Phoenix Suns: How playing without fans may affect 3 star players

The Phoenix Suns will be playing in the Disney bubble, but one of the strangest things about it will be the lack of fans. How will their star players handle it?

Everyone is so pumped up and excited for the NBA to return to action, all the focus has been on the format, player safety, who might emerge as champions, and who might eek into the playoffs. However, there is one glaring abnormality that is constantly glossed over: the games will be played without fans. How will that affect the Phoenix Suns?

At this point, we’ve all watched late-night TV hosts (or daytime TV hosts if that’s your thing) conduct their shows from their homes over some kind of modified webcam. Some use Zoom, others have a family member hold up an iPhone, and some commandeered a professional camera from the studio, but regardless, it’s weird.

You never realized watching monologues full of jokes with no laughter is awkward when you’re used to laughing along with the studio audience.

I can’t imagine how uncomfortable it will be for everyone, at least at first, in Disney World when there will be no fans attending these NBA games.

Will they pump in fake crowd noise? I hope not. Knowing it is fake will make it even stranger and borderline creepy.

Will they keep microphones on around the court? That might be cool, although they will definitely need a seven-second delay when broadcasting all the trash talk and reactions to poor foul calls live.

The real question, though, is how will this affect the players? Can they thrive in this environment or will they play tight and not relaxed?

Like most everything else, it will likely depend on the player, so let’s hypothesize on how three of the Suns’ star players will handle it: