Fishing is quite popular amongst NBA players and, while many of them take to other sports such as golf for leisure, bass fishing also happens to be a favorite. Fishing has somewhat been associated with professional American basketball for a while as getting booted out of the playoffs is often referred to as “going fishing.”
NBA players’ love for bass fishing has perhaps never been as apparent as it was in 2020. The league headed down to Orlando to continue its 2019/20 campaign in isolation, at what was called the bubble. With players locked away from the outside world solely for the purpose of finishing the season amid a raging pandemic, there wasn’t much they could do outside of playing basketball and complaining about the crappy food.
Fortunately, the Disney property turned out to be a dream for fish-loving players.
“It’s really good,” Devon Hall, who now plays in Europe but was on the roster of the Oklahoma City Thunder at the time, said. “I’ve caught some good-sized bass out here.”
The NBA could have chosen many other locations but it’s unlikely any of them would have offered such. Who knows, though? Places such as Chesapeake Bay do have great resorts and, not only Maryland is famous for its bay, but the amazing online betting apps industry that keeps growing since last year. Fans might just have been able to bet on who caught the biggest bass. There wasn’t much else to bet on back then after all.
Paul George of the Los Angeles Clippers is perhaps the most avid of NBA fishermen and has hosted tournaments of his own. Phoenix Suns star Chris Paul is also understood to be very good at fishing, as is New Orleans Pelicans big man Jonas Valanciunas.
The Dallas Mavericks’ loveable center, Boban Marjanovic, didn’t go into the bubble a good fisherman but he picked up a few things in there, including fish.
“My fishing skills are getting much better,” he said back then. “I was sooooo bad.”
Of course, pro basketball players are competitive to a fault and most of the ones who took to fishing wanted to be the best at it.
“They’re really competitive with each other,” Disney resorts recreation supervisor Michael Whitt revealed. “Some of them will sneak out in the morning and come find us and say, ‘Hey, can you show me some tricks?’ ”
Whitt would also reveal some of the better NBA fishermen in the camp
“There’s a couple of guys on the Magic that I’d put up against them any time,” he continued. “Gary Clark – If I had to choose someone for my fishing team, I’d choose Gary Clark…you can tell he knows what he is doing.”
Clarke, who now plays for the Pelicans, boasted of his fishing prowess too.
“I do all kinds [of fishing], but I’m really good at bass fishing,” he said. “Cat fishing or deep-sea fishing, you can’t really control if something is hitting that day. [With bass fishing], my theory is that if you dance your worm the right way in the water…”
“I use plastic worms, Gary Yamamoto Senko worms. I love Senko worms because they sink—they’re heavier worms, so I don’t have to put a weight on them to throw them pretty far.”
The plentitude of fish in the Disney lakes led some folk to suspect that the water was restocked before the players got there. The production was really that good. Whitt, though, pointed out that the lakes hadn’t been supplied with any fish for a while. They were originally stocked with 70,000 bass way back in 1960 and are now just home to the fish.
“We haven’t stocked it in years,” he said. “It’s natural now.”
The NBA also denied restocking the lake, ironically through a spokesperson named Mike Bass.
As fishing is also considered to be therapeutic, NBA players were pretty fortunate to have been surrounded by it in the bubble. Outside of the Disney resorts, the world was struggling to deal with COVID-19 plus it was right around the time social justice protests were rife around the country. The NBA put up its own form of protest, allowing players to wear jerseys with social justice phrases on their backs. But it must have been relieving to be able to just play basketball and grab some downtime on a lake.
“It’s really calming,” Clark admitted. “For however long I’m out there…I can detach myself from the outside world. It’s probably the best part about fishing.”
Things have gone back to normal since, and players no longer have fishing to distract them right outside of the arena. We’re pretty sure some of the ones who were new to the game have continued in their spare time.