Former Ohio State guard Aaron Craft is part of the national lockdown in Italy. Watch and listen as he provides an update and encouragement.
Former Ohio State point guard Aaron Craft had a stellar career at Ohio State, but could never catch on with an NBA team. Instead, he ended up continuing with his professional basketball career overseas. As of late, that has meant time in Italy with the Aquila Basketball Trento team.
As you know by now, Italy has been hit hard by the novel coronavirus and is in a massive nationwide lockdown to try and curb further spread of the virus. That means Craft is right in the thick of it and required to also follow the measures put in place by Italian officials.
He provided an update of how things are going on Monday that many can be encouraged by. Craft first began by explaining how things got to where they are in Italy.
“Over the last few weeks it’s gotten progressively worse,” said Craft in a Twitter video. “It all started with postponing games for a couple of days, and then they just eventually postponed them until at least April 3. Next, they canceled all team events and practices for at least fourteen days. And finally, the government issued a nationwide lockdown here in Italy, which closed down all non-essential businesses and buildings. The only places that are open right now are grocery stores and pharmacies for limited hours. There’s also a pretty strict travel ban going on if you don’t have a legit reason to be moving.”
He next touched on how he and his family are holding up.
With all that being said, we’re doing well,” said Craft. “We’re doing fine — not that we haven’t had our moments of panic, but we plan on staying here and riding this thing out, obeying the laws and restrictions that are put in place. We’re able to go outside and walk and have a good time there. We’re really looking forward to the family time that we can have over these next fourteen days, and we’re also very, very happy about the precautions that are in place and adherence to them by all those around us that are helping to keep all of us safe.”
Lastly, Craft wrapped it up with perspective on how he can relate to many others battling this epidemic and how it has influenced his life.
“Finally, I want to say some quick thoughts to those athletes that recently had games, tournaments, championships, and even seasons canceled,” Craft said. “I understand how you’re feeling. I plan on this being my last season of basketball, and I thought I had eleven games left to really finish strong. However, it’s not really looking like I’m going to get the opportunity to end it how I hope, but it’s times like this I’m so glad my hope, my identity, and my value is not based on my basketball skill, the last game I played, or a future performance. And I’m so grateful that God assigns me my value, identity, and gives me hope through his son Jesus, and not based on anything that I do. I pray that you have this hope too. Let’s all stay safe and let’s get through this together.
We couldn’t have said it better Mr. Ohio State all-time assists and steals leader. Stay safe, and we’ll do the same.
If you want to watch the entire update shared to Craft’s Twitter account, you can click on the below and give it a watch. He may have had a slew of steals during his college and professional basketball career, but coronavirus can’t steal his joy or peace.
