Former Boston Celtics big man Aron Baynes revealed on Wednesday both he and his family have tested positive for COVID-19 in an exclusive interview with Stadium’s Shams Charania.
Baynes, who was traded to the Phoenix Suns as part of the effort to make starting point guard Kemba Walker’s sign-and-trade to Boston possible, is still trying to get healthy enough to play with his new team in the Disney-hosted restart.
“Right now [I’m] in Phoenix trying to get healthy, trying to get back to be a part of the team,” explained the former Celtics center to Charania.
“Unfortunately, I tested positive for COVID a while back now and [now I am] just in the NBA protocol trying to pass some steps to get reunited with the team out there in Orlando and be part of the bubble,” he added.
Asked how he was dealing with the positive diagnosis, and the impacts it has had on his life, All of Australia (as he is called) opened up.
“I haven’t I haven’t touched a basketball for over 30 days,” he explained.
“After that first test came back showing positive, I went into isolation from everyone — at the house, but isolated and a separate part of it in a room –[and I] stayed away, the wife would drop off food for me and we were doing our best. Those first couple nights when I was isolated by myself, that that was a scariest moment for me because I also was putting my family at risk at that point.”
“And they were exposed to it at a later point,” Baynes added.
“So they didn’t get it same time as me, but they were also positive at a later point, and we’re not sure exactly [how], just because of the delay in how long some of those tests take.”
Theis credits Horford, Baynes for teaching him to excel as a center https://t.co/pfg4XzBk12
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) July 22, 2020
The former Boston big man shared that he’d had minimal symptoms, but enough that the virus “put me on my butt for a good week.”
“I slept for four days straight,” he noted. “My family is all testing negative now, but I’m still not … I have antibodies. not contagious, but I still need those negatives. Because end of the day, that’s the criteria [that] the NBA set up.”
And while Baynes is mostly out of the woods, the fatigue he felt in those first days has lingered; “I think this morning was the first time I did exercise where I felt okay,” he offered.
On this day: Celtics sign Baynes, Ojeleye, Mickey; Humphries traded https://t.co/WCoeJiDZfw
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) July 19, 2020
He’s begun doing things like high-intensity sprints at home, with his kids as a bemused audience, and despite he and his family having turned the corner, the Baynes household has been as vigilant as ever.
“We get groceries delivered to us. And it’s only recently that the wife and the kids have been able to go out and be a little bit more active because we weren’t willing to risk the possibility of trying to affect someone else … it just does not equate to every single person who has been diagnosed positive that you can go out and be active within the community after 10 days because that’s how it’s still spreading that out so rampant out there.”
“If I knew someone else was going out and putting my family at risk, I would be very upset with those people. So there’s no chance I’m doing that to someone else and family and loved one,” he added.
Beloved by Boston fans, it’s this considerate assist to his new local community from the ex-Celtics center that makes him so missed.
We at the Celtics Wire wish Aron the best in his recovery, hoping to see him back in action at the earliest possible moment.
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