Abraham Lincoln once said “A house divided against itself cannot stand” and that quote properly describes what we are going through as a nation right now. As America fights the coronavirus, we have begun to fight each other in the process. The lastest bout coming in the shape of NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio going against Adam Silver and the NBA.
De Blasio took a swipe at the league because of the speed of which its players are getting tested for the coronavirus. This is only a point of contention because tests aren’t easily accessible at this time. Most hospitals are using their tests for people who have shown symptoms of the virus. So it struck a nerve with the mayor that several teams and their entire staff were getting tested instead before others. It was just reported that four Brooklyn Nets players had tested positive for the coronavirus This fact drove De Blasio to Twitter to say NBA players “should not get tested for COVID-19 while there are critically ill patients waiting to be tested.” He took another shot by adding “Tests should not be for the wealthy, but for the sick.”
While De Blasio might be echoing sentiments many people share about the discrepancy in testing between athletes and everyday citizens, Adam Silver was not of those people. The commisioner of the NBA responded on ESPN Wednesday night. “It’s unfortunate we’re at this point in society where it’s triage when it comes to testing, which is a fundamental issue obviously as there are insufficient tests,” Silver said. “I’d only say in the case of the NBA, we’ve been following the recommendations of public health officials.”
There is a method behind why NBA players are being treated as a high priority when it comes to testing. As NBA spokesman Mike Bass revealed. Doctors are concerned with the various ways NBA players can spread the virus. They are constantly in the presence of fans of all ages, making direct contact with them and each other over the course of an NBA game. They are also traveling from state to state on a daily basis. Alongside the fact that multiple players from several teams have already tested positive, doctors and public health authorities felt that was enough to make testing NBA players a priority.
Commissioner Silver also stated, “I understand there are many sides to these issues, but I also think that by virtue of an NBA player being tested and the kind of attention it brought, my sense was especially among young people in the United States, people were not taking these protocols all that seriously until the NBA did what it did.”
NBA stars such as Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell have tested positive but have you used their popularity and influence to warn fans and supporters of the consequences and have urged them to take proper precaution and stay inside.
