The Issue.
I haven’t been able to write for over a week because of what I’ll call “the issue” going forward. We all know what the current world issue is. I don’t need to elaborate or explain. I’m not a doctor; I’m an anxious spouse, father, and son all rolled into a 225-ish(?) pound ball of overreaction. This is the closest I’ve felt to manic, and there is currently no end in sight. This on-going, waking nightmare appears to inhibit my creativity and ability to articulate my thoughts clearly. All of that is not conducive to writing. At all. I haven’t even written about sports in this article yet.
Focus.
Sports. You got this. Basketball. Basketball is actually how this issue became a reality for most Americans, a sign that life was going to be impacted. At first, I was selfishly angry that the NBA season was postponed. Rudy Gobert, in his ignorance, had shown everyone how virulent the issue really was. In the process, he postponed and possibly derailed the Celtics’ chances at a championship. If the season had kept going as normal, Kemba Walker’s knee was going to get better.
The Jays were going to reach new heights in the playoffs. The C’s would gut their way through the Eastern Conference and go on to win a seven-game classic against the L.A. Lakers. I wish I could care about that again.
I can’t though, not right now. For some people re-runs of old games, and talking about the lost season give comfort. Imagining what could be or what would have been eases tension and helps escape. For me, those things just add to the anxiety. The joy of competition and hope for a championship pale in comparison to the joy of my wife and kids coming home safely, and the hope that all of my family and friends stay healthy through all of this.
Drowning.
If the issue progresses to later stages, it is said that people feel like they’re drowning while out of water. I’ve got asthma, I know exactly what that feels like. I’d rather not call on early asthmatic life experience to will myself through that living nightmare. I don’t need to be the above-ground Michael Phelps of pandemic outbreaks. I care less about myself, I’ll figure it out. My family though, I worry about them. My parents and my in-laws are both in the danger range and have issues that put them at greater risk.
I have my two kids that need to be kept as safe as possible. I can’t imagine having to leave them to recover alone without my wife or myself there to comfort them. Speaking of my amazing wife, she’s essential staff at a hospital and is my current personal hero. A good portion of the rest of my family (aunts, uncles and cousins) are also at risk. Just like that, there we go again, no sports. Not in my brain. Not on television. And there’s no end in sight.
Defense!
This should be an article about Marcus Smart and how he should be Defensive Player of the Year. I could have an entire article just around his intangibles. Marcus may not put up some of the numbers of other players considered for D.P.O.Y., but students of the game understand his impact on the Celtics’ defense. The C’s would easily be closer to the sixth seed (in my opinion) without Smart. His absence from last year’s playoffs was a significant factor in not being able to stop the Milwaukee Bucks’ victory.
Hopefully, we will all get to see Smart put on a defensive clinic in some version of a playoff this season. In the meantime, the talk is instead about Smart being in isolation and when he’ll fully recover.
Uncertainty with No End in Sight.
Here’s the problem. No one knows. No one knows how long this will last. The duration of this displaced, disrupted life is unpredictable. Vaccines are months, if not over a year, away. Even if a lull occurs and countries seem out of the worst of it, there’s a chance it could come back and the isolation cycle will have to repeat. The stimulus package passed, but what about jobs and the economy? Will everyone be back to work in June? July? Hopefully not August… but we don’t know.
Will that be when all of our favorite past times return? The Summer? Will there be fans? Will they be limited? How will seasons go? What happens if the worst (for a team) occurs and a star player doesn’t make it through the virus or has their lungs impacted? What if they have family that is impacted by the issue and for some reason can’t play? The situation Karl Anthony Towns‘ mother AND father are going through is a perfect example, KAT is already impacted. Even when talking about sports, it’s not really talking about sports, just contingency plans, hopes, and prayers for the time being.
Change.
We will all pull through as a collective. There will be personal family tragedies, many have already occurred. Life is going to change once things calm down in ways we can’t predict and don’t know. For right now at least, there is no end in sight, but that doesn’t mean people can’t plan for when there is an end to the isolation and dread. Kids will go back to school. People will go back to work. Stores will re-open. Events and social gatherings will happen again and people will celebrate.
We just don’t know when that will be or what they’ll look like, especially at first. As far as sports go, those will change too. The NBA is talking about moving the season to later into the summer permanently going forward. Recruitment and signings are being impacted in all sports, both amateur and professional. Draft choices aren’t getting the same opportunities and aren’t being looked at same from entire seasons being missed. The Olympics are being delayed a year. The ripple of Rudy Gobert testing positive will end up a tidal wave of change for sports in general.
Normal?
When things do come back will they just go back to normal? What is normal now? People look at each other like enemies at the grocery store. They willfully and gleefully hoard product while looking at the people they’re taking it from. I get it, people are nervous. Everyone is scared. Everyone is uncertain. All the new rules that people have to deal with and think of make every day challenging.
It gives zero excuse for being a shit human being. The best way that we can all get through this issue is by working together, collectively, and by not letting anyone suffer if possible (it’s not, but we can try). Follow the rules and keep six feet away, but support each other at a distance. We will all need to work together to create something from this mess. Greed, selfishness, and paranoia are not going to be the panacea the world needs right now. The positive stories are starting to overshadowing the negative ones.
Love, forgiveness, and understanding won’t cure the issue but it will make the fear, isolation, and uncertainty caused by it much easier to bear. Once sports return they’ll help too. Who knows when that will be, there’s no end in sight right now. When that day does come though, and it will, we can all celebrate together.
Thanks for the read everyone. Make sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter for all of my latest stories, updates, thoughts and posts. Check out Belly Up Sports for all of your sports and entertainment news, especially in these trying times.
