NBA, please cancel the season. Your players just can’t beat team coronavirus
The NBA should cut its losses and cancel the remainder of this season before more players test positive for COVID-19. Honestly, what are we doing here?
So many of us have missed the NBA since it shut down on March 11, the week the coronavirus interrupted our lives and made close human contact dangerously contagious. Well, now star Kings shooting guard Buddy Hield has reportedly tested positive for the virus. Kings forward Jabari Parker confirmed that he tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating in Chicago. Kings center Alex Len confirmed he did as well.
Pardon the mixed sports metaphors but, one, two, three strikes, you’re out. Let’s not force the entire league to descend on Orlando, in a state of Florida where COVID-19 cases are surging.
On the same day the news broke about the Kings unlucky three COVID-19 patients, the state of Florida reported a new single day high of reported coronavirus cases Get this: 5,500 new cases were reported in Florida on Wednesday. Since March 1, 109,000 new infections have been reported in the state.
And it wasn’t just the Kings who were afflicted. CBS Sports wrote this: “Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic and Indiana Pacers point guard Malcolm Brogdon both tested positive, along with two unnamed members of the Phoenix Suns.“
The NBA only began testing its players on Tuesday in anticipation of heading to Florida for training and then games in empty arenas. Who knows how many infections we will learn about tomorrow and in the coming days?
With each positive test the NBA’s plans for finishing the 2019-20 season sound more far-fetched.
As The Bee’s Jason Anderson wrote Wednesday: “NBA teams will continue to undergo extensive testing over the next two weeks as they prepare to converge on Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, about 20 miles outside of Orlando. Players who test positive will be quarantined and must produce two negative test results in a span of more than 24 hours before they will be cleared to return.”
Exposing players to illness, injury
The chance of a surge of infections puts players and teams in harm’s way and the compressed training schedules to prepare players for game action also opens the door for injuries after a three-month layoff. In the English Premier League, for example, several key athletes have already fallen to significant injuries caused by a long layoff, followed by a shortened training schedule and intense games played under bizarre conditions and empty stadiums.
Is it really worth it to risk incalculable investments in elite athletes? That’s not to mention that players now must choose personal safety over team unity. And players who choose what appears to be the sane choice of opting out may pay a financial price for doing so without “proper or reasonable cause or excuse.”
Oh, yeah, based on the language of lawyers, what could go wrong?
Dropped our pandemic guard
Los Angeles Lakers guard Avery Bradley told his team that his young son has respiratory issues, one of the most dangerous pre-existing conditions that can make COVID-19 deadly. Because of this, Bradley’s son most likely could not visit his dad while he was playing out the season.
It’s not worth it, even if we miss our sports. As anticipated as they were, the resumption of American team sports now seem to be intersecting with a growing narrative from Sacramento to Miami that we have dropped our guard too soon. We began gathering too soon. In our emotional and financial desperation, we began acting like COVID-19 was behind us.
It isn’t and it’s time to act that way. How many infections is it going to take for us to accept the reality of this virus and that we won’t be rid of it until we have a vaccine?
In the meantime, the NBA should shut down before enough players get sick – maybe seriously sick and injured – and all of us look back on this lost season with even more regret.
