For as long as NBA road trips have existed, its markets have been ranked by the hundreds who regularly travel its 28-city circuit by any number of preferences, from nightlife and dining options to the distance between the airport and the arena.
As teams began to navigate travel amid a pandemic this season, some have been looking at the map through a different lens: Where will teams feel the most normal?
By leaving behind the single-location “bubble” where the NBA staged the final three months of last season in favor of playing in home markets, some with fans in the arenas, the league and its players union agreed to a raft of policies and protocols governing where they can go and what they can do once in another market.