Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers are being forced to take some time off in the middle of their 2019-20 NBA season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
And although the Lakers were the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, basketball seems to be the least of anyone’s concerns at the moment. Everybody — including Davis and the Lakers — are remaining vigilant in the fight against the virus.
The NBA officially suspended operations on March 11 and a significant number of NBA teams have been tested and forced to undergo 14-day quarantines. While a large number of tests have been negative, a few large names have contracted the virus including Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell, Christian Wood, Kevin Durant, three other Brooklyn Nets, and two Lakers.
While Davis fortunately tested negative, he sees how bad things are getting in the United States and is simply following orders to the best of his ability, according to Tania Ganguli of Los Angeles Times:
“I just saw yesterday the United States became number one in cases,” the Lakers’ All-Star forward said by phone on Friday. “It’s kind of just getting out of hand. I’m trying to stay as safe as possible, doing what our team doctors told us and just trying to have a good spirit about everything and tell the people I can reach out to, to stay safe.
Beyond the devastation of it all, Davis believes staying informed is the best thing he and anyone else can do at a time like this:
“Obviously it’s a tragedy and devastating. There’s a sadness of what’s going on with our players around the league, our players families and everyone around the world. When a lot of people are going through it and able to share their stories and share the severity of the situation it helps everyone out. It opens people’s eyes … a lot of people aren’t too informed about it.”
By doing interviews like this, Davis is doing a real public service. This is how people with a platform get people to listen who maybe otherwise wouldn’t if it was coming from a government official.
Hopefully, if everyone takes this seriously and follows orders, fans can soon return to normal day-to-day life and perhaps the return of sports. Otherwise, it may be a long period of social distancing, leading to even farther complications.