NBA News Update: All players tested free of Covid-19 in latest round of testing; Rudy Gobert claims to have been scapegoated during league shutdown coverage
It has been 23 days since teams started arriving at the NBA bubble in Disney World, Orlando. During a time when the battle against coronavirus has already disrupted the MLB season, players inside the NBA bubble have stayed safe.
NBA's testing procedure proves successful - so far
The results of the latest rounds of testing on players presented encouraging signs for the NBA restart. No player has been found to have tested positive in all tests conducted up until the 20th of July - this is following Russell Westbrook's arrival at the Disney World campus on 19th July.
This news follows up the good news of no positive results up until July 13th from last week. It's an indicator that despite Disney and hotel staff not being quarantined inside the campus with the players, there has been minimal spread of the disease. Several experts had, and still have, misgivings with the opaqueness of the settings.
All NBA players, staff and coaching personnel, along with the media members present at ESPN Wide World of Sport campus, are required to adhere to a strict rulebook. This book is 113 pages long, reportedly, and deals with social distancing guidelines, team practices and all aspects of bubble life.
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Rudy Gobert feels targeted by media for NBA shutdown
Rudy Gobert is hurt, and angry, and mostly with good reason. The NBA was shut down on 11 March after the Utah Jazz's All Star and All-NBA center tested positive for coronavirus. He made the news more at that time for contracting a communicable disease than he did on the occasions that he won Defensive Player of the Year - for 2 seasons running.
"The media portrayed it like I caused the NBA to shut down. Instead of saying that it’s a pandemic and Rudy Gobert tested positive. . . they really thought I brought the coronavirus to the United States.”
There are two sides to this coin of debate, however. The 7th-year center was found making fun of the virus in his locker room at a time that he almost certainly had contracted it. His casual approach to the Covid-19 threat may have directly been responsible for the infection then happening to Donovan Mitchell, and opponent Christian Wood.
And still there is a sense of injustice that's palpable from the whole hoopla about the way major news outlets covered the whole scenario. At the time, the threat hadn't reached major levels of community spread and one can relate with someone not taking it all that seriously till that point.
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