The COVID pandemic has wreaked havoc on everyone and everything, and there are no signs that things are getting much better.
Sports are a microcosm of society, and as the number of positive tests increases in the wake of the new omicron variant and its rampant spread around the country, the sports teams are seeing the same type of spread. Every day brings a new list of players who are entering the various health and safety protocols for their particular leagues.
The NBA has had more than 110 players enter the protocols in December, and commissioner Adam Silver said that more than 90% of those cases are the omicron strain. The Pistons, who hadn’t had a player in the protocols this season, have been hit hard this week. As of Sunday, eight players had been sidelined: Cade Cunningham, Killian Hayes, Isaiah Stewart, Saben Lee, Rodney McGruder, Trey Lyles, Cory Joseph and Josh Jackson.
The Pistons (5-26) were expected to have nine healthy players available ahead of Sunday’s matchup against the San Antonio Spurs. A tumultuous season that’s been sidetracked by injuries to many of their top players has gotten progressively worse.
It’s not just the Pistons.
On their marquee TV day of the season, the NBA was missing many of its top stars, including Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic and Trae Young, all of whom were in health and safety protocols. Giannis Antetokounmpo returned from the protocols on Saturday in time to play against the Boston Celtics.
Silver said that there aren’t any plans to postpone games and pause the season in the midst of the widespread cases. Before the season, the NBA had laid out contingency plans and played through scenarios of what could happen in just such a case.
“We’ve looked at all the options, but frankly, we’re having trouble coming up with what the logic would be with pausing right now,” Silver said on ESPN’s “NBA Today” show.
Thankfully, most players are vaccinated — according to Silver, it’s 97%, with 65% of players having the booster shot as well — so most of those impacted are not experiencing severe symptoms.
One has to wonder whether pausing the season for a few days would help cleanse some of the spreading issues, such as what the Pistons are experiencing. It’s unclear when the issues started for the Pistons, but with Cunningham as the first player impacted, it was hard to contain the spread after that.
That’s the risk in the league having the games go on without some kind of pause. Yes, players and staff members are wearing masks, and the high vaccination numbers have kept things from getting worse. The omicron variant, though, has put things on edge.
Rosters around the league are chock full of G League players on 10-day hardship contracts, as many of the regulars have been sidelined for the short term. There have been so many G League call-ups that the league moved the start of its regular season back from Dec. 27 to Jan. 5.
Given a couple of weeks, things could get back to some sort of pseudo-normal, but what happens with the next wave? What if there’s another variant — wherever we end up in the Greek alphabet — that is a bit worse?
The games will go on. That’s the path forward, at least for now.
