The NBA Bubble: how Black players performed better without fans

Wow.

The finding that black players improved relative to whites during the bubble is kinda interesting. But drawing a line that it's because of "racial pressure" is a wild conclusion. All this from comparing two playoff seasons in a regression model?

Also, the paper is smattered with, "we have no reason to believe there are racial difference isn't "X"". But isn't the point of the paper that there are racial differences in some things? And are we just going to gloss over the fact that the NBA is 75% black? How does that work, if there aren't obscure racial differences that matter?