Hi, I'm Dan Pramak and welcome to Axios Recap. Today's Thursday, July 16th. Retail sales are up,

30-year mortgage rates are down to record lows, and we're focused on the NBA's bubble experiment.

In two weeks from today, the National Basketball Association is scheduled to resume the season that had abruptly suspended back in March.

22 of the league's 30 teams are participating with a series of so-called seating games to be followed by the playoffs.

The championship, which is destined to be marked with an asterisk, is supposed to be ended

by early October.

But the real question isn't who gets the rings.

It's if the NBA can make it to October without having to shut everything down.

To some extent, this is obviously a sports story, but it's also being closely watched

by all sorts of American businesses that are trying to reopen.

The NBA is conducting its restart inside of a so-called bubble within Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

No fans, no outside guests, plenty of doctors in rapid COVID testing.

If the NBA can pull it off, then we all get something fun to

watch on TV and the league gets to recoup some lost revenue. But if it fails, if players

or staff somehow get infected despite the bubble, then it raises huge questions for every

other large business about their ability to reopen safely outside of a bubble.

The NBA is, in short, the best case, test case.

To get a better understanding of what the NBA is doing, we are joined now by the Washington Post

Ben Goliver, who is one of the 10 NBA beat reporters currently living inside the Disney bubble.

Just set the scene.

Where are you right now?

And what's your day-to-day been like inside the bubble so far?

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