The news of Rudy Gobert contracting the coronavirus sent shockwaves and seemed to be the tipping point for the country to truly take this pandemic seriously.
The NBA shut down and basically all other sports leagues followed suit. Aside from one other case in the past week, things seemed to have calmed down but recent news has put the Los Angeles Lakers into danger.
News came out that four Brooklyn Nets players — including Kevin Durant — had tested positive for the coronavirus. This immediately caused concerns as the Nets final game before the suspension came in Los Angeles against the Lakers.
Of course, this led to many concerns about the Lakers players and staff and whether any had contracted the virus themselves. Jared Dudley took to Twitter with his reaction:
Just when the sun was starting to come out in LA! ????????♂️ https://t.co/AzO5Nys8K0
— Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) March 17, 2020
Amid the news, the Lakers organization immediately took action in regards to testing for their players, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
Team source confirms to ESPN that in light of the Nets news, the Lakers – who played Brooklyn in their last game before the NBA suspension – will administer coronavirus testing on their players tomorrow and the players will be played in a 14-day quarantine. @BA_Turner was first
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 17, 2020
In the time since this happened, the Lakers have already been administered their tests and have begun the 14-day quarantine process. With this being such a scary time for the country, teams can’t be too careful and the Lakers are hopeful that everyone comes back clean, but all steps must be taken.
Countries around the world are completely shut down with no one being allowed to leave their house and the United States is trying to avoid that level of quarantine. Because of that, these teams must go to every level to ensure that the spread of the virus is contained as much as possible.
There is still belief the NBA may be able to resume the 2019-20 NBA season at some point, but it would seem as if more players contracting the virus and potentially spreading it around the country would make that more unlikely. For the time being, the Lakers will just have to wait patiently until the results of these tests come out and hope for the best.
