Dallas Mavericks press on with basketball despite looming COVID presence on the team
Despite the clarion-call of the first substantial COVID threat that hung thick in the air, the Dallas Mavericks and the Orlando Magic were still set to take the court at the American Airlines Center on Saturday evening.
It was announced on Friday that the Mavericks will be without Jalen Brunson, Dorian Finney-Smith and Josh Richardson due to safety precaution as part of COVID protocol. As social media reacted with cautious alarm at the fact that the virus sunk its teeth into the league so early in the regular season, the austere mood failed to reflect in the empty echo of the fan-less AAC.
In other areas of the league, players are self-isolating due to safety protocol. The Boston Celtics have four players quarantining: Jayson Tatum, Grant Williams, Tristan Thompson and Robert Williams, according to CBS Sports.
“Robert Williams who reportedly tested positive for the virus but has been asymptomatic, while Grant Williams and Thompson are being told to quarantine for contact tracing, per the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach,” CBS reported.
The Philadelphia 76ers have five players out due to protocols: Seth Curry, Tobias Harris, Shake Milton, Matisse Thybulle and Vincent Poirier.
Washington Wizards star shooting guard Bradley Beal is being held out as precaution due to a possible exposure to Tatum, The Athletic reported.
The loss of energy inside arenas carries like a dense fog throughout the entire league, an energy that usually comes with thousands of screaming fans on their feet. Artificial crowd noise carries barely any weight as players disappear inside their game in order to drown out the strange silence. And now that players are starting to fall victim to the silent virus that changed the entire world in mere months, it presents more of a challenge.
But one that apparently teams and players want to continue to tip-toe around in order to push the season forward.
This story was originally published January 9, 2021 at 8:14 PM.