The Thunder announced that their players and staff have tested negative for the coronavirus, writes Maddie Lee of The Oklahoman. Oklahoma City was set to host Utah last Wednesday, but the game was postponed after Rudy Gobert‘s positive test.
OKC officials said they followed recommendations of infectious disease experts that all players and staff members should get tested. Jazz players were tested on the night of the game, with Donovan Mitchell also revealed to have contracted the virus, but the Thunder’s tests didn’t come until later.
“Recognizing the stress on the state of Oklahoma’s medical system, the Thunder did not use state resources and chose an alternative path for testing of its personnel,” the team explained today in a press release.
There’s more COVID-19 news from around the league:
- Sixers players underwent coronavirus tests Monday, multiple sources tell Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. A week ago, Philadelphia hosted the Pistons with Christian Wood, who became the third player to test positive for the virus over the weekend. Sixers players and staff have been in self-quarantine since Thursday while waiting for the tests, according to Pompey, who adds that some staff members still haven’t been tested.
- The Nets, who had four players test positive, issued a statement today stating that they had players and staff showing symptoms of the virus and obtained the tests from a private company, tweets Malika Andrews of ESPN. “As we learned NBA players on other teams had tested positive for COVID-19, we noticed that several of our players and staff had symptoms,” the statement reads. “Based on this information, and the judgment that all of our players are subject to high exposure due to the close physical nature of basketball, the communal nature of teams and the possibility of an accelerated spread from team to team, our medical experts advised that our players get tested. We sourced the tests through a private company and paid for them ourselves because we did not want to impact access to CDC’s public resources.”
- The NBA has come under criticism with so many of its players receiving tests that aren’t easily available to the public, so league spokesman Mike Bass offered an explanation to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN (Twitter link). “Public health authorities and team doctors have been concerned that, given NBA players’ direct contact with each other and close interactions with the general public, in addition to their frequent travel, they could accelerate the spread of the virus,” Bass said. “… Hopefully, by these players choosing to make their test results public, they have drawn attention to critical need for young people to follow CDC recommendations in order to protect others, particularly those with underlying health conditions and the elderly.”
- The Mavericks (Twitter link) and Hawks (Twitter link) both closed their practice facilities to players this week. Players are being told to stay home and engage in social distancing.
Are the Nets going to release the names of the three other players who have coronavirus? Just thought it would be interesting.
People really need to get over this whole “they aren’t sick enough to get tested” idea. Wealthy people get more than you do. They also get better service than you do. It’s not a new thing that just started with this outbreak. It’s not going to change because of this outbreak.
No, we don’t need to get over it. It’s absurd and unfair. It may not be new, but that’s no reason to consider this acceptable. These are young athletes. Meanwhile, much more vulnerable people who could die or spread the disease to even more vulnerable people can’t get access to tests. Don’t tell people to ‘get over it’, because that won’t lead to any kind of change. Tell people to get angry over it and challenge it.
Okay, you go be angry and then get angrier when nothing changes. I’ll sit back and relax and continue relaxing hen nothing changes. Have a nice day.
Your attitude and its pervasiveness are precisely *why* nothing changes, but keep feeling smug and self-satisfied as you’re taken advantage of and treated unfairly.
You’re not just ‘sit[ting] back and relax[ing]’, you’re actively contributing to this nonsense. Shameful.
rct, the difference here is the boss doesn’t have 30 million dollars invested in you or even a million dollars invested in you.
Canada is an option.
A test costs 26 bucks…
And average people still can’t get them.
Ignorance isn’t helpful. It’s important to put emotions and pride aside and think rationally.
Reality: the virus isn’t a threat to anyone healthy and young, there aren’t enough accurate tests to use on everyone with flu-like symptoms, there is a priority to test those most at risk.
They use private tests, which is ok, anyone can use them, just pay for it. They ain’t using the public ones, so I totally fail to see what the problem is, although I must say don’t see what the issue with testing is anyway… Unless you get tested daily until you get it, you might be ok when tested, get it next day, so what is the point of the test?