The Washington Wizards held a press conference with the media on Friday afternoon to address the team’s plight. According to general manager Tommy Sheppard, six players have tested positive for coronavirus since last Tuesday. Nine more players are under coronavirus protocols, but have not tested positive until Friday. Players are tested twice a day and that can change.
Sheppard says this is a “day to day” affair and an outbreak was inevitable. Private matter for players, that’s why we don’t hear who’s positive.
All players are testing twice a day.
– Bullets Forever (@BulletsForever) January 15, 2021
As there are 15 players with coronavirus and / or under protocol, this effectively means that almost the entire team is affected.
Sheppard also mentioned that among the six players with coronavirus, four are asymptomatic, but two have mild symptoms. No player with the virus is willing to say that he has it, which is due to HIPAA.
It was speculated that the Wizards are the “source” of the outbreak, as they faced other teams that had positive cases shortly after playing against Washington. Sheppard said the Wizards had no coach or other team to do the coronavirus so far.
Regardless of whether the Wizards are the NBA’s source for the league’s emergence or not, neither Sheppard nor Brooks wanted to point the finger at the NBA for its current situation. They reiterated that the team was following protocols at their facilities. No coach or team member has tested positive for COVID-19 since Monday. Sheppard also said the NBA knew there could be a team heavily affected by the coronavirus. Unfortunately, it’s the Wizards right now.
Coach Scott Brooks also attended the press conference. He said he hopes to get the team back to training early next week, as their next game will be against Charlotte Hornets on January 20. However, the team will resort to Zoom exercises in the meantime.
It’s great to know that no Wizards coach or team member has been affected by the coronavirus, at least so far. And it’s great to see that most players are asymptomatic. However, Washington is still not entirely out of danger, as players are resting and, hopefully, returning to play in the not too distant future.