Today is day 1 of no sports for the foreseeable future. Wednesday night things were uncertain with how we were gonna handle the Coronavirus in the sports world, but when Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive before a game it caused the NBA to take a step back to re-examine the bigger picture. Later that night, they decided to postpone the rest of the season for at least 30 days before they make any final decisions. Most other leagues followed suit early Thursday morning, with the biggest disappointment being the cancelation of the men's and women's NCAA March Madness tournament. My heart goes out to all of the seniors who won't go pro and were looking forward to one final tournament to cap off their collegiate career.
This pandemic is very representative of what is going on in this country right now. As recently as a few days ago, there was a clear divide between people who thought this was real and who thought the media was just blowing this out of proportion. Sadly, even after all of the news and high profile names tested positive for COVID-19 there are still some out there that chalk this up to no worse than the seasonal flu. Since there is no vaccine currently this is extremely dangerous for our children and the elderly, so although you may be fine, if you contract the virus you could potentially pass it on to someone who won't be ok. Normally our government would step in and help out, but it's been clear over the past few years that we can't count on our government to get anything done in a timely fashion. That's why everyone needs to work together and be smart about where you go and to stay inside if you're feeling the least bit sick.
To bring this back to sports, although the vast majority of us will be fine, we must take these precautionary measures to make sure this doesn't spread as quickly here as it did in other countries. The fact that social media warriors would rather put people's health at risk so they can watch a game or two is ridiculous. Some people will look at Rudy Gobert and act like he is somehow to blame for the mass cancelations, but that couldn't be further from the truth. This occurred in the middle of the season when he was traveling with his team, so he wasn't traveling the world and happened to bring this back to the team with him. He could have contracted it from a fan, teammate, arena worker or anyone, which is the scary part. That's why it's so important to postpone or cancel these large gatherings because you don't know who might be carrying it around you without showing symptoms.
So whether you're scared, annoyed or indifferent just do your part for the next few weeks and don't be dumb so we can put this behind us. The world is not ending because of this we will make it out of this ok, but hosting unnecessary sporting events for someone's pleasure is not worth risking thousands, hundreds or even one person's life and that's what we need to keep in perspective. At least avoid going around and touching everything possible for the next few weeks, so you don't end up like Rudy... I'm sure he would advise you to do the same thing. Hopefully, things will be back to normal in a month or so and we will be able to continue with our regularly scheduled sports.