their rooms. Yeah, I saw that. That's awesome. They kind of made up their own like theme nights. All of a sudden we're like, oh, where are all these dogs and cats?

[40:47] Don Costante:

And I think we maybe had a horse or something in one of the rooms. Overall, we were impressed with it. I would say at first the participation wasn't what we expected. There were a lot of open seats. And so the NBA took back some of the rooms. I think there were 10 rooms available for fans to be in that encompasses behind the entire scorers table, both seats, home and away. And then behind both hoops. I think we went down to six or eight to not have as many open seats. But as we got through those first two or three weeks of play and it kind of got on it, marketing kind of got behind on like making some theme nights and inviting special guests into the room. Then the popularity of those and then obviously going into the playoffs was taken over. You know, we had like Shaq, for example, a little Wayne thing. Former President Obama showed up in one. So, I mean, I thought it was cool. That was pretty cool. In all, I think what?

[41:35] Maurice Brazelton:

300 fans per game?

[41:36] Don Costante:

Yeah. I mean, when you could get everybody in there. And then I think they were divided up into sections. I thought I read 32 people per section. Exactly. One other thing on that, the home teams were encouraged to engage and interact with their fans to like provide those fans with Thunderstix or with signs. It took a while. We didn't really like know all the specifics of it until maybe a couple weeks out. So, but it caught on. It caught on. I was impressed. We're very impressed with what we had. So, we've kind of gone from pre-bubble into your arrival. We've talked about your preparation. We talked about game days. Take us through from a day perspective what life as a game director was like at the NBA bubble from when you woke up to when you went to bed. Just kind of take us through that whole day. Yeah. As I mentioned, we're all broken up in four different groups. You know, A, B, C, and D. Preparation was the key. So, if you didn't stay prepared, you would get behind really quick. For me specifically, I would wake up by 6.15 and I'm a big workout guy. So, I would go on either a run or a walk around a perimeter of our hotel there. And then I would sometimes join a group that would do a CrossFit workout. So, I would dedicate about an hour for a workout. Shortly after that, we had breakfast available for us. I would stop by and pick up some breakfast or eat it there. Then go back to the hotel room, open the laptop and check my emails and check the Google documents specifically for the games that we had to direct that day. Making sure the rundowns were final from the game directors as well as the scripts. Send those to our production team for printouts. I would then prepare myself to be ready to catch the bus. Again, the times vary on game times. But we, as I mentioned before, we had to be at the venue two and a half hours before our game. So, in those first couple weeks, there were times that we had a bunch of time for ourselves. So, you know, get ready, get prepared, get on the bus, get over to the arena, have our game day meetings. We had a bit of a break after our meetings. And then we would go into show mode, do the game. The games were super long, a three-minute timeout. So, they were typically between two and a half to three hours. We would then all come back as a group on the bus, back up to our hotels. And then we would either go out for a post-game meal or drink or all go back to our hotel room and do like a post-game recap. Or at least specifically me recap, you know, what went well, what were some opportunities for improvement. Send those notes to the league and then get ready for the next day. So, it sounds like a pretty busy day. But what did you guys do to maintain your sanity during your downtimes?

[43:59] Maurice Brazelton:

Oh, man, we had fun. We spent so much time together in our specific groups. Like Group D, we ate all meals together for the most part. We all worked out together. We were able to swim. We had four different pools on the campus there that we had access to. Lots of pickleball. Even some pickleball with some of the referees was fun. I learned that before. That was cool. Bike riding. And then we had access to a gym. So, those were things that we would do to get out and exercise and kind of stay active. We had some opportunities to read. The NBA provided us with some cool materials, specifically in the social justice category, that we had access to. So, you know, whether it's reading or listening to music or podcasts, we had access to that as well. We tried to spend as much time outdoors because we would go back to our hotel rooms. They were literally like 300 square feet. So, we were outside gathering or eating or doing something together. Now, earlier you mentioned the importance of Black Lives Matter. And with the George Floyd protests ongoing during this period of time, the NBA and NBA Players Association worked together to use the bubble as a platform for the Black Lives Matter movement. They had the t-shirts. They had Black Lives Matter painted on the court. I believe players could replace their names in the back with their jerseys with any meaningful statement of their choice in support of Black Lives Matter. What I'm interested in finding out from you is describe the creative process that took place within the bubble between the NBA personnel and the game directors that led to the coordinated protest on opening night of the league's restart. What was your involvement with that as well?

