Photo by: OKC Thunder
Playing With No Crowd: Dave Bliss Recalls 2008 Championship
July 13, 2020 | Men's Basketball
By Tori Heck
GeorgiaDogs.com Intern
As Oklahoma City Thunder assistant coach Dave Bliss watched the 2020 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament unravel, he felt an eerie sense of similarity to his own senior year tournament.
Bliss watched as the Bulldogs won in the first round of the tournament before it was canceled due to COVID-19. The cancellation proved to be only the beginning of the virus's impact on the basketball world, both at the college and professional level.
Now, Bliss is facing the unknown in his basketball career as the NBA is scheduled to resume play. Adversity is nothing new to the former Bulldog, who faced comparable challenges on his way to the 2008 SEC title.
As the 2008 Bulldogs made their championship run, a tornado touched down in Atlanta, the site of the tournament. The severe weather rattled the tournament much like COVID-19 did in 2020.
"I kind of end up watching [the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament] every year," Bliss said. "The nature of [the] team this year … they kind of were peaking, it seemed like, at the end. I thought they had a chance to do something."
Before the cancellation of the 2020 Tournament, it was announced that, if the tournament had continued, it would have been conducted with "only essential staff, limited family and credentialed media."
Playing the tournament in front of a slim crowd is something Bliss experienced in 2008. The tournament was moved from the Georgia Dome to Georgia Tech's campus, and the crowd allowed into the tournament was small.
"It felt like a high school game," Bliss said. "Where it's a couple parents and a couple random people [in the crowd]."
Bliss recalled the anti-climatic feeling of playing those games in front of such a lean crowd. Before a big game, he said, you can feel the energy building as early as the night before the game. Pairing that mounted energy with walking into a near empty arena felt strange.
Twelve years later, Bliss and the Thunder are facing the reality of more empty arenas. As the NBA is scheduled to resume play with no fans, the Thunder, as well as the rest of the league, will have to adapt to a new normal.
The lack of fans will likely affect each player differently. Bliss said. Younger players, he speculated, may play better with fewer distractions in the arena. However, more veteran players may struggle, as they have grown accustomed to, and even feed off of, the noise and energy from their fans.
Bliss has some comfort in being able to tell his players that he has been in this position before, and for him it resulted in a Championship.
"That's the fun part of coaching," Bliss said. "Is just trying to figure it out and trying to help guys … The longer you do it, the more you've got something to compare it to."
GeorgiaDogs.com Intern
As Oklahoma City Thunder assistant coach Dave Bliss watched the 2020 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament unravel, he felt an eerie sense of similarity to his own senior year tournament.
Bliss watched as the Bulldogs won in the first round of the tournament before it was canceled due to COVID-19. The cancellation proved to be only the beginning of the virus's impact on the basketball world, both at the college and professional level.
Now, Bliss is facing the unknown in his basketball career as the NBA is scheduled to resume play. Adversity is nothing new to the former Bulldog, who faced comparable challenges on his way to the 2008 SEC title.
As the 2008 Bulldogs made their championship run, a tornado touched down in Atlanta, the site of the tournament. The severe weather rattled the tournament much like COVID-19 did in 2020.
"I kind of end up watching [the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament] every year," Bliss said. "The nature of [the] team this year … they kind of were peaking, it seemed like, at the end. I thought they had a chance to do something."
Before the cancellation of the 2020 Tournament, it was announced that, if the tournament had continued, it would have been conducted with "only essential staff, limited family and credentialed media."
Playing the tournament in front of a slim crowd is something Bliss experienced in 2008. The tournament was moved from the Georgia Dome to Georgia Tech's campus, and the crowd allowed into the tournament was small.
"It felt like a high school game," Bliss said. "Where it's a couple parents and a couple random people [in the crowd]."
Bliss recalled the anti-climatic feeling of playing those games in front of such a lean crowd. Before a big game, he said, you can feel the energy building as early as the night before the game. Pairing that mounted energy with walking into a near empty arena felt strange.
Twelve years later, Bliss and the Thunder are facing the reality of more empty arenas. As the NBA is scheduled to resume play with no fans, the Thunder, as well as the rest of the league, will have to adapt to a new normal.
The lack of fans will likely affect each player differently. Bliss said. Younger players, he speculated, may play better with fewer distractions in the arena. However, more veteran players may struggle, as they have grown accustomed to, and even feed off of, the noise and energy from their fans.
Bliss has some comfort in being able to tell his players that he has been in this position before, and for him it resulted in a Championship.
"That's the fun part of coaching," Bliss said. "Is just trying to figure it out and trying to help guys … The longer you do it, the more you've got something to compare it to."
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