Boston Celtics veteran guard Marcus Smart was one of the first NBA players in the league to be diagnosed with COVID-19, the viral disease behind the pandemic affecting virtually the entire planet and still significantly impinging the league’s 2020-21 season moving forward.
But the disease also has a darker side we are only just starting to learn about for a portion of those it infects — lingering side effects that can sometimes be quite severe, even potentially life-threatening in some cases. Mercifully for Smart and the Celtics, the Flower Mound native has yet to feel any such symptoms bothering his game or even his day-to-day life.
What are the long term effects of Covid-19 ? Asking for a friend
— Jaylen Brown (@FCHWPO) May 27, 2020
Speaking to the media at TD Garden after their first practice at their home arena since before the 2019-20 season hiatus triggered by the arrival of the pandemic in the United States in March of 2019, Smart shared he’d been blessed with a complete absence of such lingering issues.
“Me, I haven’t experienced those — I’m fine,” he explained.
“Definitely, I have heard of those lingering effects, and we test when we do our physical to make sure that some of those lingering effects aren’t within us. I had testing, the COVID test came back negative and I feel fine, so I think this is just weird.”
“This whole thing is weird because it is lingering effects in others, but right now I feel fine, and I’m not experiencing them,” Smart added.
Reports: NBA, NBPA to discuss coronavirus vaccine protocols, potential requirements https://t.co/PBdONhW47Y
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 5, 2020
As the league gears up to attempt its first season in a pandemic in the absence of the additional protections afforded by a bubble environment, it will be critical for players, staff and all in the arenas and practice facilities to take great care to prevent further infections among the wider NBA community.
Not all of them are as young, healthy or resilient as Smart is, and among even those that are we are seeing such potential longer-term effects teammate Jaylen Brown was inquiring about soon after the pandemic arrived.
Like it will for the rest of us, an abundance of caution concerning the virus will likely prove as important to the Celtics and NBA more generally as it will to us as we inch closer to a widely available vaccine.
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