[45:27] Don Costante:

Yeah. So, before we even got to Orlando, we were aware that the players were given a chance to put names on the back of their jerseys that they supported. In addition to things that you just mentioned about having BLM on the court, the shooting shirts, and the wristbands and so forth. So, me specifically, I was excited and I wanted to take this opportunity to use our platform, both with the Kings as well as the NBA, to really dive in on this very important topic that we're facing. So, I was able to coordinate with our team here in Sacramento on a number of videos I wanted to run, a number of videos that our owner, our team, our staff were involved with here in our local community from local protests and rallies and marches that I wanted to highlight and show in Orlando and support, at least on our players, hey, we support you guys in this effort. So, I was one of the few teams that actually built graphics that ran on those huge LED screens. All the messaging that our players were on the back of their jerseys, I built graphics to support everything from group economics to voting to say her name to equality. My idea was to just put them up at a timeout and play some music and out of a timeout, we would go back to play. And that we're here to support those guys and everything that they're doing to bring attention to social justice. So, that was pretty cool. A couple other teams saw what I had planned, specifically the Clippers and Lakers, and shortly after they built Black Lives Matter screens that they displayed on their ribbons and video board, which was cool. When it came to the pretty cool video and moment that we had before Anthem, that was all NBA. The NBA worked with their ERG group, Dreaming Color, and putting that together, we were aware that the players were going to take a knee, as well as referees and coaches. We all respected that and their decision to do such. We just were in a communication with the league when it came to when to run that video and the timing going into Anthem. But yeah, all in all, I was happy what the league did. In addition to those, I mentioned previously, they provided us with resources. They made available books that we could check out for free and read, some podcasts, music. They had documentaries in our hotel room on TV. We could watch when we came back and had some downtime. Still to this day, we're able to have those resources to enhance our self-being on the topic. That's so awesome. And that's why I like doing this interview and digging deep into the weeds, because this is the stuff we didn't even know about. We saw, obviously, what was on broadcast, but the making of it and all the involvement in it and the commitment to it by the league, pretty impressive. That was cool to be able to like, like I spent a lot of time just talking to my colleagues, right?

[47:59] Maurice Brazelton:

And talking to some of the referees that I know about the topic. And I think it's as we have these, I guess you can say, uncomfortable conversations. We educate each other. We educate ourselves on how we can be allies, right?

[48:12] Don Costante:

Together in fighting for justice and equality for everybody. And I still have some talks with my colleagues to this day on this matter. I'm happy and I'm so delighted that they're willing to, you know, at least have a dialogue on this and how they can help themselves and ultimately help their teams when it comes to fighting for social justice and using our platforms in each of our markets to collectively come together on this. I'm excited and I hope we march on with it. No, I do too. Well said. I love that you have those conversations. Let me ask you this. What was the biggest challenge that you faced while inside the bubble outside of being separated from family?

[48:45] Maurice Brazelton:

Biggest challenge. I didn't really have too many challenges. I mean, small stuff like a three-hour time difference. I don't know. It was always smooth in my hand. You didn't have any challenges. That's good. No, that's good. Yeah. It's because everything was very well organized and prepared. And that's a testament to the league. And their preparation. And to you, of course. Well, let me ask you this then. Having gone through this experience, what's your biggest takeaway?

[49:09] Don Costante:

I was impressed with how overall smooth everything ran. I mean, of course, there were a couple of hiccups here and there. But with the scope of the event and all, like you could expect that. I was impressed by like how quickly we all came together. All the personnel was leading us. Literally like two and a half, three weeks, we put together a whole season. And we really took pride in making sure, even though that wasn't our home game, to make sure we delivered the best experience for those teams. I was really impressed how uniquely we came together so quick and the leadership that we have from the league level and to be a part of it. Again, I'll look back in this 30 years like, damn, I was able to be a part of that. There's going to probably be a 30 for 30 one day. Absolutely. Mo, was there anything that you learned from this experience that you plan to incorporate into your own event presentation with Sacramento Kings?

[49:55] Maurice Brazelton:

Yeah, absolutely. There were a couple of things that I would bring back here in some way. Specifically, I would say fans are wanting content. They want as much cool content as they can get their hands on. And I think the behind the scenes, like all the extra camera angles that the league brought in, scores table cam or rail cam or the hallway cam or pregame locker room cam or robot cam, I think incorporating that back here in our market, if we are in a situation where we have no fans or limited fans, can't help us in a presentation of being able to deliver content that is cool and exclusive. And maybe even ways of monetizing that. Like if you had a certain subscription, you can get these four different extra camera angles that fans normally wouldn't see, including maybe access to the locker room and also stuff like that. Sure. I would consider bringing back walk-off player and coach interviews. We don't normally do that for an RSN game, but like think out of a box, maybe fans want to hear from a coach or a player in game. Maybe there's a mic cam that we can use that we can turn on for parts of the game to give us pretty cool behind the scenes content. So just again, not thinking of how we normally operate a game from a game presentation aspect, thinking way out of the box because all this is new to us. And it's the opportunity for us to really dial in on something that can assist us in delivering our presentation. So that's what I would say. Now if the bubble was necessary again in the future, and let's hope it's not, but if it was, what did you learn from this experience that you would recommend to the NBA to change for the next time and why?

[51:22] Don Costante:

That's a great question, Don. I mean, we talked about all the great planning and all the great organization and the things pretty much went well. But was there something that you would recommend that they change moving forward?

[51:34] Maurice Brazelton:

It's a really good question. I would say probably the staffing, maybe adding more staff to each team or adding a couple more teams that can pick on the task. I know there were quite a few of my colleagues who could commit for, let's say, three months or even two months because of family and even their teams that want to have them commit. But I would recommend how do we add staffing or how do we add support at some roles to help, I guess, mediate some of the time and the consumption of us that were in the bubble, if anything. Definitely sounds like a good request. What about your best moment in the bubble and the whole experience?

[52:07] Don Costante:

What's the one thing that you just felt was the best moment?

[52:10] Maurice Brazelton:

I wouldn't say it was one single best moment. I think all the days, just being around the people. I really enjoy the people and the fun that we had in producing the game. We all came together. It wasn't like, oh man, I'm putting in an 18-hour day. This is crazy. We all thoroughly had each other's back. We all enjoyed every moment of it. Just the people. When we had time off to talk to them and kind of learn more about them, we see each other at All-Stars, some of us. We see each other at League Meeting, some of us. But some of us don't see each other. I never really met quite a few of my colleagues, but being in a bubble for 33 days, we had the time to really kind of know a lot more about each other. I think that was the cool part of it for me. You know, games come and go and the production comes and goes. But I think like you, Don, like you're a people guy like really just learning each other and learning about each other. That was pretty cool. That's so cool. So we come to the end of our discussion today on the bubble. But before we close out, what are your final thoughts to those that are listening to today's discussion?

[53:05] Don Costante:

I would just say in closing that you never know what life's going to throw at you. To use the old cliche, take the lemon that you're getting and make the best lemonade you can out of it. To go with what life gives you and make it the best. And to enjoy it. And to enjoy the experiences and opportunities that you're presented with. To make new friends along the way. Make new connections. For those of you who are looking to get into the industry, connections, connections, connections is huge. You and I have talked about this and how powerful LinkedIn is and how powerful social media is in making such connections with old timers like myself and you. Oh, wait a minute. Are you saying the norm?

[53:42] Maurice Brazelton:

Did I just call us old timers?

[53:44] Don Costante:

No, I apologize. But no, and seriously, like for those who are listening to this and looking to get into the industry, I'll say it one more time. Making those connections, but not only making the connections, fostering those relationships after you make the connections, you know, and keeping in contact with the people. And then once we get back to able to offer maybe a job shadow, maybe ask them to help. How can you come on and job shadow someone in my role or a role that you're looking to get into?

[54:10] Maurice Brazelton:

In the meantime, just work hard. Stay connected. If you have a passion towards this, just look for ways that how you can add value to an organization. In the past couple of years, I've had the opportunity to bring on some folks and give them an opportunity to job shadow me. And I give them a project, usually after I say, you know what?

[54:25] Don Costante:

You've just job shadowed us for an entire two and a half hour presentation. You've seen it through your eyes. Here's a project. Go and give me two or three things how you can enhance our show. Be critical of what you just saw. Everything from video to a mascot to a presentation on a corner. Give me ideas. We're not saying it's because we've been doing this for so long. We're perfect in doing it. Present ideas how we can make something better and be a good person. It doesn't take much to be a good person. People remember how you treat them. I tell people all that all the time. So that would be, I guess, Moe's words for wisdom. Well, Moe, what can I say?

[54:57] Maurice Brazelton:

You're incredibly talented, but an even better person and friend. Thank you for taking the time to be on this podcast, to share your insight and your behind the scenes look at the NBA bubble. I enjoyed it. I'm sure everybody listening has enjoyed it. So thank you so much. Thank you, Don. I really appreciate you.

[55:18] Maurice Brazelton:

What a great conversation with Moe. I don't know about you, but I'm always fascinated to learn about the processes others utilize for communication, preparation, and execution of events at any level. Today, I really enjoyed listening to Moe talk about all the logistical details that went into making the game presentation at the NBA bubble so successful. With so much information covered in our conversation today, here are a few items that stood out to me. First, I love the communication the NBA league office had with the directors prior to entering the bubble. The routine calls to discuss logistical details, as well as the directors getting on the phone with the participating teams to review digital content was so crucial. When I asked Moe about the NBA's desire to maintain the home and away structure and how they went about doing that, I loved what they did. They created the master Google document where all 22 teams had access to rundown and script templates. And the team that was designated as the home team would be responsible for updating those documents to ensure their home court feel. Another thing that really stood out to me was the health and safety protocols. The steps that the NBA took with the staff prior to entering the bubble, as well as once they were inside. This also included the court side setup with social distancing, plexiglass, and that comm system that had the UV lighting that self cleaned the buttons about 10 minutes after use. When I asked Moe the question regarding crowd noise, he quickly replied that this was a priority for the NBA. I was really impressed to learn as to the amount of time and resources the NBA invested in creating an authentic atmosphere for the players and broadcast. And finally, I love the commitment that the NBA made to using the bubble as a platform for Black Lives Matter and the resources the league made available to their individual staff to assist them in self-development on that topic. Well, those were just a few highlights from our discussion that resonated with me. As always, I hope you found the information covered beneficial. I want to thank Moe again for joining the podcast and for sharing the behind the scene details of the NBA's bubble with all of us. Well, that wraps up this episode of The Rundown. As always, I encourage you to reach out to me and share your thoughts and or questions and send them to TheRundown@CostanteGroup.comEmail The Rundown. And also, I would really appreciate it if you would subscribe and share this podcast and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. And until the next time, I'm Don Costante.